The ACORD Framework - An Insurance Enterprise Architecture

1. © ACORD 2011
The ACORD Framework
An Insurance
Enterprise
Architecture

2. © ACORD 2011
ACORD is building the Framework
for greater efficiency
•Need for an Enterprise Architecture
•Framework streamlines standards
creation and development
•Framework provides a base for
model driven development and
maintenance of standards
•Framework better serves
ACORD members and
the entire insurance industry

3. © ACORD 2011
ACORD is building the Framework
for the future of the industry
•More diverse
membership
•Global membership
•Cross-Domain
membership
•Geographical
differences
•More than an
exchange format

4. © ACORD 2011
• ACORD Framework
provides the foundation for
Enterprise Architectures
• Diverse membership
contribution
• Members can choose parts
that are best suited
The Framework will save your
organization time and resources

5. © ACORD 2011
The Framework has 5 facets

6. © ACORD 2011
The Business Glossary contains
common insurance definitions
•Non-technical definitions
•Single business glossary to
bridge communication gaps
•Provides context across all
programs

7. © ACORD 2011
•Glossary terms found in all
facets
•Changes made in unison
The Glossary relates to
the other four facets
Business
Glossary

8. © ACORD 2011
•Originally published in 2008
•Revisions expected upon completion of
Information Model version 2.0
•HTML and PDF formats available
The Business Glossary
status and delivery
options
Business
Glossary

9. © ACORD 2011
Questions?

10. © ACORD 2011
Capability
Model
Process
Maps
•Baseline of a company’s
capabilities
•Individual companies
vary, but all capabilities
exist in the industry
The Capability Model
defines what insurance
companies do

11. © ACORD 2011
The Capability Model
presents a
standard perspective
•Does not define an ordered workflow, just reflects
the industry’s usual way of doing business
•The Model offers an organizational baseline, a
preferred approach
Capability
Model
Process
Maps

12. © ACORD 2011
The Capability Model
helps facilitate
business innovation
Capability
Model
Process
Maps
•Capability Model gives insight to areas of
similarity and shows differences from other
companies
•Companies can find innovative ways to exploit
those differences

13. © ACORD 2011
Capability Model includes
Process Maps
Claims Lifecycle
Management
•Capability
•Claims
•Sub Capability:
•Claims Lifecycle Management
•Sub-sub Capability
•Claims Handling
•Activity / Process:
•Investigate Claim
Investigate
Claim
Claims
Handling
Claims

14. © ACORD 2011
Capability
Model
Process
Maps
•Business Management
•Channel Management
•Contract Administration
•Customer Service
•Enterprise Services
The Capability Model
Top Level Capabilities
•Claims
•Finance
•Marketing
•Product
•Sales

15. © ACORD 2011
Common Capability Model Uses
• Business Process Modeling
• Capabilities and business activities provide the
building blocks for business process automation
• Delivered in UML for ease of porting into BPM tooling
• Business Activity Reference Model
• A common model set of definitions that can be
agreed upon across the industry
• Celent used the Capability Model as the base for the
BPO questionnaire and report for 2011

16. © ACORD 2011
The Capability Model
status and delivery
options
Capability
Model
Process
Maps
•Version 2.1 – released May, 2011
•No major revisions expected
•Formats: Spreadsheet and UML
UML Sample
Spreadsheet Sample

17. © ACORD 2011
The Capability Model
History & Future
Capability
Model
Process
Maps
Year Activity / Donation ACORD Publication
2006 IBM (IAA process definitions)
2007 ACORD v1.0 Draft
2008 Deloitte, LLC (enterprise
support)
ACORD Working Group
2009 ACORD v2.0
2010 ACORD Capability Model Book
2011 New Content / Donations v2.x

18. © ACORD 2011
The Book…
• Available Now

19. © ACORD 2011
v2.1 Release – What’s New?
Capability
Model
Process
Maps
•tele-underwriting
•help desk service
•document imaging
•predictive modeling
•several claims items
•UML updates to align with Spreadsheet

20. © ACORD 2011
Questions?

