MINUTES OF IRIS USER GROUP MEETING



Minutes of IRIS User Group Meeting

Held at Leadenhall Street

21 August 2006

|List of Attendees | | |

|Axis |(AXS) |Ian Holland (IH) |

|Axis |AXS) |Stuart Worsley (SWO) |

|Ecclesiastical |(ECL) |Tracy Murden (TM) |

|Everest |(EVR) |Graham Titheridge (GT) (Acting Chair) |

|Great Lakes |(GLR) |Graeme Walker (GW) |

|Illium |(ILL) |Colin Rogers (CR) |

|Liberty Mutual |(LIM) |Richard Fallon (RF) |

|Liberty Mutual |(LIM) |Richard Moonie (RM) |

|Momentum |(MOM) |Mark Edwards (ME) |

|Novae Syndicates |(SVB) |Nigel Sheppard (NS) |

|QBE |(QBE) |Gina Dudeney (GD) |

|QBE |(QBE) |John Taylor (JT) |

|St Paul |(SPSS) |Michelle Hoey (MHO) |

|Also in Attendance | | |

|Global Insurance Solutions |(XGIS) |Alan Chisham (AC) |

| | |Daryl Yeats (DY) |

| | |Mike Hicks (MH) |

| | |Sharon White (SW) (Minutes) |

|Apologies | | |

|Co-op |(CIS) |Debra Ifill |

|Co-op |(CIS) |Wendy Conway |

|Great Lakes |(GLR) |Emma Cooper |

|HIH |(HIH) |John Mairs |

|IGI |(IGI) |Ban Pahlawan |

|IGI |(IGI) |Rachel Butler |

|IGI |(IGI) |Waleed Jabsheh |

|Liberty Mutual |(LIM) |David Westgate |

|Liberty Syndicates |(LSM) |Kim Groothius |

|Liberty Syndicates |(LSM) |Stuart Cleverley |

|Novae Syndicates |(SVB) |Clive Murray |

|QBE |(QBE) |Nick Flaherty |

|River Thames |(RTI) |David Grisley |

|St Paul |(SPSS) |Andy Holman |

|Tokio Marine |(TOK) |Keith Maruyama |

|Tokio Marine |(TOK) |Steve Perkins |

|XL Bermuda |(XLB) |Madeleine DeSilva |

|XL Bermuda |(XLB) |Robert Gillies |

|XL London |(XLL) |Peter Sammons |

|XL Singapore |(XLS) |Caroline Wee |

General

DY welcomed everyone to the meeting and advised that Graham Titheridge had kindly agreed to act as Chair today. DY introduced Colin Rogers of Illium and Michelle Hoey of St Pauls, DY explained that this was the first time that Colin and Michelle had attended as IUG representatives for their respective companies.

DY said that she would also like to introduce Mike Hicks of Xchanging who would be presenting the recommendations for 2007 development program.

1. Previous Minutes

060307.001 DY & 060307.002 DY – IRIS Road Map

A road map presentation had taken place to which IUG members had been invited. MH had attended/presented this presentation.

060307.003 DY – IRIS Work Shops

DY has arranged two work shops on 7 and 14 September to which IUG members have been invited.

063006.004 DY – Line Slip Functionality/QBE

DY confirmed that the QBE account manager (Peter Aucamp) has met with QBE and explained the line slip functionality.

There were no further actions and the previous minutes were agreed as complete.

2. Treasurer’s Report

|Abacus |May and June 2006 Outstanding |

|Axis |Up to date. The May payment has been paid into the Xchanging general account in error. We |

| |are arranging for these funds to be transferred. |

|Co-op |Up to date |

|Ecclesiastical |Up to date |

|Everest |Up to date |

|Great Lakes |Up to date |

|Rosemont |Rosemont were missing their January payment as the invoice had been mislaid. This payment |

| |has now been received. |

|HIH |Up to date – several payments have been paid into the Xchanging general account in error and|

| |we are arranging for these funds to be transferred. |

|IGI |Up to date |

|Illium |Up to date |

|Liberty Mutual |Up to date |

|Limit |Up to date |

|Liberty Syndicates |Up to date. July and August have been paid into the Xchanging general account in error and |

