Integration: The Answer to Answering Customers

To quote Veruca Salt in 1971's “Willie Wonka and the Chocolate Factory,” "I want it NOW!" Customers want answers, and they want them immediately. "Now" may be the key word for the 21st century.

An essential element of any corporate mission is to ensure customers are kept happy and remain loyal. Those customers demand clear, accurate and rapid responses, and if you can't supply the information when they want it, your competitor will. That is why, more than ever before, your systems must be integrated and communicate to meet customer expectations.

We are a tech-savvy society, spoiled by the immediacy of information on the Internet. You can do an online search and find everything from the name of Atlas' mother in mythology to the GDP of Zimbabwe in under a second. But can customers get that fast and accurate a response from you?

In TowerGroup's 2005 Report, “US Life & Annuity 2005 IT Spending,” one of its five key business objectives to drive shareholder value is: "Customer Service: Cost-effectively enhance services and delivery channels." In keeping with that objective, each company must work towards satisfying customer needs or face losses of customers and revenue.

The best way to meet customer expectations is to ensure your data is available, accurate and integrated. And that doesn't mean just with external partners. Your in-house systems must communicate as well. The key to all this increased and improved communication is the use of standards.

ACORD's (Pearl River, N.Y.) members have shown that they can increase customer satisfaction using standards by improving data flow, establishing Web services and creating STP processes. Based on ACORD OARS (Online Adoption and Reporting Survey) data and case studies, they continue to demonstrate to the industry what can be achieved through the implementation of ACORD standards.

This is even more essential as companies cross lines of business, hoping to cover customers for everything from life and long-term care to boats and homes. The ability to integrate systems via standards internally while exchanging data with partners externally using those same standards enables you to have all the relevant information at your fingertips. No customer wants to talk to six people to discuss six policies.

Bear in mind that answers not only need to be fast, they need to be right. Through system integration and the use of ACORD standards, not only does the data flow, it flows with improved accuracy and quality. The age-old problems of rekeying and human error are eliminated. In fact, ACORD standards were termed an "accelerator" by Unisys, which also stated in its report, “Transformation Through ACORD Standards,” that "ACORD data standards can help create clarity, provide coherence, and promote reusability across the enterprise."

Not long ago, it amazed many of us who work with standards on a daily basis that there was a general misconception that standards were only for external communication. Fortunately, that has changed. In a recent survey of ACORD's top 25 members in each domain, 54 percent said they use ACORD standards for both internal and external implementation. It shows that industry leaders get it and are using ACORD standards in every applicable communication situation.

Customer demands are not going to subside. In fact, they likely will increase. So it is up to each company to maintain a competitive advantage and ensure that they can service their customers quickly and accurately. Through the implementation of ACORD standards for internal and external integration, your systems, both old and new, can communicate with each other so you can communicate with your customers.

Yes, customers want it now. But now you can provide that rapid response once internal and external, new and legacy systems are integrated using ACORD standards, allowing the data to flow rapidly, freely, consistently and accurately.