21. © ACORD 2011
The Information Model organizes and
relates insurance concepts

22. © ACORD 2011
The Information Model is the basis
for Model-Driven development of
standards
• Single business model
• Consistency across all
standards development
• Provides a big picture view
of the insurance industry
Information
Model

23. © ACORD 2011
• Linked to all the ACORD Standards
• Other facets used to ensure consistency
• Provides the mechanism for mapping all standards
to each other
• Model currently contains:
– More than 800 classes
– More than 2300 attributes Information
Model
The Information Model helps
organize and explain insurance
concepts

24. © ACORD 2011
The Information Model is about
concepts, not literal implementations
•Can express ideas
independently of how they
are used
•Not intended to describe how
to use the concepts
•Designed for extensibility
to accommodate future
standards and industry
requirements
Information
Model

25. © ACORD 2011
• ACORD will map the Information Model to:
– XML standards (all versions)
– Forms (eLabels)
– EDI / AL3
– Other standards and models
• Members who map internal models to the
Information Model then have a semantic
link to all standards
Information Model is the central
facet for mapping which facilitates
ease of implementation
Information
Model

26. © ACORD 2011
• ACORD mapping will link:
• Domains
• Geographies
• Facets
• Standards
• ACORD mappings save
time for you
Mapping creates links
for ease of implementation
Information
Model

27. © ACORD 2011
Common Information Model Uses
• Enterprise Reference Model
• Logical organization of like concepts
• Standard baseline for how concepts inter-relate
• Business focused
• Bridge between business and technical
• Canonical Model
• A common model for data interoperability, two
systems that refer to the concept of an Agreement but
name them differently (Contract versus Policy)
• Single source of data organization
• Needed for semantic integration

28. © ACORD 2011
• Information Model is
the common bridge
• Enables any-to-any
integration
• Single source of
meaning –
Information Model
The Semantic Hub Connects
Messages and Technology
Information
Model
Operational
Data Store
Data
Warehouse
Data Model
ACORD
P&C/Surety
Standards
ACORD
Life, Annuity &
Health Standards
ACORD
Reinsurance &
Large Commercial
Standards
COBOL
Java

29. © ACORD 2011
• Mapping each side to
the Information Model
• ESB transforms protocols,
messages
• Use the Information
Model as the central
source
ESB View – Semantic Integration
Information
Model

30. • Expressing mappings between
data interfaces in an industry
standard format – MDMI
Vocabulary
Information Model
Vocabulary
Data
Interface
A
Data
Interface
B
OMG MDMI Standard Format
MDMI
Designer
MDMI
Run-time
Important characteristics:
• Ease-of-use – map data
interfaces to a flat
vocabulary
• Portability – use any MDMI
run-time
Data
A
Data
B
MDMI Engine
MDMI View – Semantic Integration

31. © ACORD 2011
• Consistent process for standards generation and
maintenance regardless of:
– Type of standard (XML, eForm, etc)
– Domain (P&C/Surety, LAH, RLC)
– Line of business (Commercial, Personal, Life)
• Changes will be made to the model first, then
propagate out to the appropriate standards
With the Information Model, all
standards can be traceable back to
the models used to create them
Information
Model

32. © ACORD 2011
The Information Model
History & Future
Year Activity / Donation ACORD Publication
2008 Prima Solutions (ICBS model)
ACORD Working Group
ACORD v1.0, v1.x
2009 ACORD Information Model Book
IBM (IAA – BOM)
2010 ACORD (harmonization) v2.0 Beta (1-4)
2011 ACORD v2.0 (general release)
New Content / Donations ? v2.x
Standards Mappings
Information
Model

33. © ACORD 2011
Information
Model
The Information Model top level
concepts version 1.0

34. © ACORD 2011
Changes made to v1.x releases
•The Role concept extended to
include Physical Objects as
Role players (Accident Vehicle
on an Claim)
•PRS (Party Relationships) domain renamed to RRS (Role
and Relationships)
•Documentation cleanup
•Relationship concept extended to include relationships
between any roles, not just parties
•Attribute, multiplicity and directed associations
modified where needed (limited) Information
Model

35. © ACORD 2011
Compare: Contract v1.x
Contract
ContractElement
ContractCoverage
InsuredSubjectProfile
ContractInvestmentVehicle
ContractClause
Coverage SubjectMatter InvestmentVehicle
Agreement
IndividualContract GroupContract
Claim
Proposal
ContractFollowUp
Premium
ContractHeader

36. © ACORD 2011
Contrast: Agreement v2.x
Agreement
EmploymentAgreement
FinancialServicesAgreement ProducerAgreement
RiskAgreement
ProviderAgreement
AgreementComponent
AccountAgreement
CommutationAgreement FrontingAgreement
InsuranceAgreement
DerivativeAgreement
IndividualAgreement GroupAgreement
CoverageComponent
AgreementClauseComponent AgreementFeatureComponent
RoleComponent
PartyRoleInAgreement
AgreementRegistration
AgreementRequest
BusinessRelationship
AgreementDocument
Supervision
Green = New Content

