The Lloyd's market has long been accused of dragging its feet when it comes to matters of technology.
But the demise of Kinnect has heralded a wave of less extravagant but decidedly cheaper and more workable ventures, each trying to make the 318-year-old marketplace a more efficient platform from which to trade.
Suddenly there seems to be a heightened interest in electronic trading.
First in line is peer-to-peer, the new generation of email that by defining a common set of data standards and underlying processes within the Lloyd's market enables information to be passed electronically between managing agents and brokers.
G6, the group of Lloyd's managing agents behind the project, has always maintained that the process uses the participants' own electronic gateways and initially will support, not replace, the box process.
And despite reports that the group intends to ship their solution out to Bermuda, "selling the family silver" to Lloyd's so-called rival, the group has been quick to point out that it is simply the Acord standards peer-to-peer adheres to that should be global.
With electronic initiatives such as the Felix framework and Schematron data validation aid, the IT world of Lloyd's is burgeoning, albeit in a slightly schizophrenic way. Add to that the launch of the Insurance Workplace, which will support peer-to-peer communications, combined with RI3K's offering and Xchanging's new web-based Market Wordings Library and you've got a bubbling electronic cocktail.
The once deserted arena has now become a bustling community. But some in the market are concerned that it may be all too much.
"Everybody is getting on the bandwagon without any direction from the centre," one industry source says. "This is becoming an IT nightmare with no control over what is happening."
But finding someone to control a growing IT market-place is easier said than done, according to some, who feel that there is nobody in the market with the authority to govern such ventures.
But sceptics aside, is having a marketplace where people eagerly compete for electronic trading ground, which is a considerable step forward from pre-Kinnect days, such a bad thing?
Surely this a sign of a free market rather than an overreaction to the need for change?
As long as everyone plays by the same Acord rules and allows others to join in if they choose to, then the dangers of it escalating into technology mayhem should be averted.
