Greek mythology gives us the story of Sisyphus, a very crafty king who defied the gods and tried to elude death. His punishment was to endlessly roll a huge stone up a hill; but as soon as it reached the top, it would roll down to the bottom. talk about a fate worse than death. Well... then there are industry standards.
The magnitude of this industry initiative is huge. Although we've made tremendous progress over the past two decades, our work will continue. Standards touch every part of our business where information is moved between trading partners. And when you consider the depth and breadth of the insurance value chain, these handshakes are many.
ACORD Standards are always part of a software development project. Standards are not a stand-alone product but more like rules of engagement. And some organizations have dozens of policy administration systems, IT shops served by hundreds of vendors with hundreds (if not thousands) of employees working on (again) hundreds of projects across the enterprise.
People constantly change. Projects fail. Priorities shift. And then there's the occasional financial crisis or natural disaster that drains time, attention and resources from goals that appear to be less urgent.
The good news is that we have a library of press releases, case studies and research papers that address the adoption of ACORD Standards across the industry and that demonstrate the value. But people don't care much about the success of others. If you see one insurance company, then you've seen one insurance company. Variables differ and ones system success can be another's failure .
It comes down to governance from the top down. An industry standards compliance policy. Someone or a team with a prescriptive policy addressing the purchase, development and maintenance of every system in the organization.
This is not to suggest that industry standards cannot be adopted in bits and pieces. In fact, that's exactly how they should be adopted. There is no magic wand or Y2K deadline. We just need to make sure that someone knows about all the bits a pieces and that it's part of an overall plan. I trust that the ACORD Framework (under development) will be a good tool for standards-setters and implementers alike because it provides an enterprise view.
So yes... it does feel like we are constantly pushing a stone up the hill. It is the reason why the industry created ACORD back in 1970. To carry the torch. To keep the flame burning amidst all the change and noise. You never actually get to the top of the hill and watch the stone speed down the other side. Sorry. No business is like that. There's always change. There will always be another hill. ACORD's job is to provide you with the tools to make stone rolling a lot easier.
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