Insurance service: digitalising surety bond processes in the construction industry - adesso develops new surety bond service platform Trustlog for a joint venture between R+V and VHV

Jonathan Szejnmann, Trustlog’s managing director, will showcase the new platform for digital surety bond underwriting at adesso digital day 2021 in September. The digital platform is indeed an innovation. It supports guarantors, clients and contractors in the construction industry with handling sureties and replaces the arduous paperwork associated with the process once and for all. Private- and public-sector construction clients, who can use the new service free of charge, stand to benefit from the digitalisation of the entire surety bond process.

The IT service provider adesso successfully developed the modern cloud-based system using state-of-the-art technology and delivered it on time last year despite having to collaborate remotely on account of the pandemic. Hundreds of digital surety bonds have already been underwritten through the new platform, with a large-scale roll-out now set to begin.

Trustlog’s Jonathan Szejnmann describes the advantages: “Surety bonds play an integral role in commercial and public-sector construction projects. However, the corresponding administrative processes are still highly manual, making them time-consuming and often prone to error. It used to take several days for recipients to get their sureties. Our system remedies this by providing a smart, digital and secure solution for underwriting and managing digital surety bonds. With the support of the IT experts from adesso, we are setting a new market standard for all involved in the surety bond process.”

Trustlog digitises every aspect of the guaranty process by digitally modelling and supporting the entire life cycle of a surety bond – from application and underwriting, to review, acceptance and surrender. The platform even enables users to make corrections to sureties and send the updated information back to the insurer or policyholder. Trustlog also makes it easy to digitally surrender the surety bond after the construction project has been successfully completed or once the surety period has ended. What is more, guarantors have the option to be informed digitally in the event of a claim.

In R+V and VHV, Trustlog GmbH has already signed up two strong partners to act as guarantors. Plans are currently under way to attract further financial service providers. Jörg Franz, head of credit insurance contracts at VHV, says: “The portal is independent and is open to everyone involved in surety bond processes. In most projects, contractors work with a variety of different guarantors. That’s why the next thing we plan to do is to incorporate additional insurers and banks into the platform.”

Trustlog has passed its initial field test with flying colours. During a six-month pilot phase, selected contractors who acted as creditors gave the platform top scores for quality and service.