RECYCLING DATA SEMCI VITAL
IN A CONNECTED WORLD

"The payback is time and dollars saved through not rekeying data,
with the attendant potential for error."

Recycling, once of concern only to the environmentally conscious, has become commonplace in the 1990s. Here at ACORD, and probably in your office, there are bright blue plastic containers scattered around the office for the collection of recyclable paper. At home, I tote bundles of newspapers, cans, bottles, and plastic items out to the curb for collection by the town each week. And I don't mind the extra effort because the revenue generated by selling these recyclables keeps my local taxes down.

In the technology arena, you could define SEMCI as recycling keystrokes. If the data is already in a computer, you want to share or transfer it. You do not want to enter it again, ever, regardless of the number of companies or software applications that use it. The payback is time and dollars saved through not rekeying data, with the attendant potential for error.

For independent agencies, SEMCI means entering insured application information once into the agency management systems for automatic transfer to insurers. Single entry also means the entry of data one time for use in different insurer applications. Integrating data among underwriting, claims, billing, policy issuance, risk management and reinsurance systems is equally important. Data can be shared (transferred) to litigation/defense counsel assignment systems, property damage appraisal assignments, replacement rental systems, stolen vehicle tracking systems, rehabilitation assignment systems, and so on.

Perhaps the confusion about SEMCI comes from defining single entry in terms of the technology used to achieve it. We get snarled in discussions about real-time processing versus batch-store-forward processing. We also talk about the duplication of data at various locations when perhaps it can be shared from a single location. All valid, but the basic and simple fact is that we all want to avoid doing work twice.

When Jim Cutro of APT says that SEMCI is not about technology but, rather, is all about workflow he's right. As a result of industry standards, vendors are able to move information from place to place today with a lot less trouble than a few years ago. The point is not only to move information through a seamless pipeline, but to eliminate the need to re-enter information at different points along the way.

Although it is a long-term, frustrating, and often elusive goal, a world where all computers are connected makes SEMCI even more important. Whether it's the big computer that you drive (your car), a plethora of common household appliances, or the networks that allow you to run a business, the key is that they must all be interoperable (that is, share information) in some way.

In the past, all software was independently created to be either self-contained or useful within a family of related products. Developers spent their time adding code and complexity rather than thinking about how these products would be used in the real world. And we can see the result of the creation of these systems all around us, in every industry as we fix, patch, and connect all these islands of computing. If you need to get an x-ray or medical information from one place to another, the best advice would be to use your car.

I talked to several people who manage other standards-setting organizations for various industries. They agree that there will never be consensus on hardware platforms, operating systems, network protocols, or software applications. And since the world agrees that it will continue to disagree, interoperability is our best bet for mutual survival in a very real sense.

ACORD's development of object-oriented tools for ACORD Forms and EDI Standards is an important piece of the puzzle. Objects are scaleable (they work in PCs as well as in mainframes), re-useable, and extensible (they can be expanded or extended by anybody for any purpose). Not only will objects allow us to share information, they will enable us to update the software that we use, automatically with minimal or no programmer intervention.

In this complex world of millions of connected computers, SEMCI (or any other moniker you choose) is vital. *