After spending a lot of time talking about data and Short-term Insurance Data Exchange (STRIDE), industry leaders stepped up to the plate and started their STRIDE integrations.
The good news is that all the pilot integrations have been completed, and most of the major insurers and system providers are on their second and even third rounds of integrations. We now have brokers sending data to multiple insurers, insurers dealing with multiple system providers, and we also have new system providers on board.
Unfortunately you will always have those who take their waitand- see attitudes just a little bit too far, and we would just like to remind those companies that development and integration should start earlier rather than later.
Major backing
A combined insurer, system provider and binder holder forum, hosted by the Financial Intermediary Association (FIA) and STRIDE in September 2013, confirmed the commitment of the entire industry to STRIDE. That was a major milestone for the organisation as, for the first time, all the stakeholders agreed that STRIDE is critical for the sustainability of the outsource model in South Africa.
While the pilot integration projects focused on insurers and system providers, binder holders have now also committed their support. This support was confirmed over and over again as the STRIDE team embarked on follow-up meetings with binder holders.
Another meeting between the CEOs of the major insurers and binder holders on 6 December reconfirmed this commitment, to the extent that all players agreed to sign letters committing them to the implementation of the ACORD standard and the STRIDE technology.
Making progress
It is evident that the dream started in 2009 by the FIA and the South African Insurance Association (SAIA) is now finally coming to fruition, and very soon there will be only one way of communicating data across the industry.
The benefits that we identified many years ago, can finally be achieved. The benefits are clear:
• saving time and effort;
• saving costs;
• creating efficiencies in the industry;
• capturing data once in its lifetime, then reference it;
• consistently process the data; and
• leverage off global progress.
As a next phase, the STRIDE team is focusing on the implementation of real time messages. We recognise that this will have a much bigger impact on business processing and the implementation is therefore less technical and more business orientated. This is the phase of the project that will take us beyond compliance, into real benefits for all stakeholders.
Integration process
An integration project will almost always include three parties: the insurer; the binder holder, or UMA; and the system provider. The first step when deciding to integrate with STRIDE for the first time, is therefore to identify the partners that would be most beneficial in your environment. This process can be initiated by any of the three partners and it is not necessary for the binder holders to wait for an insurer to approach them first.
However, a partnership is not the only way to get integrated. Any party can complete integration and certification on its own.
The next, and very critical step, is to contract the scope of the work, the timelines and the costs between the three partners. Without this, the three partners will each follow their own process at their own pace.
An integration project proposal should be agreed to with Astute, the electronic platform provider, to provide assistance and support during the development and testing phases of the project.
Once the project is completed and you are ready to transact, a service level agreement and usage contract should be signed with STRIDE. This will ultimately benefit the industry as it leads to increased integration and more effective communication in an industry that is information rich.
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