About Protectus - Frequently Asked Questions

What does 'Protectus' mean?
What does 'Periculum' mean?
What functions does the Periculum system carry out?
Who do we help and how?
Why does Protectus mean real savings of time and money for any Risk Manager?
What makes Protectus unique in the Australian market?
My broker tracks certificates for us, and it's free! Why should I use Protectus?

What does 'Protectus' mean?

Protectus is Latin for Protection. This single word sums up our whole reason for our existance - to provide protection against contractors and others who might put you at risk. rotectus' comprehensive verification service is provided by experienced insurance industry professionals, and includes advance consulting and onsite orientation services to ensure success.

What does 'Periculum' mean?

Periculum is Latin for Risk. It is also the name of the software application used by Protectus to manage the insurance requirements of clients who deal with large numbers of contract partners. Periculum was designed and developed explicitly to automate the tasks associated with verifying appropriate insurance coverage carried by other firms. This application combined with Internet web capabilities, enables Protectus to provide highly efficient, effective and low-cost services to risk managers who need to track certificates of insurance from their firms' contract partners.

What functions does the Periculum system carry out?

Periculum facilitates all of the administrative chores associated with obtaining, verifying, and following-up certificates of insurance from a firm's contract partners. The entire effort from sending letters, paying postage, fielding telephone calls, to policing insurance deficiencies is handled within Periculum using technology and industry professionalism to ensure totally consistent results. The comprehensive Periculum application enables clients to access their data, scanned certificate images, reporting tailored to needs, electronic communication capabilities, and even customised automatic event notifications via the Internet.

Who do we help and how?

Protectus helps risk managers, purchasing agents, buyers, contract administrators:
- anyone in your organisation who has responsibility for ensuring that contract risks are effectively transferred to the right parties, and
- anyone in your organisation who has responsibility for ensuring that the firms with whom they conduct business in your organisation's name have proper and adequate insurance coverage.

We use the unique Periculum system to assist companies which have large volumes of contracts, agreements, leases, licenses and other arrangements. Periculum is particularly appropriate for organisations with a decentralised structure which wish to implement a uniform approach to the pursuit, verification, tracking and management of insurance documentation.

Through the use of Periculum technology and services, this labour-intensive administrative process is virtually removed from the organisation. Administrative burdens and costs such as postage and phone calls trying to track down certificates are also eliminated.

When certificate-tracking activities and costs are handled by Periculum, your firm need only interact with the Protectus Internet site to determine status, communicate with Protectus, apply waivers, and more.

If you currently handle this costly administrative process in-house in a centralised department such as Risk Management, the effort can be significantly reduced without sacrificing effectiveness.
If you're decentralised with numerous business units each having to seek certificates, our systems offer a way for the decentralised effort to be centralised within a Periculum database (where it will definitely be handled more consistently and thoroughly).This still allows decentralised areas of your organisation to add and update individual contract partner details, monitor the status of their insurances and use this information in their business dealings.

Why does Protectus mean real savings of time and money for any Risk Manager?

Technology gives us an edge. Much of our communication takes place electronically, thereby reducing costs.

Protectus' Periculum system facilitates the automatated review of certificates thereby reducing labour costs. Protectus' core activity is certificate management so by focusing our effort and expertise in this area, we can do it better, faster, cheaper. Your firm can focus on what it does best, and Protectus will focus on our area of expertise.

Protectus can give your firm more consistent and more effective certificate of insurance tracking, and our technology and process expertise allows us to do it less expensively than most firms can do it themselves.

What makes Protectus unique in the Australian market?

Firstly, no one else in the Australian market specialises in outsourcing the tracking of insurance certificates.

Secondly, the Periculum software application is exclusive to Protectus. The Periculum software is a cutting edge, highly efficient application which is continually being refined and improved to support specialised client needs and our own processing efficiency needs.

Another key advantage is the adoption of Internet technologies. Periculum allows you to actively monitor and enhance your data.

Through Periculum, you can add to your vendor list online which automatically causes the software to pursue a certificate. You can apply waivers if a vendor has met all but one insurance requirement that you deem to be acceptable. You can indicate a vendor is inactive to suppress future certificate pursuits on our part. And that's just the beginning...

My broker tracks certificates for us, and it's free! Why should I use Protectus?

First, it's never 'free' and second, if it's presented as 'free' then what kind of service are you actually receiving. Not to denigrate any insurance brokers or agents, but they are not in business to track certificates of insurance - we are!

And what happens to your certificate-tracking process if you decide that it's time to place your insurance through a new broker?

Protectus is independent. Protectus is focused. Protectus is effective. Have your broker give us a call... we could really help them out.