ACORD Expands Testing, Certification Facility

Pearl River, N.Y. - Building upon the success of its initial rollout, the insurance standards body organization ACORD announced the expansion of its testing and certification facility to include test capabilities for ACORD Reinsurance & Large Commercial (RLC) Placing message implementations.
The ACORD testing and certification facility supports developers implementing ACORD standards by enabling them to test their messaging systems using a "virtual" business partner. Developers can send ACORD messages to it, have the system validate them, and then have it send back responses indicating acceptance or errors. This live application streamlines the entire process, thereby increasing certifications and improving communication between business partners.
The system originally went live in February 2007 for ACORD Document Repository Interface (DRI) messages to support the London Electronic Claims File initiative. Now, with the incorporation of the Placing messages, the facility can also support the growing number of brokers and underwriters developing placing systems within the London.
"This is an important new step for our testing facility which will be followed by incorporating additional support for the RLC Accounting, Settlement and Claims messages later in 2007" said Lloyd Chumbley, assistant vice president, Standards, ACORD, Pearl River, N.Y.
Extending of the capabilities of the ACORD testing & certification facility is being fully supported by implementers within London and their market associations.
"The LMA is fully supportive of the use of the ACORD RLC message testing facility for placement. This will be a significant aid to any broker or syndicate who is developing an electronic placing capability, greatly reducing time required to test the message structure," said David Gittings, CEO of the Lloyd's Market Association.
An important aspect of the ACORD facility is its ability to provide formal certification that a developer's system complies with the agreed ACORD standards.
"Organizations are starting to insist that new partners are certified by our system and this has led to strong and increasing usage since going live in February," said Roy Laker, assistant vice president, London office, ACORD.
The ACORD testing and certification facility was developed in partnership with Trisystems Infobahn.
For more information on the ACORD Testing & Certification Facility, please visit the ACORD Web site at www.acord.org. Source: ACORD