York Fire implements true real-time XML inquiry

York Fire & Casualty has become Canada’s first insurance carrier to implement true XML real-time inquiry, which it demonstrated at a general meeting of the Toronto Applied Systems Client Network (TASCnet).
Using Applied Systems’ WARP technology for real-time transactions, York Fire now communicates directly and immediately with insurance brokers through their broker management systems.
The new inquiry improves on processes that relied on time-consuming standard scripting services and carrier portal log-ins.
The XML inquiry transaction is “round trip” starting and ending in the broker management system with no carrier portal connectivity, navigation or other portal involvement. “An XML response is sent instantly in the form of an html page with the requested information,” Applied Systems notes in a press release.
York Fire president Colin Simpson said Warp technology allows single-click, real-time inquiries with response time in as little as eight seconds, an improvement over the much slower scripting response that could take up to two minutes.
Brokers at the demonstration were notably impressed with the speed of the new communication. They advocated that the next phase of WARP’s implementation include the same sort of speedy inquiries for policy changes.
After the TASCnet meeting, some brokers noted the WARP system, as it has been currently implemented by insurers, applies more towards policy inquiries related to new business, as opposed to policy inquiries related to policy changes.
And yet it is the policy change requests for already-existing business that take up most of a broker’s time, they noted.
This is particularly true, some brokers raised in a subsequent Q&A session, as insurance companies are asking brokers to do more of the policy change requests.