ACORD Standards Management
Denise Garth
Vice President, Membership & Standards
dgarth@acord.org
ACORD Standards Framework
Cindy Maike
Director, Standards Planning
cmaike@acord.org
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December 13, 2006
As 2006 comes to a close, we thought it would be an ideal opportunity to look back at the accomplishments of the year. At the same time, we want to look towards the future and all that 2007 has in store.
We - ACORD staff and member participants - made great strides in 2006 by improving the standards process, expanding the working groups to support new business areas as well as enhancing existing, and increasing interest in participation and implementation of ACORD standards around the world. This provided focus on our members and the industry's immediate needs while also preparing for the future. We took the first steps towards the future with the launch of the ACORD Standards Strategy and the kick-off of the ACORD Standards Framework. As we worked together, both within and across domains, we were able to enhance the standards of today while planning for the future of ACORD standards. Some of those accomplishments included:
- Increasing the working group activity by over 100% to focus on immediate needs of the various domains.
- Increased standards for business content including workers compensation, aviation, life reinsurance, long term care, and support for G6 in London.
- Enhanced the Specification Delivery process so that we publish a new release within 8 weeks of the membership vote.
- Improved the maintenance request process to provide improved communication, coordination and validation of MR's and their impact.
- Increasing communication with quarterly domain emails from the steering committees.
- Tapping into new methods of communication through ACORD Video on Demand. Improving OARS implementation reporting.
- Developed new implementation tools and support that will be leveraged across domains including Implementation Process Guidelines; Trading Partner Template; Implementation Roadmap; Implementation Resources and Video on Demand Training and Case Studies
- Increasing activity with Joint subcommittees focusing on business, implementation, and technical issues and delivering new directions, standards or tools that support cross domain efforts.
Key Acronyms/Terms
| ASC |
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ACORD Standards Committee |
| AWSP |
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ACORD Web Services Profile |
| DSC |
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Domain Steering Committee |
| LAH |
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Life, Annuity & Health |
| LTC |
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Long Term Care |
| MR |
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Maintenance Request |
| NDR |
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Naming and Design Rules |
| OARS |
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Online Adoption and Reporting Survey |
| PCS |
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Property & Casualty/Surety |
| RLC |
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Reinsurance & Large Commercial |
| TCF |
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Testing and Certification Facility |
| WG |
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Working Group | |
Looking ahead, we've also laid out some common goals for all groups for the coming year including:
- Moving forward with a strategic direction for unified business messaging.
- Driving implementation across the industry.
- Identifying and develop new resources to aid in implementation.
- Increasing implementation reporting using OARS.
- Developing and enhancing communication with members.
- Continuing standards development efforts within and across domains.
- Continuing development and participation in support of the ACORD Standards Framework.
- Increasing Working Group participation.
We encourage you to read not only the highlights from your particular domain, but see all that is being done throughout ACORD.
If you aren't already actively participating working groups, we encourage you to look at the group of Spring 2007 Working Groups and join to help shape the standards of tomorrow.
ACORD is about you.
Highlights from the Property & Casualty/Surety Domain
MR Process
A Forms Standing Working Group (WG) was approved as another forum for standards developments to compliment the MR Review WG and the MR Process. This originated during the spring 2006 voting cycle and proved successful for the fall 2006 voting cycle thereby affirming the agility of the process and committee's flexibility and understanding of the nuances associated with standards developments.
PCS XML Version 2 (V2) Unified Messaging
The PCS V2 WG will conclude the transformation of the V1.x content as planned with a Phase 3 delivery by year-end 2006. At the direction of the ACORD Standards Committee, the PCS Domain Steering Committee (DSC) made considerations for, and endorsed, the directive to move toward a unified XML messaging repository. The result will reposition PCS V2 as a broader, all inclusive standard that would be collectively managed across all of ACORD. All V2 activities were, and will continue to be, conducted while concurrently managing the PCS XML V1.x standard.
Future/Joint Subcommittees & Working Groups
The PCS Implementation and Technical Subcommittees conducted the majority of their business via the cross-domain "joint" forums. For implementation, this year focused on updates to the implementation reports as well as guidance on the new OARS system. Implementation also began developing documentation that provides insight and direction on ACORD implementation activities.
For technical, the two key areas were the Web Services Profile WG and its ACORD Web Services Profile (AWSP) effort as well as the Naming & Design Rules WG and its target architecture effort. Both of these have relevance to V2, regardless of the re-positioning of V2 planned for 2007.
2007 Standards Development Planning
The PCS Business Subcommittee has proactively engaged the membership to get everyone involved in plans for future standards developments. This will be an ongoing process which may include a survey of the membership early in 2007 to measure interest. The committee is working to identify obvious gaps or deficiencies, bring them to the membership's attention, and then measure interest. This is also serving as a networking opportunity for members who unknowingly have common interests.
Communications/Interaction/Engagement/Feedback
The spirit of the PCS-DSC and its relationship to the membership involves collaboration. To fulfill this spirit, opportunities for interaction and communication were determined critical and the committee concluded a regular communication would be an effective connection to the members and provide a pipeline for input and feedback. Quarterly communications were subsequently developed and expectation is to continue these in 2007. Beyond written communications, various steering committee members were interviewed for ACORD Video on Demand. The committee also identified the need to leverage face-to-face meetings as networking opportunities and another avenue for input and feedback. This was done at the ACORD LOMA Conference in May and the ACORD Standards Forum in November.
Highlights from the Life, Annuity & Health Domain
Life and Annuity Steering Committee
The year 2006 has been an exciting year for the Life and Annuity Domain. A lot has been accomplished this year and we look forward to accomplishing a lot more with your input through the upcoming year.
