In addition to accuracy of data and speed of processing, the use of ACORD (Association for Cooperative Operations Research and Development) standards can lead to significant internal and external cost savings, Aon Benfield said, noting this was highlighted in the August 2008 merger of Aon Re Global and Benfield Group Limited.

Mitch Balter, head of operations for Aon Benfield Americas, said, "Our primary goal in the merger was to create a new company that would offer the very best in client service. We wanted to deliver quality information to our clients and reinsurers as quickly and accurately as possible, and the use of ACORD standards has helped Aon Benfield to achieve that."

Since January 2009, Aon Benfield said globally it has transmitted more than 1.3 million ACORD messages across North America, London and Europe, in the areas of claims, technical accounts, settlement and placing.

Ian Summers, managing director of eBusiness and market reform at Aon Benfield, and a member of the North American ACORD Advisory Committee, said, "In London, we saw a 50 percent improvement in settlement times from reinsurers to clients once we moved to ACORD's ClaimMovements module."

He continued that in the paper world there was an average of 30 percent rework required in reconciling statements to invoices due to errors. Once the TechAccounts module was introduced, however, "the rework percentage dropped to about 1 percent, which is an incredible improvement."

Tom Neff, director of eCommerce at Aon Benfield, said that whereas proprietary standards work once, ACORD standards keep working because they are industry standards. "Once you map your internal data to the ACORD standards, you don't need to do it again for each new partner," he said.

Dave Hughes, senior vice president of claims at XL Re America, said electronic data exchange has had a positive impact on the company's claims and accounting processes.

Urs Foley, chief information officer of XL Re Global, said ACORD messaging has enabled the company to meet its goal of setting higher business standards by facilitating an accurate and speedy flow of information, "from our broker's source systems, through our global administration system, all the way to our general ledger..."

According to Aon Benfield, ACORD standards can help companies improve efficiencies, automate processes and enable future business growth with minimum costs, which, the firm noted, is particularly important in the current weakened economic environment.

Shawn Sylvester, senior vice president of claims operations at Swiss Re, said the implementation is a continued step in the company's movement to streamline processes and improve customer service.

John DiBuduo, chief information officer at PartnerRe, added that the evolving use of the ACORD standards between PartnerRe and its business partners had a direct impact on operating efficiency, improving the support and services to clients.

"Where we have successfully implemented the ACORD E-Claims standard, we have reduced our dependency on data entry and have eliminated the creation of paper files," he said.