ACORD Releases ROI Standards Analysis Tools

New York - Helping members better analyze and report their returns on standards investments, ACORD released a return on investment (ROI) analysis toolset at the 2005 ACORD LOMA Insurance Systems Forum, held in Orlando on  May 22-24.

ACORD members will be able to use the tools to examine and report, in numbers and graphs, the overall benefits and savings from ACORD data standards implementations.

"We developed these tools to enable our members to show not only themselves but others throughout their organization the benefits of standards implementations across an enterprise," said Denise Garth, vice president, Membership and Development, ACORD. Garth said that the tools were in response to members' request for "a vehicle to clearly illustrate the benefits of ACORD Standards, incorporate industry best practices, and show how standards improve a company's return on its technology investments."

The ACORD ROI Tool Full Version enables users to take an in-depth look at their organization, expenses, standards implementations, and cost-benefit analyses for up to five years. It does, however, require the user to have detailed company information and forecasting data. The ACORD ROI Tool Lite Version is a subset of the full tool and examines the ROI on implementing an interface between organizations and their trading partners, or between internal systems, when using standards or not using standards.

Available only to ACORD members, the tools are based upon ACORD Best Practices, developed with its membership and released in 2004 as well as case studies from ACORD members. They use ROI data provided by ACORD's members that was averaged and aggregated to create baseline metrics. Both tools work by having the user answer simple questions within an Excel spreadsheet. In the end, tables and graphs will illustrate how an organization can benefit from ACORD standards implementations.

Source:  ACORD