Maciag Believes Insurers Should Capitalize on Changing Markets, Customers

Greg Maciag, president and CEO of ACORD and a long-time expert on technology in the insurance industry, believes the industry must quickly adjust to successfully capitalize on the expanding and changing demands of employees and customers. Open standards, interconnectivity, and mobility are coming to the forefront and posing challenges to those within the industry, according to Maciag. Successful companies need to think about how to differentiate themselves to the customer base, he believes.

“The next generation of tech-savvy and social media-driven consumers and workers will look at insurance in a different way,” Maciag predicts.  “And it will behoove firms to prepare for this very open and mobile marketplace by investing in assets that differentiate them and provide a real competitive advantage.  They will no longer be able to pass along the cost of bulky proprietary systems that do not easily connect to whatever devices people are going to use.”

Maciag adds that ACORD will continue to improve industry standards as technology itself changes. “ACORD's standards are constantly evolving because the business and the technology evolve,” he explains. “That's not going to stop. We are streamlining the standards development and maintenance process so we can channel more resources into working with members on adoption and implementation.”

ACORD is also focused on improving its systems architecture.

 “We are looking to get beyond messaging and provide a more enterprise view of data by building architecture around ACORD Standards,” Maciag says. “Point solutions are fine, but firms want a more holistic view of their data and how it moves inside the firewall, as well as outside among trading partners. We're creating component models and ways for firms to bake standards and process together into re-useable code.”

Maciag's vision may be a bold one, but few in the industry would ever accuse him of being a shrinking violet, his having held operations and systems positions with Chubb & Son and the National Council of Compensation Insurance before joining ACORD in 1977.  He was appointed president in 1994 and has led the organization's transition to a data-standards group that serves a wide variety of businesses in an increasingly global marketplace.

 “Twenty years ago, I realized that ACORD needed to expand into other lines of business and become a more global organization,” Maciag recalls. “After all, agents and brokers were selling both life and non-life products and insurers were moving data to reinsurance companies. Members wanted to spread standards into operations in other geographies and expand into emerging markets.”

Maciag drove ACORD to capitalize on this rapidly evolving business environment.  “We formed various coalitions and merged with other organizations to better serve the industry,” he explains.  “We now support members in many countries and regions, and we're still growing.”

Maciag believes ACORD will continue playing a vital role however the industry evolves.

“I don't know what the world will be like 20 years from now, but I do know that ACORD Standards will be the de facto fuel for moving information,” he says. “Coupled with our focus on efficiency and process, ACORD Standards will provide the lingua franca grid upon which firms can innovate and create services and business models. 

“We are here to support the business challenges faced by our members, including systems integration and connectivity with trading partners.”

Given his long tenure at the organization, Maciag is well positioned to provide past industry perspective, as well future guidance. 

His biggest accomplishment?

“That's not really a fair question since I have been here for a long time,” he says. “There are millions of ACORD Forms used on a daily basis in the U.S.A. ACORD only had four forms when I arrived, and my initial assignment here was to start building the library.  I launched the annual conference more than 20 years ago, and we continue to present important events.  The merger with WISe (a European standards body) that took place in 2000 was the beginning of our globalization. Adding new assets—from architecture to video—was also satisfying.”

What about his biggest frustrations? “There are always frustrations that go with the territory of any nonprofit industry association. But they all end up merely fueling my conviction to push forward,” says Maciag.

Maciag adds that it is important for industry executives to keep an open, long-term perspective about their businesses.

“ACORD was organized by a group of agents, brokers and insurers with vision,” Maciag recalls. “They wanted to do what was technologically difficult in those days. There are fewer barriers today by comparison. The biggest barrier is probably legacy thinking people who trade the longer view for short-term gains.”

It is important to be open to business re-invention, Maciag emphasizes. “If I had to identify the biggest challenge that crosses all lines and sectors, it would be the ability to re-invent our business models to sell and service policyholders in new ways in this tech-savvy era,” he says.

How equipped does Maciag believe ACORD and its members are to compete in this rapidly evolving global marketplace?

“Very well, the very reason being the fact that our Board of Directors has ACORD working around the globe today,” he says. “We're currently in various stages of discussion with industry communities in several territories that want to begin implementing ACORD Standards.   Our recent event in Singapore showcased many members that work in the Asia Pacific community talking about how they leverage ACORD Standards, and how their businesses are surpassing the growth rate of established markets.

The one thing Maciag is sure about is that technology will keep evolving.  Does he view this as a positive or negative force?

“The pace of technology only hurts or helps depending on how individual firms respond to it,” he notes. “For some, it has been a great opportunity. For others, it has been a challenge.  Even if some pundits feel the industry is lagging, the pace of tech change is an effective driver for industry progress.  The number of organizations embracing industry standards today has increased dramatically.  So I think technology has been more of a driver for the good of the industry. Firms feel that they need to do something, and that's always better than doing nothing.”