37. © ACORD 2011
Information Model v2.0: Scope
Delivered in: HTML, XMI, and
MagicDraw native formats
Information
Model

38. © ACORD 2011
The Information Model v1.x and IBM
BOM Harmonization
•Both models provide significant
content
•Neither model is the “base” for the
AIM 2.0
•Concepts, patterns, designs and
overall organization strategies are
taken from both models
•In some cases, neither model is
used and newly formed patterns,
designs, concepts and
organization strategies are created

39. © ACORD 2011
The Information Model v1.x and IBM
BOM Harmonization (cont’d)
•Simple methodology created and
applied
•Criteria setup and applied to
design decisions made
•Regular review sessions conducted
with both Prima Solutions and IBM
•Detailed logs created to trace
decision points and impact analysis
on both original models

40. © ACORD 2011
Major design changes: v1.x and v2.0
•Terminology changes:
•“Domain” replaced by “Package”
•“Sub-domain” replaced by “Sub-
package”
•Management domains removed
•Management concepts combined into
appropriate subject areas
•Packages added:
•Activity, Assessment, Event, Registration
Information
Model

41. © ACORD 2011
•Top level classes added
•InformationModelObject
•Category
•Primitive data types are contained
within the project instead of importing
UML profiles to facilitate ease of XMI
export
•Naming & Design Rules (NDR)
•NDR created per XML NDR and
content revised for conformance
Major design changes: v1.x and v2.0
(cont’d)
Information
Model

42. © ACORD 2011
Some alignment points
AIM v2.0 AIM v1.2 BOM
Activity Business Activity
Management
Activity
Legal Action
Agreement Contract
Contract Management
Specification –
Product and
Agreement
Assessment Claim
Claim Management
Assessment and
Condition
Claim Claim
Claim Management
Claim
Category N/A Category
Common Elements Reference Common
Business Model
Object
Actuarial Statistics
and Index

43. © ACORD 2011
Some alignment points (cont’d)
AIM v2.0 AIM v1.2 BOM
Contact and Place Contact Contact Point and
Preferences
Place
Document and
Communication
Document Management Standard Text and
Communication
Event Business Activity
Management
Event
Finance Finance
Financial Management
Account and Fund
Financial
Transactions
Money Provision
Investment Investment
Investment Management
Goal and Need
Marketing Marketing Activity
Goal and Need

44. © ACORD 2011
Some alignment points (cont’d)
AIM v2.0 AIM v1.2 BOM
Party Party
Party Management
Organization Management
Party
Physical Object Object Management Physical Object
Product Specification Product Specification –
Product and
Agreement
Registration N/A Registration
Role and Relationship Role and Relationship N/A

45. © ACORD 2011
Party

46. © ACORD 2011
Use
Cases

47. © ACORD 2011
The Information Model
History & Future
Year Activity / Donation ACORD Publication
2008 Prima Solutions (ICBS model)
ACORD Working Group
ACORD v1.0, v1.x
2009 ACORD Information Model Book
IBM (IAA – BOM)
2010 ACORD (harmonization) v2.0 Beta (1-4)
2011 ACORD v2.0 (general release)
New Content / Donations ? v2.x
Standards Mappings
Information
Model

48. © ACORD 2011
Questions?

49. © ACORD 2011
Data
Model
The Data Model makes
the abstract more tangible
•Turns concepts from Information Model into
format that can be used for persistence
design
•Logical level persistence model
•Can be used in any
database implementation
•Doesn’t consider data optimization
techniques
•Persistence = Storage

50. © ACORD 2011
Data
Model
The Data Model has many uses
•Help create a physical data
model for databases
•Provide a baseline for data
warehouses
•Validate your data model

51. © ACORD 2011
Guiding Principles
• Keep the content the same as the Information
Model – traceability
• No design or optimization decisions on behalf of
users
• Use a data modeling tool instead of just UML
• Information and Data Models are always
synchronized
• Not designed for specific relational database
software applications
Data
Model

52. © ACORD 2011
Data
Model
Data and Information Model
Differences
• Same content, different formats:
– Information Model – Unified Modeling Language
(UML)
– Data Model – IBM InfoSphere Data Architect,
Computer Associates ERwin
• Different naming conventions
• Added keys (big) to Data Model
• Discriminators added to resolve inheritance
structures
• Associative classes added to resolve M:M
relationships

