ACORD's CEO Greg Maciag keeps what looks like a clunky version of an iPad in his office as a tangible reminder of his organization's vision that "the future belongs to those who create it."
The tablet computer, which has a simple application on it called "the ACORD form," is something Maciag says he worked with an industry vendor to create back in 1995.
That was "15 years ago," he stresses, explaining that the idea was to create a tablet with an app that could be used by claims representatives and others in the field. "We did it and it works," he says, noting that the tablet is roughly the same size as Apple's iPad today. "It's just a little heavier and thicker." Importantly, it illustrates his point that "the future tends to synch up with [ACORD's] vision rather than the other way around."
Neither ACORD's future nor its past, however, is really about creating hardware. Instead, ACORD's main mission has been developing standards to move insurance data and information back and forth between members that range from carriers to distributors to risk managers.
In the 1970s, "it was all about forms" (the handwritten kind), evolving to electronic data-interchange standards for mainframe-computers in the 1980s to XML standards for Internet users in the 1990s.
Turning to his future-vision, the CEO will not be coaxed to limit himself to agenda items just for the next year, instead continuing to speak about decades. "We don't think in terms of 12-month cycles. ACORD is not only a trade association; it is a movement," he says, explaining that the mission is now focused more directly on helping members implement standards.
Most members do not participate in setting standards. "They just want to use them," Maciag says, going on to describe the seemingly impossible task facing his staff of 60 as it tries to help 400 member organizations worldwide with implementation.
Among ACORD's top current initiatives:
- The ACORD Certified Experts program "where we actually certify people to be experts," including employees of members and consultants. Fifty experts were certified last year and about 200 are in the pipeline now, Maciag says.
- ACORD University, which will train people who don't want—or need—to be experts. Essentially, Maciag says ACORD has embarked on a multiyear process of revamping decades-old training materials. "We need to update those and put videos and webinars together so business managers who want to understand standards can do so in a user-friendly way."
- Advisory Services, which includes on-site training for members, are being expanded to include custom services like building software utilities for members. "Translation, validation, certification and testing tools are all part of this vision," Maciag says.
Another huge, ongoing initiative is called the ACORD Framework. "We're publishing enterprise models to help [carriers] create software to standardize data that flows through [all of] their systems," he says, rather than continuing to use siloed systems for different coverages and geographies.
Beyond all that is the need to brainstorm about devices such as iPads and other information–transfer advances that will impact how ACORD members use standards in the future. That's the task of the ACORD 2020 Advisory Committee—to ask what the world will look like in the year 2020.
Business people "really don't want to talk about XML. They want to discuss the end-game. What will data look like? How will it flow? Will we all be walking around with iPads that have ACORD forms?"
"For those who don't believe you should have such a long view, '2020' could also mean clarity and acuity," Maciag says, but either way the goal is "to create the kind of world" members want.
(Editor's Note: A video describing details of the "Framework," which includes a set of industry definitions, a capability model with process maps, a component model with service maps and two other models is posted on ACORD's website, www.acord.org)
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