Key Choice, the marketing arm of Computer Sciences Corporation (CSC), announced last week that it is "reviewing its whole agency base" with a view to removing some brokers.
Key Choice is a marketing company that carries out campaigns for its broker members and helps them to cut costs with improved administrative systems.
Nick Bates, managing director of Key Choice, said: "Following the recent acquisitions we need to re-establish clarity. All our members understand that we have to show value throughout our channel."
Neither CSC's marketing director, Tony Barker, nor Bates would state when the review was likely to be completed, or how many brokers would no longer receive Key Choice marketing support.
Barker said criteria for keeping brokers will include: the level of business written, the broker's premises, their approach to business and solvency.
Key Choice's review follows a number of acquisitions made by CSC over the last two years. The Key Choice marketing group comprises: Key Choice, which represents around 500 brokers who were originally with North Park; Key Sure which originally supported Quotel users, and Advantage – a marketing group which CSC is steering towards brokers whose business has a commercial bias. Key Choice has also launched a new web site, www.keychoice.co.uk. CSC says the site enables members of the public to receive quotations for motor products. These are then presented to participating brokers in the form of sales leads.
CSC has divided the country up into specific marketing areas. Leads generated by the web site are then e-mailed to participating brokers on a rotational basis.
Currently, Key Choice is charging brokers between £5 and £10 per month to take part. Key Choice says that the conversion rate, once customers had submitted application forms, is approximately 75%.
