The Collision Industry Electronic CommerceAssociation (CIECA)held their second implementation conference last week, andprevalent themes revolved around cost reductions; cycle time andoutcome improvements; data ownership; and information privacy.

CIECA is comprised of members from all collision industrysegments who form member-run committees that develop nationalindustry standards and provide implementation support andguidelines for electronic commerce. Below is a recap of theconference:

General Session Recaps

Randy Hanson, auto claim director at Allstate, opened theconference with "CSI Standards and Standard Questions," sharing thespecific value of standardization to his company and the industryin this latest area of CIECA standards development. Overallbusiness process information and process simplification, access toreal-time decisioning information, freedom to use best-in-classservices from multiple vendors and service, and cost improvementswere highlighted.

Ron Campney and Mike Stewart represented the Hertz Off-Airportbusiness unit, whose markets include insurance replacement rental.They described their company's experience in implementing CIECAstandards, in which they have been deeply involved since thebeginning. Hertz has completed the migration from the EstimateManagement Standard (EMS) to the Business Messaging Specification(BMS) standard and has implemented BMS rental messaging serviceswith all of their trading partners. Secure data and informationexchange and a marked reduction in rental duration -- which drivescustomer cost and satisfaction -- were two important benefitshighlighted.

A panel discussion entitled "Direct Insurer-Repair FacilityExchanges," featured senior executives from CynCast, SafeliteGlass, State Farm, and AutoWatch. While there was general agreementthat estimatics software plays a critical and valuable role in therepair and communication process between insurers and repairers,the panel addressed growing concerns about the complex issuesaround safeguarding private and personal information exchanged andcaptured in the process, including any associated liability thatmay exist for all parties. These concerns extend to other vehicleinformation and damage history data providers.

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Representatives from Audatex/Solera and Mitchell Internationaldescribed "Insurance Company Estimate Message Implementation: BMSfor Estimating." Both companies have been long-time supporters andactive participants in CIECA, and have invested heavily in CIECABMS standards implementations with insurance clients that haveexpanded to support business transactions with other supply chainservice standards. Both companies also support numerous other dataformats as well as connectivity and transmission protocols.

Don Porter, consultant for P&C claims with State Farm, spokeon " Salvage Disposition Assignment & Status Updates." As abusinessman and not a technologist, Porter used the heavilydetailed workflows and many of the 120 individual BMS messages toconvey not only how complex the underlying process is, but also howmuch BMS standardization has simplified the process for all users,both internally and externally.

The closing segment was a Town Hall entitled "Why CIECA BMSAdoption Matters to the Collision Repair Supply Chain." It includedpresentations by Amica Insurance, CCC Information Services,Discount Car Rental, Gerber Collision and Glass and LKQCorporation. Collectively and generically, these companiesrepresent the majority of the collision repair supply chain thatexchange more than 200 million electronic transactions worth $100billion annually.

Each presenter explained exactly how CIECA BMS has benefitedtheir companies and their business relationships within othersupply chain participants, including cost and time to marketsavings and data security. Once again, data ownership andinformation privacy was addressed, along with the role of CIECA BMSin alleviating those concerns.

[email protected],www.insuranceclaimsolutions.com.