A Lesson in Perseverance: Automation & Technology Committee Leading Effort to Standardize Producer Process Forms for the Benefit of All 

Are you tired of learning the intricacies of ten, twenty, or even thirty different surety bond management systems? Does duplicative data entry make you angry? Do you worry that you will make input errors or omissions when you manually transfer data among systems? Do you ask yourself why things can’t be simpler and more adapted to the user needs of bonding agencies? I can assure you that you are not alone in asking these sorts of questions. In fact, the members of the NASBP Automation & Technology Committee have been asking these same questions for years. They have embarked on various paths, fruitful and unfruitful, in an attempt to seek answers. To say that this has been a frustrating process is to utter a decided understatement. Perhaps a better turn of phrase for their persistent effort is to borrow a statement from Winston Churchill: “If you are going through hell, keep going.” It is no surprise that such trying circumstances serve often as the best engines for significant change. And, after many years of false starts, change appears possible.

You may be familiar with the Bid Bond Request Form in the NASBP Producer Toolkit. This document has served as the “guinea pig” for the start of a joint effort between NASBP and the Association for Cooperative Operations Research and Development (ACORD), a prominent standards making organization for the insurance industry, to create ACORD forms for the data collection processes routinely undertaken in bonding agencies. Currently ACORD does not publish such forms, so the existing NASBP Toolkit forms, such as the Contractor Questionnaire, the Contract Bond Request Form, and the Work-in-Progress Form, among 10 other forms, will serve as the blueprints for the ACORD equivalents.

The idea behind this effort is that a complement of ACORD forms for surety bond producer work flow processes will standardize such processes, make them more efficient, and help ease data transference. The ACORD equivalents also will employ ACORD forms technology, known as eForm. An eForm is an electronic fillable ACORD form that is capable of collecting data, which can be extracted for re-use, including to populate other forms. Say goodbye to duplicative data entry! The eForm can allow one-time input of data, which then can be transferred to other forms and systems. Imagine straight-through processing!

The vision is clear, but creating the path to achieve that vision will take the sweat equity of many dedicated volunteers. Hopefully, you have received and are considering the message from the NASBP Automation & Technology Committee asking for volunteers to serve on a working group that will datamap and refine the NASBP Producer Toolkit forms for use as ACORD eForms. See related article in this issue. The first working group meeting is slated to occur this November, setting the groundwork for this critical joint initiative. That meeting has come into being as a result of great perseverance on the part of the Automation & Technology Committee, its Chair, Nick Newton, and its staff liaison, Dave Golden. Getting to the tipping point can be a slow and arduous process, but, as Confucius is credited with saying, “It does not matter how slowly you go as long as you do not stop.”

Think seriously about having a representative of your firm join the effort. Read the article in this issue that describes how you can get involved. Your participation will fuel the progress in standardizing processes and facilitating data transference. You will be part of something that is extraordinary, perhaps revolutionary, for your industry. What could be more satisfying or important than that!