Ever since God confounded the languages of humankind at the Tower of Babel, people have struggled to find a common means by which to communicate. This struggle is reflected in the systems insurers use to conduct business where, even though the benefits of standards are well understood, international development and adoption of standards for data and messaging has been a slow and difficult process.

"We have very limited use of standards internationally right now; however, our plan is to target data management and messaging strategies that leverage the benefits we are achieving within the U.S. through the use of standards across the enterprise," says Jack Simpson, Jr., vice president in IT enterprise data management at MetLife. MetLife has operations outside the U.S. that span from Asia to Europe to South America. "Reusability [based on standards] drives down cost, increases our speed to market, and improves data quality–all benefits we could gain by enhancing our use of standards on an international level."

The campaign to promote standards for data and messaging in the insurance business is being conducted on several fronts and by several constituencies. The first front involves domestic carriers with a global presence.