Gregory Maciag

The Future of Data Standards

Martina Conlon posted her view on the Novarica Blog  (NOVARICA) and I agree with her.  A few comments from me.  We are now undergoing a re-organization at ACORD that you will hear more about shortly.  In essence we are separating standards development from all of our implementation activities. This will allow us to focus and excel on the development side and provide us with more flexibility and member engagement on implementations. It will also allow us to leverage valuable assets, build utilities and provide services. And our rationale included some of the thinking in Ms.Conlon's post.

The standard ACORD XML transaction format provides big benefit to the industry. It’s a major piece of the solution to enable automated new business processes – providing significant efficiencies to carriers in PL and small to mid commercial markets. Adoption has been strong for portal and AMS transport vendors, which has helped drive carrier adoption. Unfortunately, core system vendors are hesitant to adopt them, which stunts general adoption. Plug and play, SOA and external interfaces could be accelerated and enabled if most vendors chose to support these standards, or even a mapping to these standards.

But ACORD XML also presents some challenges to the industry. Any insurance data standard is going need to be extended as the value and accessibility of new data elements is uncovered. Carriers face the challenge of having to extend the standard themselves, or go through the lengthier formal extension process with the standards body. Accessible and affordable education and support could help in making well designed extensions quickly. If a carrier chooses to add “vehicle color” as an underwriting attribute, it would be great if they could contact a support resource to be advised on the best placement.

Some standards (or starter data models) lack depth in certain lines of business, or subject areas. Knowing that the standard is comprehensive inspires confidence from the carriers and vendors. Too many standard organizations or model vendors prematurely release these assets. Upon review, the carriers identify the holes and label them well-intentioned but incomplete – and don’t bother to revisit the standard or models at a later time.

So, with these challenges, what would help drive the use of data standards and industry models? Finish them before your release them, and then provide accessible, affordable support.

Perhaps more dependence on applications deployed in the cloud or delivered as SaaS will also help drive adoption. For example, Informatica just introduced an integration service that translates ACORD XML to salesforce.com. As integration needs increase, especially around very generic applications, data standards have a better chance or being embraced.

ACORD Elections & Appointments

PEARL RIVER, NY - January 18, 2011 - The MEMIC Group's President and CEO John Leonard has been re-elected by the ACORD Board of Directors (www.acord.org) as the 2011 Chair. Lawrence Blakeman of MetLife was elected as the Board's Vice-Chair. The announcements were made by ACORD's President and CEO Gregory A. Maciag.

Leonard is President and CEO of Maine Employers' Mutual Insurance Company (MEMIC), based in Portland, ME, and MEMIC Indemnity Company, with offices in Manchester, NH. He began with MEMIC in 1993, the company's first year, after a lengthy career with The Travelers, where he led the Commercial Lines Agency Marketing and Underwriting Division. MEMIC customers now account for approximately 65 percent of the commercial workers’ compensation premium in Maine.

He is a former President of the American Association of State Compensation Insurance Funds (AASCIF) and Chairman of its Executive Committee. Leonard is also the current Chair of the Board of Directors for the National Council on Compensation Insurance (NCCI) and is a member of its Compensation and Nominating/Governance Committees. Previously, he served as a member of the National Workers' Compensation Reinsurance Pool Board.

Currently, he also sits on the Boards of Directors of MEMIC, MEMIC Indemnity Company, the Maine State Chamber of Commerce and the Pine Tree Council of the Boy Scouts of America. He received the Distinguished Citizen Award presented by the Pine Tree Council in 2001, and in 2003 was inducted into the Maine Business Hall of Fame. In addition, he serves on the Board of the American Society of Workers' Comp Professionals, Inc. (AMCOMP). He was the 2008 recipient of the Legends Award conferred on him by this organization.

Lawrence (Larry) E. Blakeman is senior vice president and chief information officer in MetLife's Information Technology Group supporting the recently formed U.S. Business organization. In 2007, he was appointed senior vice president and chief information officer of Individual Business IT where he led information technology and operations for MetLife's Individual Business organizations. In 2008, he assumed the additional responsibility for the Auto & Home organization bringing together all IT support for the Retail business under his leadership. In 2006, he took on responsibility for MetLife's enterprise data management and enterprise architecture functions.

