STP - what does it mean?
Posted by Carl Phillips | Market Development on Monday 13 December 2010, 12:00AM Share
There was a lot of press coverage originating from the Insurance Day Technology Forum in October about STP (that’s Straight Through Processing - not the well-known oil additive needed in my youth to keep the car running!). STP is perhaps the nirvana of operations but is it realistic?
My own definition of STP would be a world where basic information is not re-keyed. There will always be additional keying as individual firms add richness to the data for their own analysis to improve their results. But there is no sense in re-keying information such as insured name, period of cover, renewal date etc.
This kind of 'core' information is currently duplicated (and thus re-keyed) by each carrier on the risk and, where applicable, at the bureau. But it could just as well be sent by a structured message following its original creation. There are still considerable productivity benefits to be had in this area by not having to re-key this ‘core’ information.
The debate, then, revolves around how much of the data is core as opposed to 'read once then file'. The latter is best suited to an electronic document rather than structured messaging (trying to structure this type of data would involve about 14,000 separate items!). Electronic documents can be sent very easily as part of the ACORD message (a la the Endorsements Pilot).
So maybe STP is core information sent around the market in a structured message and then taken into back-office systems. These can then be supplemented by documents sent electronically as part of the message that are read and then reside on 'document repositories' for use in the event of a claim.
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