| |we are arranging for these funds to be transferred. |

|XL London |Up to date |

|XL Singapore |Up to date. The February payment has been paid into the Xchanging general account in error.|

| |We are arranging for the funds to be transferred. |

|XL Bermuda |Up to date |

|Momentum |June outstanding |

|QBE |Up to date |

|River Thames |Missing payments for September, October, November 2005. June 2006 outstanding. |

| | |

| |The May payment has been paid into the Xchanging general account in error and we are |

| |arranging for these funds to be transferred. |

|S R Bishop |June outstanding |

|St Paul |Up to date |

|Novae |Up to date |

|Tokio Marine |June payment outstanding |

|Xchanging |Missing payments November 2005 and April 2006. |

3. Development

3.1 2007 Development Program – Presentation by Mike Hicks

MH said that he had been asked to write a paper proposing how IRIS could move forward recommending future developments to the IUG. MH said that the paper had recently been issued to the IUG which fully detailed each of the following recommendations. MH said that he would go through each of these so that members could decide which were of interest to them.

MH asked if any IUG members had attended the recent Town Hall meetings held at Xchanging? IH, NS, GT and RF said that they had attended.

GT said that he had been somewhat disappointed with the Town Hall meetings as they seemed to be more geared towards brokers.

10 Recommended Development Items

1. De-Linked messages for companies

2. Provide a link to the web based MWL

3. An implementation study to examine Acord messaging with specific reference to the various ongoing market initiatives

4. A Web / Microsoft .net version of policy input

5. Document production

6. SharePoint integration

7. Authority levels

8. Earned premium reporting

9. FSA coding structure

10. Flexible business extensions

MH went through each of the items in detail. Members’ comments/questions are detailed below:

De-Linked Messages for Companies

GD said that QBE had been taking manual de-linked messages from January 2004 so would be in favour of this recommendation.

SWO asked whether this item was a medium sized project? MH said that he believed it was.

TM asked whether this item would be in the next release of IRIS? AC said that it depended on the votes received. However, if members were in favor of this item, it might be best to delay the next release so that this item could be included.

Provide a link to the web based MWL

CR commented that he thought that contract certainty meant confirmation of cover within thirty days and not a signing within thirty days. TM said that she also understood this to be a compliance with signed lines.

MH said that he was giving a view of items as he understood them and that individual companies would need to decide what was relevant to them. MH said it was best for the individuals to approach their Xchanging CRM for guidance. MH said that a lot of useful information is held on the Market Reform Group’s web site.

An implementation study to examine Acord messaging with specific reference to the various ongoing market initiatives

Accounting and Settlement – Step One

IH said that at today’s Town Hall meeting this had been broken down into three separate items – operational, strategic and tactical.

Accounting and Settlement – Step Two

Acord message are not mandatory for step two. GD asked what would be the benefit of voting for this item? MH said that this is something for 2007 and that there were a lot of things happening during September to November 2006. DY said that the idea was to be in a position so that Xchanging were ready to start any items as soon as Xchanging knew what was needed.

A Web / Microsoft .net version of policy input

GT said that he thought moving from VB to .net was more of a strategic development and that he would like more investment from Xchanging on this item. GT asked how many support years were left for VB?

AC said that Microsoft stopped mainstream support of VB6 on 31 March 2005 and that extended support is due to end on 8 April 2008.

For member’s reference the following table is taken from the Microsoft web site and shows the difference between mainstream support, extended support, and online self-help support:

|Support provided |Mainstream support |Extended support phase |

| |phase | |

|Paid support (per-incident, per hour, and |X |X |

|others) | | |

|Security update support |X |X |

|Non-security hotfix support |X |Requires extended hotfix agreement, |

| | |purchased within 90 days of mainstream |

| | |support ending. |

|No-charge incident support |X | |

|Warranty claims |X | |

|Design changes and feature requests |X | |

|Product-specific information that is available |X |X |

|by using the online Microsoft Knowledge Base | | |

|Product-specific information that is available |X |X |

|by using the Support site at Microsoft Help and| | |

|Support to find answers to technical questions | | |

GT said that he believed that other developments were more important. TM said that she agreed.