Larry joined MetLife in 1996 as a vice president and client relations executive in the business services group, responsible for providing IT services and support to the financial management organization. In 1998, he took on responsibility for enterprise-wide financial systems, as well as responsibility for support of Institutional Business and Individual Business financial systems. He assumed additional responsibility for corporate actuarial systems and the enterprise reporting group in 2000.

In addition, ACORD added three new directors by membership election: John Kellington, Cincinnati Financial; Robert Kelly, Steadfast Group; and Achim Stegner, Munich Re.

Also announced at that time was the appointment of Monique Hesseling of Zurich as chair of the ACORD Standards Committee which focuses on the development, maintenance, and enhancements of the ACORD Standards. Spero Zacharias, Chubb & Son, was named chair of the ACORD 2020 Advisory Committee which focuses on the long-range vision of ACORD Standards within the industry and the value proposition to implementers.

The following is a complete listing of the 2011 Board of Directors:

• Chair: John Leonard, MEMIC
• Vice-Chair: Lawrence Blakeman, MetLife
• Gregory A. Maciag, ACORD

• Sal Branca, Chartis
• Andrew G. Cassidy, Council of Independent Agents & Brokers (CIAB)
• Jeremy D. Cooke, Marsh
• David Findley,Outside Director, Immediate Past Vice-Chair
• Andy Fogarty, Outside Director
• Al Iuppa, Zurich
• Art Jetter, National Association of Independent Life Brokerage Agencies
  
• John Kellington, Cincinnati Financial
• Robert Kelly, Steadfast Group
• James Knight, Chubb & Son
• Barbara Koster, Prudential Financial
• Sue Langley, Lloyd's of London
• Frank Liu, China Life Insurance Company, Ltd.
• Dennis Mahoney, Outside Director
• Brian O'Connell, The Hartford
• Jim Pedersen, Fireman's Fund
• William Pieroni, State Farm Insurance
• Keith Savino, National Association of Professional Insurance Agents (PIA)
• Markus Schmid, Swiss Re
• Bob Slocum, Independent Insurance Agents & Brokers of America (IIABA)
• Achim Stegner, Munich Re
• Tim Wright, Willis Group

For a full listing of the 2011 Board of Directors along with photos and biographies, please visit the ACORD website (www.acord.org/about).

Joint Industry Forum - New York

John Leonard is Chairman of ACORD and the NCCI (National Council on Compensation Insurance). We gather at the JIF meeting each year. Pictured with us are Steve Klingel, NCCI CEO together with Terri Vaughan, CEO of the National Association of Insurance Commissioners at the reception.

Joint Industry Forum Today

ACORD is one of several industry associations that host the Joint Industry Forum each year at the Waldorf in New York City. The speaker program includes two panels of executives. One panel that serves or regulates and another panel of insurer CEOs.  Our speaker at dinner was Ari Fleischer, the former White House Press Secretary to President Bush from 2001 to 2003.Pictured with me and Ari are Ann Henstrand and Mike Morrissey, CEO of the International Insurance Society.

Meet the ACORD Staff

 

Happy New Year - Let's Re-organize

We are in the process of re-organizing the staff and member committees this year. You will be hearing more about our plans in the coming weeks. The ACORD Standards Committee is being re-constituted to reflect the various communities that we serve. Monique Hesseling (Zurich) was appointed Chair by the ACORD Board of Directors at their meeting in Munich.

All implementation activities will now be aggregated under the ACORD 2020 Advisory Council chaired by Board appointed Spero Zacharias (Chubb). This separation of standards development and publishing from implementation activities will provide more focus for the staff and members.  Both areas are vital to our success.  The Standards process is necessarily rules oriented.  Implementation involves advocacy, surveys, events and support services and much more. We have many communities around the world involved in implementation activities and our goal is to support them for success.

This is an exciting development for the new decade and we are eager to get under way.