Gregory Maciag

Globalization Continues

  I read The Economist for it's balanced view of the world (in my opinion).  As I am now preparing for our December Board of Directors meeting in Munich, the 16 September issue has been very helpful. It includes a pullout survey of the world economy and speaks to the growth in global economic output from the developing nations.  Our theme in Munich will be globalization and we will have roundtables by region.  The bottom line is that we serve members in all parts of the world today and we plan to re-calibrate our governance structure to better connect with organizations around the world.  The key to collaboration and cooperation is connecting people and that presents a few challenges as we span the time zones. I know that part of the solution will be for us to leverage technology to bridge the time gap. Yes we are a very local global industry, but my fellow trade associations and global standards bodies have much to gain by cooperating. I appreciate local differences, but we should not spend money re-inventing wheels. 

The Digital Generation

JD Lasica is the author of Darknet: Hollywood's War Against the Digital Generation. It is the first comprehensive look at the restrictions being placed on digital freedoms by major media powers.

We often speak about the new generation of consumers/workers and their impact on our business.  Their thinking about technology is reflected throughout these pages. 

Take a look at my video with JD on the ACORD Live channel at JD Lasica

Forms as a User Interface

This excerpt from a RI3K's press release on using forms as a user interface.  It also goes on to mention ACORD compliant templates. This mix of ACORD Forms, ACORD compliant electronic messaging and proprietary user interfaces are all part of the new way to look at forms and e-forms in software development.

RI3K Announces New "Easy to Use" Trading System

Monte Carlo, Monday 11th September 2006:  The electronic trading service RI3K today announces a revolutionary new version of its trading system.  Named "V3", the new system will be rolled out in the run-up to renewals to replace the existing RI3K platform.  It will allow users to handle all types and classes of facultative and treaty reinsurance, as well as commercial "direct" insurance.

"This is a completely new animal" say RI3K's Chief Executive Alex Letts.  "It is wonderfully intuitive, and many of the heavy processes have been smoothed out.  It is so much easier to use." Key innovations for the new version have been in making the service much more flexible for brokers, allowing them to use their own contracts and wordings on the service, by using the powerful ACORD-based form-builder.

"The form-builder is the sensation," says Letts.  "At a stroke it transforms the electronic trading landscape because it preserves differentiation for brokers in their product presentation.  Rather than being forced to use RI3K prescribed slips, broking houses will be able to create and store their own ACORD compliant templates in the form-builder whatever type, class or line - fac, treaty or direct.  They can add their wordings from their selected sources, and then simply allow their placing brokers to distribute and trade these out over the service."  V3 has also been upgraded with enhanced data integration capabilities.  It can be connected to brokers' own slip systems, and it can pass data into peer-to-peer underwriting gateways.

"For companies, V3 is a path to efficient, compliant and cost effective distribution," Letts adds.  "But for the actual users themselves, V3 is just a marvellous modern service that makes their day easier and more productive."

About RI3K

RI3K has built an electronic trading service to support all types and classes of reinsurance business, treaty as well as facultative and commercial insurance. The Trading Service provides the reinsurance market with a fully ACORD, LMP and Contract Certainty compliant solution.It combines four key elements - collaboration, contract management, business process and dataflow - to produce a complete front-office suite supporting the business processes.

Roddy Langley
Marketing Communications Manager
RI3K Limited

ri3k Home Page

Premature Forms Obituary

Sometimes I think that forms are the least appreciated and most misunderstood vehicle for transporting or transferring information between trading partners, even though they have done so for hundreds of years.  A few facts about ACORD Forms. Now 35 years in use. Over 700 in the library. Used by about 1,000 P&C insurers and almost all 40,000 independent agents and brokers in one way or another. Licensed to over 100 software developers. Saved the industry hundreds of millions of dollars over the years. A real success story if I do say so myself.

Today we have EDI and XML Messaging so who needs forms or so the story goes. The first time I heard that comment was at an EDI meeting back in the 1980's. But the truth is that while forms are often replaced because there are better ways to transport or transfer information today, they also survive for many reasons.  We have the niche markets that have yet to benefit by digital messaging. They are also used to gather information at the point of sale, for legal transactions or claims purposes. And in some cases, forms have been re-purposed as user interfaces rather than transfer mediums.

Users that connect elctronically with many trading partners would prefer seeing a standard user interface or screen (i.e. Form) rather than all the proprietary screens presented for gathering essentially the same information. This is less of an issue if you only use a single system for everything and that system connects to every other system including all the web services.  But we do not live in a single system world and that's why we need standards today.  The future is best of breed systems coupled by intelligent messaging.

The good news is that IBM, Adobe and Microsoft are getting into the electronic forms world with products that help to design forms that cannot only serve as a user interface but can also transfer the data electronically.  Their point being that XML messaging is great, but humans need to be presented with some structured way to enter and view information.  People do not look at XML message streams.  So forms have received yet another reprieve from obsolesence as they become digital themselves. I was at an industry session last week and we talked about a default user interface template that could be extended as needed, but would simplify interfaces for end users.

I was approached by a trade association from a nation that skipped the forms era altogether by going directly to EDI and now XML messaging.  And while they do transfer data electronically today, users are complaining about all the proprietary messaging and user interfaces required to do so.  They want to move to industry (ACORD) standards and are seriously thinking about beginning to use ACORD Forms. Why? Because it would converge thinking about using Standards in a non-threatening way and would also provide a path to follow as ACORD eForms would be linked to electronic messaging in the future. Some proprietary forms are tied to front-end systems, so migrating to a standard of any kind can take time and that should be viewed as an opportunity rather than a problem. Standards are evolutionary, not revolutionary.

So before you throw the baby out with the bath water, think about what IBM, Adobe and Microsoft are doing.  As a matter of fact, think about what they are doing to re-purpose ACORD Forms.  There is no one simple way to frame everyones thinking around forms and eForms.  My sense is that a position on forms or e-Forms depends on how and where one draws the line between people and machines. And that sweet spot is characterized in different ways by different people. 

So what's your view on the future of forms and eForms?

IBM Workplace Forms

Adobe LifeCycle Forms

Microsoft InfoPath Forms

Friedman Goes Blogging

I just read in the recent e-issue of the National Underwriter that Sam Friedman is launching a WebLog on September 5th. And he seemed to go through the same thinking as I did when I decided to launch a Blog.  Well I think this is great news.  While I appreciate the value of our industry trade press, allowing people to comment without having to write a letter to the editor is a refreshing change. Good luck Sam and you'll be hearing from me. National Underwriter