Recipes for products such as Coca-Cola and KFC chicken arefamously locked away in vaults to protect their respectivecompanies' most important assets. Insurers are feeling equallyprotective about their plans to deal with the influx of data fromtelematics systems that some believe will be a game changer in howpersonal auto policies are and will be underwritten.

ACORD began the process of studying data standards fortelematics in the spring of 2011 in response to a number ofinsurance carriers—members of ACORD—who were asking abouttelematics and wanted this topic brought to the table, according toJames Bielak, program manager for the property & casualtyprogram at ACORD.

"It was my job to formalize the community into a working group,"he says. "At that point we are under the ACORD governance policy. Igot my steering committee to approve the working group and weramped up in June (of 2011). "The first meetings were focused onbrainstorming business requirements and understanding what ourmembers were hoping to get out of such a working group."

Over time, the working group has had five or six members andsome non-members. Because the process of defining the scope andbusiness requirements took a while, Bielak explains some of thecarriers have slowed their participation.

"I'm seeking more participation at this point because we are ata critical junction because we are defining XML messages," saysBielak. "Some folks may think spending an hour talking aboutbusiness requirements is not the best use of their time, but now weneed people to get back to the table. What we define is going to bethe standard and if it is not implementable than shame on us. Wewant as much participation as possible to make sure what we definecan be implemented and will be used across the industry."

Because of the relative newness of telematics, getting carriersto share information is a challenge. Some major carriers haveagreed to participate and are eager to hear what the working groupis doing. Getting those carriers to chime in with information ontheir own companies' efforts has been more difficult.

"There's a problem with telematics and being vocal about it,"says Bielak. "This is something we've been wrestling with from thebeginning. If you are a third-party service provider or a carrierand you take a position or ask a question about a certain point,you are kind of revealing what your interest in the subject matteris. By doing that, people are afraid they will spill the secretsauce recipe. Because telematics is new and emerging, insurancecarriers particularly don't want anybody to have any notion on whythey want the data, what data they want, and how they analyze thedata. It's black box to the world. The service providers arefollowing the lead of the carriers and aren't volunteering muchinformation at this stage."

Convincing Others to Participate

Some of the approaches ACORD has taken include trying toconvince the working group to send Bielak some examples—evenbrainstorming examples—and he will work the data to createanonymity to present to the working group as an example.

"I finally got three contributors who shared with me thestructure of the data they are currently receiving nor sending," hesays. "That gave us some framework of reality within which to work.That is what we are using to initiate this XML design. At the sametime, we are still struggling to get more participation."

The chair of the working group, Mark Woods from Allstate,suggested on a recent call that if participants have questions orwant to guide the discussion but are unwilling to speak on the callthey should email Bielak and he will try to lead an anonymousdiscussion so nobody is going to be accused of spilling theircompany's secrets.

"One member actually had their general counsel talking to ourgeneral counsel about what we are up to because there were concernsthat if their people are going to participate on the standard andantitrust that ACORD is trying to avoid," he says. "I was neverprivy to those discussions, but that's how serious insurancecompanies see this. It is top secret right now."

Top Secret Challenge

There are many different ways of representing the data andBielak believes the examples that were contributed certainly revealthat. Bielak comes from a scientific background—oil and mining—andhas dealt with big data in those industries and seen standard waysof representing big data files.

"Seismic surveys have a specific format and it allows the datato be portable from one system to another," he says. "I don't seewhy telematics data should be any different. I think that pastexperience gives me an eye to focus on just the data. I do think weare on to some good approaches that de-couple the whole issue ofproprietary information from the data itself. By being smart andcoming up with a good definition for the data, it ought to provideflexibility to allow different providers to send different types ofdata to consumers. I think we have the bases fairly well coveredright now for a prototype."