New guide published to expedite industry data exchange

The Centre for the Study of Insurance Operations (CSIO) has published an implementation guide to help insurers and vendors program JSON API Standards into their systems, providing faster data exchange between brokers and insurers.

CSIO today published its JavaScript Object Notation [JSON] Application Programming Interface [API] Implementation Guide, designed to streamline the electronic flow of data between the back-end computer systems of brokers and insurers. The guide is intended to ensure electronic data is better synchronized between vendors’ and insurers’ applications.

“The [CSIO] working groups’ cooperation enhanced broker and insurer connectivity and optimized value for customers in the P&C landscape,” says Gaurav Chhabra, lead architect at Travelers Canada. “Finalizing the JSON API Implementation Guide, along with the standards for additional use cases, improves messaging and enables data synchronization for brokers so they can receive information quicker.”

With the announcement, CSIO introduced new JSON API standards for four new broker workflows, including policy inquiry for Commercial General Liability (CGL) policies, policy inquiry for Individually Rated Commercial Auto (IRCA), policy inquiry for personal lines auto, and policy inquiry for Personal Lines Habitational.

These four new JSON API data standards bring the number of CSIO’s completed data standards for broker workflows up to 20.

Related: What’s new with API links between broker and carrier systems?

CSIO’s working groups are made up of insurers, brokers, and technology vendors. They have been working on API data standards using Javascript Object Notification (JSON), described by software company Raygun as an “easy-to-parse and lightweight data-interchange format.”

JSON is described as ideal for exchanging data over the internet. Its programming “is completely language-agnostic, so it can be used with any programming language, not just JavaScript,” as Raygun notes, adding that its files “are universal data structures used by most programming languages.”

Because JSON can be easily integrated using any programming language, it is considered a boon to Canada’s P&C industry, which contains a myriad of computer programming languages for insurers’ and brokers’ back-end systems.

The use of APIs has significantly altered the landscape of data exchange between brokers and insurers. APIs effectively ensure that when a broker management system (BMS) requests data information from an insurer, the insurer’s computer system is “speaking the same language” as the BMS.

Through its industry working groups, CSIO has been working on producing API data standards for the past several years. The industry standards ensure the data exchanged between brokers and insurers is coded in such a way that all computer systems in the P&C insurance industry will recognize the data input — i.e., the phone numbers or license numbers from an insurance application — in the same way.

Feature image courtesy of iStock.com/magedepotpro