Acord, the industry data standards body, has announced plans to simplify the process of connecting trading partners that use Acord Standards by enhancing the capabilities of its Test Harness.

The enhanced testing process will involve expanding the number of scenarios available in the testing environment, and will make it easier to connect businesses using Acord Standards for the first time, or for those upgrading to newer versions.

The existing model for Acord’s peer to peer acceptance testing requires all parties to run a series of tests bilaterally for every upgrade, but the new process will mean brokers and carriers can complete those scenarios just once, instead of having to repeat the exercise for every electronic partner.

Acord worked with the Ruschlikon community to develop a number of its test scenarios, so that they can be run against the Test Harness with enhanced capabilities.

Chris Newman, managing director of Acord in London said: “More and more insurance businesses are realising the benefits of adopting ACORD Data Standards, generating efficiencies and reducing friction at every stage of the insurance value chain, from quoting, binding, issuing of policies right through to claims handling and payments.

“But the process of connecting with a large number of trading partners across the re/insurance community, especially when upgrading to new standards, can be complex and time-consuming.”

“We want to do everything we can to make that easier for them, and the improved testing environment will significantly lower the cost and effort required,”

Simon Squires, senior operations lead UK & Ireland; international & premium collections at XL Catlin and chair of the Ruschlikon Steering Group, said: “The Ruschlikon initiative has a large community of more than 50 members and, as it continues to increase in size, the volume of tests required also increases exponentially.

“Up to now, every time we needed to run a test we had to repeat it with every one of our electronic partners, which required a significant allocation of resources. With the new additions we will be able to complete those scenarios just once rather than multiple times, making it cheaper, easier and more efficient for everyone involved.”