The calculator and the quote form below are in Dutch. Prefer to do this in English? Email info@finassverzekert. nl or call 072 - 509 24 56 and we will take it from there.
Work out for yourself what it would cost.
Enter your details; you will receive a proposal within one working day.
We compare the offerings of several insurers
An adviser checks whether the cover suits your activities
A premium indication, not personal advice. Prefer to talk it through? Call 072 - 509 24 56.
In brief
Business interruption insurance is a consequential loss cover attaching to material damage. There must be fire, water, storm or burglary damage to your building, contents or equipment before anything is paid. At a software house, hosting provider or systems administrator that is rarely the scenario that brings turnover down.
What does bring an IT business to a standstill is a ransomware infection, a compromised administration environment, a failed cloud service or a botched release. None of those is material damage. For those scenarios there is interruption cover within cyber insurance, with a waiting period and a recovery period of its own.
A useful role remains. Your server room, network equipment and workstations can certainly be lost through fire, firefighting water or a leak, and after a power or cooling failure with damage to hardware you are at a standstill as well. We set those two policies side by side so that no overlap and no gap arises.
What does business interruption insurance for IT businesses cover?
The structure of the cover in three parts, with an overview per situation below.
The basis
Gross profit
Turnover minus the variable costs that move with it.
Fixed costs continue
Profit margin you lose
Update annually
The term
Indemnity period
Calculate back from full turnover, not from the rebuild value.
Clearance and permits
Rebuilding and fitting out
Winning customers back
Additional costs
Alternative
The additional costs of not standing still.
Temporary location
Outsourcing to third parties
Often cheaper
What is covered
Situation
Business interruption
Additional costs
Downtime after a fire at your premises
Yes
Yes
Loss of turnover after water damage
Yes
Yes
Additional costs to keep going elsewhere
No
Yes
Failure of a supplier
Sometimes
Sometimes
Digital downtime without physical damage
No
No
Loss of turnover due to lower demand
No
No
This overview is general in nature and is not personal advice. What is actually covered, including exclusions, limits and the excess, is set out in the policy conditions and the insurance card (verzekeringskaart) of the insurer; you receive both before you take out cover. Taking out cover without advice? Then read what execution only means for you.
Where things go wrong in practice
Four points that make the difference between a policy that pays out and one that does not.
Your most likely interruption scenario is not covered
Ransomware, a data breach, a DDoS attack and a fault in a rolled-out update cost an IT business days of turnover, but none of them is material damage to property. The business interruption policy then pays nothing. Work out what a week of digital interruption costs you, set that beside what a week of fire-related standstill costs, and insure in that order. For most IT businesses the cyber policy with interruption cover comes first.
Hardware and the server room do remain relevant
If there is equipment at your own address, fire, firefighting water and leakage damage is a real risk, certainly in a server room below pipework or next to a climate installation. Replacing the equipment belongs on the business contents insurance or the electronic equipment cover. If a period then remains in which you can invoice less, that is business interruption. For a power surge or a technical defect without fire, machinery breakdown as a peril needed.
Interruption at your hosting provider or data centre
If your service runs at an external provider, damage there affects you directly while nothing of yours is damaged. The main cover pays nothing in that case. This can be insured only through the supplier risksection, with the data centre named on the policy. Pay attention to the contractual side as well: your provider's service level usually limits its liability to a refund of the subscription charges.
What is not included
Excluded are data loss and the cost of reconstructing data, ransomware and ransom payments, software and programming errors, failure of internet, power or cloud services without material damage, and penalties or claims from clients for a service level not met. Liability for loss suffered by your client through a mistake in your work runs through professional indemnity insurance (BAV); that stands entirely apart from this policy.
What does your premium depend on?
Presence of your own equipment on site. A business with its own server room carries a larger material risk than a team working entirely in the cloud.
Gross profit from recurring contracts. Managed service contracts partly run on during a standstill; project turnover falls away at once. That balance determines the sum insured.
Scope for moving the workstations elsewhere. If your team can carry on from home or elsewhere within a day, the standstill stays short and a short period is enough.
Insuring supplier risk. Cover for interruption at a named data centre or hosting provider widens the policy and raises the premium.
Machinery breakdown and power surge as perils. Interruption after a technical defect or a voltage spike is covered only where that peril is expressly insured.
Overlap with cyber insurance. If the interruption cover already runs through the cyber policy, the business interruption cover can be arranged more simply and more cheaply.
Insurers weigh these details differently. That is where your saving is.
How we arrange it
You request a quoteWe take stock of your activities, turnover and wishes.
We compareseveral insurers, on premium as well as conditions.
You receive a proposalWith an explanation of the differences and the exclusions.
We arrange the switchIncluding cancellation, so there is no gap in cover.
Customers rate our service on four aspects: personal service, service delivery, availability and the outcome. The reviews are collected and published by NH1816 and come from customers who have actually taken out a policy with Finass Advies B.V. or reported a claim.
No. A ransomware attack encrypts data but damages no property, and material damage is precisely the condition for cover on business interruption insurance. For loss of turnover after a cyber incident you need cyber insurance with interruption cover. That has a waiting period of its own, usually in hours, and also pays for investigation, restoration and legal assistance.
Do I need business interruption insurance at all, then?
That depends on what is physically at your address. If you have your own server room, test set-ups or a workshop with equipment, fire and water damage is a real scenario and the cover is worthwhile. If your team works entirely in the cloud and everyone can carry on from home tomorrow, the added value is limited and a short period is often enough.
My hosting provider is down. Is that covered?
Not on the standard cover, because there is no material damage to your own property. This can be insured only with the supplier risk section, in which the data centre or hosting provider is named. Look at your own contract as well: providers almost always limit their liability to a credit of the subscription charges.
Are the costs of restoring data covered?
No, reconstruction of data and restoration of systems do not fall under business interruption insurance. That policy pays only lost gross profit, and then only after covered material damage. Costs of forensic investigation, data recovery and rebuilding an environment belong with cyber insurance or with separate reconstruction costs cover.
Finass Verzekert is a trading name of Finass Advies B.V. We advise on and arrange non-life insurance on the basis of an objective analysis of several insurers, and receive commission for this from the insurer, which is included in the premium. You pay no separate advice fee. Before you take out cover, we establish your wishes and needs.
You will find our licence, KvK and Kifid details and our complaints procedure at the foot of every page.
