The Toronto Insurance Council (TIC) revealed a new initiative during an event earlier this month, which demonstrates the viability of real-time integration between insurer technology platforms and broker management system (BMS) platforms.

Dubbed “The D/X Initiative”, the proof-of concept  (POC) is specifically focused on a first notice of loss based on the nationally-endorsed IBAC digital exchange (D/X) principles, said The D/X Initiative Chair, Brenda Rose. “It uses established CSIO data standards without any ‘middleware’ or data translation layer.”

The event had 78 attendees representing a cross-section of brokers, insurers, managing general agents, BMS and technology companies.

“For a summer event, the attendance was great,” said TIC president, Rael Levy. “This is a testament to the level of interest and excitement there is in the industry around solving the problem of data integration.”

According to the council, the POC demonstrated benefits including:

1. The elimination of duplicate manual entry of data — saving time, resources and avoiding potential errors
2. Real-time sharing of data to reduce lag in communication between all parties in the ecosystem
3. Enhanced consumer experience through the ability to provide real-time information in a range of flexible formats
4. Avoidance of “middleware” — intermediate translators or data translation layers — that can add cost and complexity to data transfer

“This project is a great example of how the industry can work cooperatively to solve a problem,” said TIC and IBAC Technology Committee chair, Michael Loeters. “We further introduced the concept of building re-usable data services, which are communication blocks that will be compliant with CSIO standards, and which could be shared through an industry repository. The collaboration and work done on this project demonstrates that implementing D/X can be done today.”