RF said that he would want to know what the benefits of moving to .net were. MH said that it would have lots of benefits e.g. workflow, interoperability with other Microsoft products and web browsing. The IUG asked that MH provide details of the benefits of moving to .net.

ACTION 060821.001 MH

IH said that he agreed with RF and GT. IH said that the items that should be concentrated on are those that are important to the IUG now. IH said that that new platform is not crucial as IRIS is pretty robust.

GT asked if .net was now the default for all new development items? AC said not categorically and that consideration would be given to the best way to carry out the development by the most cost effective means. DY said that some modules are not developed in VB so new items are better developed in .net and this often results in savings over VB development methods.

DY said that where there is an opportunity to choose which format items are developed in then they would be developed as .net. DY said that by doing so this would open a door for the future development of IRIS.

IH said that he thought it was the right thing to bring this to the IUG’s attention so that they had the facts now. SWO asked what would happen if this was delayed too long, would .net get out of date? AC said that this is being monitored.

NS asked about the Xchanging contribution in this area? DY said that continual background research work is carried out and Xchanging funds this work.

IH said that he thought the paper was good and that it gave the IUG something to work on and asked that it was kept up to date and presented to the IUG on a regular basis.

ACTION 060821.002 MH

FSA Coding Structure

IH mentioned that there are some FSA codes in the bureau messages that are not currently downloaded by IRIS into IRIS closings.

GT said that EVR would be interested in this functionality.

Share Point Integration

MH said that it is important that IRIS users have a document management system. MH said that many members would already have their own document management system but for those that do not, Share Point would be a cost effective solution.

Document Production, Authority Levels, Earned Premium Reporting, Flexible Business Extensions

MH went through and explained each of these enhancements and these were noted by the IUG members.

Next Steps

DY asked the IUG how they would like to progress? AC said that there were enough funds available in the 2006 budget to start on the requirement for the de-linking item.

DY asked the members if they would like to vote on whether they were in favor of a requirement document and estimate being carried out for the de-linking item. Out of the ten IUG companies present at the meeting six voted in favor of this item (MOM, ECL, AXS, QBE, LIB, and EVR). The remaining four IUG companies did not vote.

IH asked when would the specification for de-linking be made available? AC said that in terms of development he would like to issue the specification before the end of the year. AC said that he would have to look into the availability of a business analyst to work on this and that he would get back to the IUG shortly.

ACTION 060821.003 AC

IH asked if de-linking would be in the next release of IRIS? AC said that the item will definitely be in the next version of IRIS, but that the release date might change from April in order to include the de-linking.

DY asked if the IUG would like the rest of the items to be placed on the voting list. The IUG voted in favor of this.

IH asked whether it would be possible for MH to consider the various views given at today’s meeting and amend the document accordingly.

ACTION 060821.004 MH

IH said that he thought some more information on .net would be particularly beneficial as few members are familiar with this area. MH confirmed that he would do this.

ACTION 060821.005 MH

CR asked if DY could explain the cost structure for development items? DY briefly explained the process and advised that full details are shown in the IUG Constitution document and that she would provide CR with a copy of this.

ACTION 060821.006 DY

3.2 2006 Developments

|Policy/Claim Review Diary (310) |Core |10.16 |Specification |

|Printable Sys Admin Info (638) |Core |10.16 |Complete |

|Policy Full & Snapshot Prints (649) |Core |10.16 |Testing |

|Screen Design Utility (595) |Core |10.16 |With IUG |

|Full Policy History Enquiry (599) |Core |10.16 |Specification |

|GUI CBA Report (737) |Core |10.16 |Testing |

|Multi-Company/Synd Security (505) |Core |10.16 |Testing |

|Progression Triangle Enq (419) |Core |10.16 |Specification |

|Bx Message Loading (609) |Bureau |10.16 |Specification |

|Ccy Download from Bx (561) |Bureau |10.16 |Specification |

|View All Lloyd's Prm/Clm Info (504) |Lloyds |10.16 |Testing |

|Lloyds month end processing (502) |Lloyds |10.16 |Cancelled |

|Moving Posted SCMs |Lloyds |10.16 |With IUG |

|EPI Analysis Report (741) |Council |10.16 |Specification |

|Claims Analysis Report (749) |Council |10.16 |Coding |

|Progression Stats Report (748) |Council |10.16 |Specification |

AC outlined each of the items and said that he would like to discuss the screen design utility.