53. © ACORD 2011
Same Content, Different Format
Data
Model

54. © ACORD 2011
Same Content, Different Format
Data
Model

55. © ACORD 2011
Naming
Conventions
Discriminator
Primary Key
Foreign Key
Data
Model
Same Content, Different Format

56. © ACORD 2011
A “Key” Issue…
• UML is more free form than a data model
• Keys are a big reason why
• The model had several “key collisions” between
inherited primary keys and related foreign keys with
the same name
• We needed a way to handle this
Data
Model

57. © ACORD 2011
Inherited
Primary
Key
Inherited
Primary
Key
Children
Foreign
Keys
An Example
Data
Model

58. © ACORD 2011
The Data Model - Status
Year Activity ACORD Publication
2009 Publication v1.0 (Nov.)
2010 Publication v1.2 (April)
2010 Publication v1.3 (July)
2010 Begin construction v2.0 based on
v2.0 of Information Model
v2.0 (July)
2011 Continue construction v2.0
based on v2.0 of Information
Model
v2.0
Re-start Data Model Working
Group for input and validation
Data
Model
HTML and Erwin formats available

59. © ACORD 2011
Questions?

60. © ACORD 2011
Service
Maps
Component
Model
The Component Model
provides the building
blocks for your solutions
• Components
• Service Maps
• Reusable for various
insurance data
transactions

61. © ACORD 2011
Components in the Model
are formally defined
•Provide a set of
related services
•Can stand alone
or be mixed
and matched
Service
Maps
Component
Model

62. © ACORD 2011
Components in the
Model have well-
defined interfaces
•Data is controlled by
the component, not the
applications that use it
•Interface is separate from
implementation logic
Service
Maps
Component
Model

63. © ACORD 2011
Examples of components
and their services via SOA
Service
Maps
Component
Model
Component Service
Party Manages persons, organizations, and the roles they play
Contact Manages contact points: addresses, telephone, etc.
Product/Agreement Manages policy and coverage options and the policies
which we write
Physical Object Manages information about things: vehicles, houses, etc.
Claim Manages the claim process and its applicable data
Underwriting Manages the underwriting process and its applicable data

64. © ACORD 2011
Component Model : Create systems
using different component
combinations implementing common
interfaces and service definitions
=
Claim System
(Built or Bought)

65. © ACORD 2011
A standardized Component Model
creates a true plug and play environment
Customer Portal
Internal System
Agency System
Claims
Policy
Administration
Billing
CRM

66. © ACORD 2011
Facets of the
ACORD Framework
What insurance
companies do
Common interfaces and
services definitions for
insurance systems
Glossary of terms used
by all other facets of the
Framework
Logical persistence
model based on the
Information Model
The relationships
among insurance
concepts

67. © ACORD 2011
Using Framework
facets depends on
what you are trying
to achieve
•Framework is not
“all or nothing”
•Facets can be used
individually or not at all
•ACORD will use the
Framework to better serve
members and industry

68. © ACORD 2011
ACORD Framework: Status Overview
Year-Month Framework Facet Release
2008 Dictionary v1.0
2007 Capability Model v1.0
2009-11 Capability Model v2.0
2011 Capability Model (new content donation) v2.1
2009-09 Information Model v1.0
2010-04 Information Model v1.2
2011-05 Information Model v2.0
2011 - 2012 Information Model - Standards Mappings
(incremental releases)
v2.x
2009-11 Data Model v1.0
2010-04 Data Model v1.2
2010-07 Data Model v1.3
2011 Data Model - initial development v2.0
2011 Component Model - initial development v1.0

69. © ACORD 2011
Questions?

70. © ACORD 2011
Framework Resources
Shane McCullough
Chief Enterprise Architect, ACORD
Email: smccullough@acord.org • Phone: +1 (845) 535-6482
Mark Orlandi
Senior Business Analyst, ACORD
Email: morlandi@acord.org • Phone: +1 (845) 535-6478
Cliff Chaney
Senior Architect, ACORD
Email: cchaney@acord.org • Phone: +1 (845) 535-6468
Support: framework@acord.org

71. © ACORD 2011
Two Blue Hill Plaza
3rd Floor
Pearl River, NY 10965
USA
+1 845 620 1700
London Underwriting Centre
Suite 1/3
3 Minster Court
Mincing Lane
London EC3R 7DD
United Kingdom
+44 (0)20 7617 6400