Press Release
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Toronto, CA and Pearl River, NY – Oct. 20, 2015 – ACORD, a global provider of insurance data standards, business and technology leadership, and the Centre for Study of Insurance Operations (CSIO) today announced the rebranding of the Activity Notes standard to ACORD eDocs and ACORD Messages and CSIO eDocs and CSIO Messages, providing a consistent North American standard for the electronic delivery of policy documents and messages from insurers to independent insurance agencies and brokerages. eDocs is the highly successful CSIO Message Standard used by Canadian carriers and brokers for the delivery of secure insurance documents directly to broker management systems. eDocs were developed by CSIO based upon the ACORD Activity Notes message structure. The rapid adoption of eDocs within the Canadian marketplace was an indication that the name eDocs resonated with both carriers and brokers.
eDocs provides an auditable, system-based method to handle essential communication of insurance documents exchanged between insurers and agencies, brokerages, vendors, premium finance companies, third-party administrators and others that would typically be sent through email, fax and postal mail. The messages are a secure, standard way to communicate, enabling data quality and consistency and allowing single implementations to connect with multiple business partners. eDocs are directly downloaded from an insurer’s system to a management system where the attached insurance documents are automatically stored, saving the industry significant amounts of time and money.
"For years, we've seen a shift in the workflow from paper to electronic, and studies are showing that agents are increasingly interested in receiving electronic document delivery to streamline workflows with their insurer partners," said Greg Maciag, ACORD President and Chief Executive Officer. "By unifying the branding of the electronic document standard across North America to eDocs, we hope to drive further adoption of the standard to increase connectivity and automated data exchange across the insurance lifecycle." As the insurance industry becomes a more connected marketplace, agent demand for electronic delivery of information continues to increase at a significant rate. In a recent study conducted by IVANS Insurance Solutions, 71% of respondents indicated interest in receiving eDocs from all of their carriers. The study also revealed that receiving eDoc downloads results in an average time savings of 1.35 hours per employee. Based on respondents’ average agency size of 17 employees, this corresponds to 22.95 hours per day of times savings for an agency.
"eDoc certifications continue to increase as insurers recognize the value of automating workflows for their brokerage partners," states Catherine Smola, president and chief executive officer, CSIO. "We look forward to increasing automated data exchange to reduce time and cost spent managing paper policies through the uniform eDocs standard across North America."
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About Centre for Study of Insurance Operations (CSIO)
CSIO is Canada’s industry association of property and casualty insurers, software providers and over 35,000 brokers. CSIO is committed to improving the consumer’s ease of doing business within the broker channel by overseeing the development, implementation and maintenance of technology standards and solutions such as eDocs, Telematics, eDelivery and eSignatures. In addition, CSIO operates CSIOnet, a secure, industry-owned platform for the efficient exchange of policy information for the broker channel. CSIO maintains offices in Toronto and Montreal. For more information, visit www.csio.com.
About ACORD
ACORD (Association for Cooperative Operations Research and Development), founded in 1970, is a global, nonprofit organization serving the insurance and related industries. ACORD facilitates fast, accurate data exchange and more efficient workflows through the development of electronic standards, standardized forms, and tools to support their use. ACORD members worldwide include hundreds of insurance and reinsurance companies, agents and brokers, software providers, financial services organizations and industry associations. ACORD also presents events, videos, research papers and seminars on current technology and business topics. ACORD maintains offices in New York and London. For more information please visit www.acord.org.