AC advised that the original development estimate for this item was 68 days and the revised estimated following analysis and the production of this specification is 168 days.

AC advised that this item was discussed at the last IUG Council meeting and it was decided that since this item was voted highly on the IUG voting list (coming in as the joint second item on the list) that a decision on whether it should proceed would be made at today’s IUG meeting.

AC said that the enhancement was voted for by the following companies:

Abacus – 5, Co-Op – 1, Everest – 5, Great Lakes – 5, IGI – 3, Limit – 5, Momentum – 5, QBE – 5, St Paul’s – 3, Novae (SVB) – 5.

AC said that he believed that this item would be particularly beneficial to the IUG as members often make requests for changes to their screens for which they are currently charged. This would enable the members to make the changes themselves thereby saving time and costs.

CR asked if this development included fields on all screens? AC said that it included access to all fields in the edit layer. CR asked which budget would be used. AC said it would be the core budget.

JT said that he thought this item would be beneficial as he receives many requests for screen changes.

DY asked the members if they would like to vote on this item? Out of the ten IUG companies present, six voted in favor of this item (QBE, MOM, ILL, GLR, LIB and SPSS). The remaining four IUG companies did not vote.

NS said that he would like to abstain from the vote. NS said that he did not have a problem in going along with the other members’ wishes but that he felt a lot of specifications for the 2006 budget were not yet complete.

AC said that most of the specifications were ready and were due to be issued during the first week of October. IH asked whether they would be within the core budget available? AC said that the remaining items should fit within the core budget.

AC said that he would get the developers to provide rough estimates; he would then advise the IUG. AC said that he could provide these provisional figures by the end of the week.

ACTION 060821.007 AC

CR asked what the procedure was for discussing items that run over budget? DY said that this would be advised by email, as is the usual procedure.

4. Support

Service Notifications

AC advised that the SNs were now down to approximately 60 outstanding and that it was hoped to bring this to approximately 50 in the future.

Customer Installations

|Company |Test |Live |Bureau |

|Abacus |8.14-009 |7.13-002 |LDEX |

|Axis |7.13-004 |7.13-004 |FTP GUI |

|Axis, Atlanta |7.13-004 |7.13-004 |N/A |

|Castlewood (RTI) |6.12-IGS |6.12-IGS |FTP GS |

|CIS |7.13-002 |5.11-003 |N/A |

|Ecclesiastical Underwriting Management, London |7.13-006 |7.13-006 |FTP GUI |

|Ecclesiastical Insurance Group, Gloucester |7.13-006 |7.13-006 |N/A |

|Everest Reinsurance Ltd, London |7.13-006 |7.13-006 |FTP GUI |

|Great Lakes Reinsurance (UK) Plc |7.13-010 |7.13-010 |FTP GUI |

|HIH |6.12 IGS |6.12 IGS |FTP GS |

|Illium |8.14-010 |8.14-008 |N/A |

|International General Insurance (IGI) |7.13-001 |7.13-001 |N/A |

|Liberty Mutual Insurance Co (UK) Ltd |7.13-006 |7.13-006 |FTP GUI |

|Liberty Syndicates Management Ltd |7.13-003 |7.13-003 |LDEX |

|Limit Underwriting Ltd |8.14-001LIM |8.14-001LIM  |LDEX |

|Momentum |7.13-010 |7.13-010 |FTP GUI |

|Novae Syndicates Ltd |8.14 |7.13-001 |LDEX |

|QBE |8.14-PTF-005 |7.13-ENH-010 |FTP GUI |

|St Paul |8.14-SPS-007 |8.14-SPS-007 |FTP GUI |

|Tokio Marine Global Ltd, London |7.13-008 |7.13-008 |FTP GUI |

|Tokio Marine Global Re Ltd, Malaysia |6.12-002 |6.12-002 |N/A |

|XL Re, London |7.13-009 |7.13-006 |FTP GUI |

|XL Re, Bermuda |7.13-MOB |7.13-MOB |N/A |

|XL Re, Singapore |7.13-MOB |7.13-MOB |N/A |

IRIS 9.15 Release

IRIS 9.15 was released on Monday 10th April and included the following enhancements

