IBM Bolsters ACORD Standards Effort

Donation of insurance business-process code will save development time and money

In a move that should save ACORD years of standards process development time, as well as help IBM market insurance-specific middleware solutions, the two organizations have announced that IBM is contributing business-process models and other content to ACORD.

The donated computer code for more than 100 business-process models, model definitions and other content is part of IBM's Insurance Application Architecture (IAA)--the company's insurance-specific business and IT architecture framework.

"The donation will accelerate the development and adoption of business process standards that in turn will help address some of the global insurance industry's greatest challenges," according to an announcement from ACORD and IBM.

The overall contribution represents nearly 20 years of research and development by IBM, the announcement said.

IBM's contribution "will save us time and money, because there's been involvement from the industry in developing IAA over the years," said Denise Garth, vice president of membership and development for the Pearl River, N.Y.-based ACORD.

She added that ACORD will integrate the new processes into its standards, "plug holes, and build out areas where there hasn't been a priority by our members... There's a value back to the industry and the membership."

The announcement noted that the contributed code from Armonk, N.Y.-based IBM includes:

o A hierarchy of about 100 processes with business definitions in English.

o A data dictionary, referred to as the IAA Business Terms, and a subset needed for defining the process services.

o "State machines"--code that enables awareness of the status of a process as it goes forth.

"The donation is the process models themselves and the diagrams that go along with them--a set of business terms used across all of the models," said Cindy Maike, market segment manager for insurance at IBM's Software Group. "We're letting go of control in certain areas."

Most of the content is being given to ACORD in HTML (hypertext markup language, the format commonly used on the World Wide Web) to allow for easier use and development, noted Ms. Maike.

"There's no money or other form of compensation involved in the donation," she added. "We've been involved in horizontal standards in the past, but industry standards are also important."

She noted that having the expanded standards in its middleware would make those products from IBM more appealing to the insurance market, adding that "it provides a technology platform that [customers] can innovate on top of."

The new standards will evolve over time with ACORD committees, noted Ms. Maike. "Right now, we're saying, 'Here's a starter set, and let's evolve it to what makes sense,'" she said. "We're committing additional resources, including people, to get involved in the ACORD standards process. We can offer our expertise and experience."

In the joint announcement, ACORD also noted that it "could have done, and has discussed, developing these enhancements from scratch. However, as is normal with our process, members contribute content to jump-start the development and propel us further and faster for the benefit of all. Such donations are commonplace, but what it notable here is the size of the donation."

ACORD said it will channel IBM's donated elements into its standards-setting process. IBM and ACORD committees will work together on integrating the IBM content into existing ACORD standards. In addition, implementation guides and other tools will be provided by ACORD to help the industry adopt the expanded framework.

Ms. Garth said IBM and ACORD have no definitive timetable for integrating the information and implementing expanded standards. "We're doing some immediate work for a draft specification for the standards committee," she noted. "All I can say is that we want it sooner rather than later."

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IBM Bolsters ACORD Standards Effort

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