A lot of information has been shared and obtained with members at the annual ACORD LOMA Forum and the ACORD Standards Forum (ASF), 2006. At the Open Steering Committee meeting at ASF, the Steering Committee provided an update on 2006 accomplishments and plans for 2007 priorities and goals. Some key accomplishments included ongoing work toward the execution of the Standards Strategy, enhanced timelines for candidate releases and version enhancements to the standards, approval of the enhanced working group approach by the Steering Committee, eforms strategy work, and the approval of a Life V3 Planning group.
Other highlights of the past year include:
- Expansion of standards development efforts includes Long Term Care Forms and Employee Benefits, to meet the growing and complex business needs.
- The Cross Domain Steering Committee activities included the oversight of Naming and Design Rules (NDR), data dictionary, AWSP and the standards framework architecture.
- Improved collaboration with organizations like NAILBA and NAVA to enable joint efforts with implementation, strategy and advocacy.
- Development of a consistent interpretation for implementation purposes focusing on new business for life and annuity.
- Although Life Reinsurance was a new area of focus over the past six months, an implementation guide for Inforce has been developed and is currently being finalized.
- The Producer Commissions implementation guide has been released and includes the needs of the NAILBA community as identified during the development effort.
Improved member communication is one of the key items of focus for 2007 and beyond. Other key items include the ongoing execution of the Standards Strategy, enhancements to the certification process, OARS, Trading Partner Template, execution of the enhanced working group approach, development of Employee Benefits standards, and the development of a plan and approach for Life and Annuity V3.
New Areas of Focus
Life V3 Working Group
The current Life and Annuity (LA) standard cannot cleanly support the growing complexity of business needs. In addition, the standard remains in a silo with growing redundancy, ambiguity and implementation issues. This group will provide an assessment and make recommendations on the proposed direction and transition for LA V3. The intention is to complete a high level plan and analysis by May 2007.
Although the Naming and Design Rules (NDR) will have a major impact to LA V3, it is not in scope for this group as this effort is currently being led by the Joint Technical Subcommittee. All members are encouraged to participate in this effort to enable a smooth transition to the new standard for their respective companies.
Employee Benefits
A new area of focus is Employee Benefits standards. The initial focus for this group will be non-medical lines of business including Life, Dental, Disability, and Long Term Care. This includes RFI and RFP followed by enrollment process. Some of the deliverables include census data for quote, employer application, plan design, and risk assessment questionnaires.
Highlights from the Reinsurance & Large Commercial Domain
2006 was a productive year for RLC across two key themes: Process Improvements and Implementations.
Improved Maintenance Request and Spec Release Processes
Over the last twelve months, the ACORD staff has worked to ensure that management of maintenance requests and the release of standards are faster and more transparent. The introduction of new maintenance requests forms, logically linked to a new RLC MR database, has made the management of the process simpler for ACORD, and the overview of the process easier for interested parties and working group participants.
The new system and processes were used during both plenary sessions this year and each was a resounding success. Participants were able to see not only the requests, but also the Group Comment (recommendation) as defined by the maintenance request working group, the modelled solution within the standard, and where any changes would be applied to Implementation Guides. This process makes the candidate release period that precedes the full release of a new standard, a far more predictable and simple review for implementers and ACORD alike. These improvements are happening across the whole of ACORD, and benefiting all members.
ACORD Testing and Certification Facility
ACORD is currently in User Acceptance Testing for the ACORD Testing and Certification Facility (TCF), planned for release in 2007. The TCF will provide a "virtual business partner" reference for implementers to test their systems against. The TCF will streamline and simplify the process of fine-tuning integrations, removing cost and delay for business partners. The TCF will also provide a more rigorous and structured Certification process for business partners, testing not only the schema, but also connectivity and business case compliance, through the use of Schematrons. The ACORD TCF will be used to test DRI and AMS implementations upon release.
Implementations Gather Momentum
Over the last year, real effort has been put into implementing RLC standards as well as the supporting infrastructure standards of AMS (ACORD Messaging Service) and DRI (Document Repository Interface). Following on from the work started in 2005 by Swiss Re and its partners, eCOT (the electronic Claims advice notice and claims movement standard for facultative reinsurance) was facilitated through ACORD; eBOT (the electronic back office transactions reference implementation for European companies) was defined and given to ACORD for validation. eBOT is already in use by numerous European underwriters and brokers; it is also in use in the London market as an electronic alternative to the London Premium Advice Notice issued to the Xchanging bureaux for processing.
The London market has taken ACORD standards to the heart of its reform program. Working in conjunction with key market players, ACORD devised a Roadmap for London, to divide into digestible chunks, how to implement the full suite of RLC messages, with DRI and AMS underpinning the infrastructure. The ACORD Roadmap for London is being assessed and used by key market associations and companies, all working towards straight-through-processing and a connected, international marketplace. London is working on projects for Placing, Claims and Accounting and Settlement.
Richard Ward, the Lloyd's CEO, has publicly stated the importance of achieving greater efficiency through electronic interchange and has set targets for all new claims to be managed electronically by year end 2007. Contract certainty is coming close to fruition, and the ACORD Global Placing Document has been brought into line with the latest requirements defined in the Market Reform Slip.
To encourage implementation of the RLC Placing message and supporting DRI documentation, ACORD has published an Implementation Resource Kit to help demystify the process of integrating with a business partner. The Resource Kit has been a huge success and is now a template for future projects.
London is ready for ACORD, and ACORD is ready for London.
2007 heralds new opportunities, and the RLC Steering Committee is focusing on North America and Continental Europe to continue to grow the RLC family and the global ACORD footprint. |