|300068520 |Add Extra Pol Info to Further Details-IUG |

|300068590 |Trigger Enquiries from Fields-IUG |

|300069170 |Trial Balance Report-IUG |

|300070043 |Stored Bx Signed %-IUG |

|300070420 |Bureau USM Process RI Pending – LMT |

|300000433 |Bureau Download via FTP |

|300024070 |TRIA Processing |

|300036449 |Attaching RI As Info Only-MOB |

|300046897 |Prevent Reverse All for Policy Option-QBE |

|300048754 |Soft Deleting of Codes-IUG |

|300054642 |FAC and LSLIP Locations Screen-QBE |

|300057771 |Interface to Xchanging Repository-TMG |

|300062178 |-Policy Number Generation-IUG |

|300062867 |Business Customisation of Closings Input-IUG |

|300068513 |IRIS Install & Upgrades-IUG |

|300071814 |Facultative XL Processing Addendum-LMT |

|300073646 |Lineslips in History Enquiry-LMT |

|300074092 |100% Figs in Claim Summary Enq-IUG |

|300082425 |MID Interface-ILL |

|300082430 |Claims Bus Ext-ILL |

|300062870 |Policy Unlocking-IUG |

|300063039 |Block Claim-STP |

|300066359 |BxClms Enq should excl Incomplete Msg-IUG |

|300066901 |Closings Reversal-IUG |

|300067243 |IPT-IUG |

|300067719 |Auto generation of Dec Number-QBE |

|300067791 |Zero Adjustment Premiums-QBE |

|300068104 |Perils Zones Additional Amounts-QBE |

|300068510 |Enquiries Designer-IUG –Beta |

|300068515 |Link to LPC CLASS System-IUG |

9.15 Testing

GT said that EVR had recently attended Xchanging offices in order to carry out testing on IRIS 9.15 using their own data. GT said that the testing had gone very well. GT said that they had raised approximately 20 items and the majority of these had been fixed with only approximately three items outstanding. GT said that he would recommend other members carry out similar testing as they may use the system in a different manner to EVR.

SWO asked what was involved in carrying out the testing? AC said that Xchanging set everything up using the member’s own company data. The members just need to provide their time to come into the office and carry out the testing.

GT asked if any other members were planning to carry out testing? RF said that he would like to do this during September, but he needed to run it pass his underwriting department first.

Version 8/9

JT asked why it was currently recommended to move straight to version 9 and bypass version 8? AC said that several enhancements had been added to 8.14 since the original testing had been carried out (mainly for Novae, Limit and Illium). AC said that it was therefore recommended that unless client particularly require these enhancements that they should move straight to 9.15.

5. Future Meetings

7th September & 14th September 9.15 Workshops

15th September 2007 Development Suggestions to Xchanging

25th September Development Voting List Sent to IUG

20th October Votes Returned to Xchanging

25th October Votes Collated and Available to IUG.

October TBA Council and IUG meeting to Review Voting Lists and Determine 2007 Budget

6. Any Other Business

Acord Messaging Implementation Study

DY said that she would be keen for Xchanging to look at starting an Acord messaging implementation study if there was sufficient budget and asked the IUG what their views would be?

GW asked what would happen to the funds if they were not used for this item? DY said that they would be rolled over to the next year.

GT asked if DY thought there was sufficient information available to start this item? DY confirmed that it was.

IH said that if DY thought the time was right to carry out the study then he would be in agreement. The other members also agreed with this proposal.

GW asked how progress would be advised to the IUG? DY said it would either be in the form of emails or a presentation at the IUG meeting.

Cross Company Security

IH asked how the cross company security item was progressing and whether it was widely used? AC said that it was currently in peer testing.

................
................

In order to avoid copyright disputes, this page is only a partial summary.

Google Online Preview   Download