Insurance Accelerator Launched

A new InfoPath-based solution accelerator for the insurance industry will offer an alternative to paper-based forms. Working with the insurance industry, Microsoft developed the accelerator to reduce errors, speed the processing of insurance claims, and improve communications between various players in the industry. The company will also support a new task force that will address insurance industry security-related issues.

The Office Solution Accelerator for Insurance Forms was developed in cooperation with ACORD (Association for Cooperative Operations Research and Development), an insurance industry body, and provides XML forms and schema that duplicate the content of standard insurance industry forms. The forms can be filled out with InfoPath, an XML forms-based application that is part of the Office System. Other components of the accelerator include a set of workflow transactions for use with BizTalk Server 2004, prescriptive architecture guidelines, and code that can be used to develop Web services, security features, and standards for digitally signed documents.