What is changing?

EDI message changes

• Specifications for the complete list of as-is standard EDI messages have been published on the Blueprint Two website: https://www.velonetic.co.uk/blueprint-two/resources

• All EDI technical specifications issued are final versions at the time of publication, and vendors can use these to make any amendments required to be able to produce or consume the new EDI messages. The specifications may need to be altered to align with the build of the digital processing services. 

• Not all EDI message customisations will be supported in the future. Insurers will need to understand which messages they currently receive will no longer be supported. A full list of which customised messages will be supported will be communicated by the end of Q3 2023. Insurers who have affected (unsupported) message customisations will have to switch to using the supported EDI messages.

• Whilst there will be no changes to the format or structure of standard or supported EDI messages, there will be some content changes due to data being produced from new systems, e.g., sequence numbers and batch numbers will be restarted. Velonetic (previously London Market Joint Ventures) are expecting that content changes will be minor.

• Engagement Partners have contacted each managing agent to discuss any message customisations that they currently receive. For any queries about how your organisation may be affected, please contact your Engagement Partner.

Market Gateway (ASG Adept ) / URL changes

• EDI, CWT, Writeback messages and DRI to the IMR will be routed through the new Market Gateway (ASG Adept).

  • Standardised EDI, CWT, Writeback and DRI messages will have no changes to data structures.

• Insurers will need to make configuration changes within their systems to point to the new endpoint URLs as part of the single market cutover.

• Please note - there will be no need for a separate contract with ASG to use the new gateway; access to this gateway will be included in your services with Velonetic at no additional cost.

Portal and applications no longer available and IPOS and ICOS in service:

• A number of Velonetic portals will no longer be available:

  • e.g. CLASS, ECF, Account Enquiry. The full list of portals that will no longer be available is published in the Adoption Guide for phase one: here.

  • A key exception to this is the IMR portal, which will remain with the same interfaces as today.  Elements of the functionality will be moved to IPOS and ICOS.

• New portals will be published: IPOS and ICOS, which will include, as a minimum, the same functionality as that of the portals that are no longer available. As a result, there will be no loss of functionality.

• Velonetic will process premium and claims transactions as they do today but will process them onto the new systems, IPOS and ICOS. Once a transaction has been processed, the latest update will be visible within the portal immediately. EDI, CWT and Writeback messages will continue to exist and will be used for the same purpose as today.

• The IPOS and ICOS portals will have query management, enabling a more complete premium and claim file. This will work as follows:

  • Premium queries will continue to be notified. Users are also expected to log into the portal regularly, as this is where queries will be displayed and managed. 

  •  Premium queries can be raised only by Velonetic technicians, while claim queries can be raised by all insurers who are agreement parties to the claim.

  •  If insurers want to send a query after an EDI message is sent, then they will have to follow the same process as today, i.e. they will need to use offline means or raise a correction request. 

• There will be a new Parties Portal, which will replace Security Administration (LPC). From this portal, market participants can manage their user admin for the IPOS and ICOS portals.

• Insurers who are using ICOS portals can make the Accounting & Settlement selection during the claims agreement process with the broker. 

  •  They can select between Direct Settlement or Central Settlement or settlement outside of the platform (non-cash settlements).

  •  Writeback messages do not have the ability to choose a payment method. Accordingly, new Direct Settlement users will select the payment method in the portal.

  •  Central Settlement is not changing and will work via STFO for Lloyd’s or via RBS for the company market.

• The process around paying third-party fee collectors is going to change. Parallel UCRs are not going to be used anymore! 

• Parallel UCRs were a manual workaround to copy a UCR in ECF CLASS into XCS CLASS. If an insurer wants to pay a third-party fee collector, they can do it in two ways:

  • The insurer can create the payment in ICOS and pay the third-party fee collector via Central Settlement or the new method of Direct Settlement.

  •  The insurer can give access to ICOS to a third-party fee collector by setting up an insurer account for them. The benefit of this approach is that the process can be delegated to a third party. However, if the process is delegated to a third party, that third party will be able to see all of the insurer’s data in the ICOS portal, not just claims assigned to them. If a carrier wants to give this type of access to a third party, you need to have robust contractual agreements in place to ensure that the third party does not step outside of its authority since the system will not enforce that.

Reports

• All reports that exist today are expected to exist like-for-like in phase one. However, for some reports, the way market participants receive them is going to change: 

  •  Some reports are emailed today and will move to a customer self-serve collection process in the new Qlik Sense portal. 

  •  The list of affected reports is expected to be known in Q4 2023. 

Direct Settlement

• Direct Settlement is a new method of settlement that will be introduced in phase one and provided by Vitesse. Insurers who want to adopt it must be onboarded with a signed Master User Agreement (MUA) and set up their bank accounts on the system. Details on this process are to be confirmed.

• Unlike Central Settlement, which can only be used to pay other parties already set up on Central Settlement, Direct Settlement will allow market participants to pay additional payees, including experts and third-party fee collectors.

• Unlike Central Settlement, Direct Settlement transactions will not be netted or grouped. Instead, money will be moved straight away.

Pricing of Velonetic services

• Velonetic have announced that the pricing for core services is expected to reduce as part of the phase one cutover. They anticipate further pricing reductions as the full impact of phase two and the adoption of Blueprint Two comes into effect.

• Some EDI message customisations will be supported by Velonetic at an additional cost. Insurers who have these customisations need to understand the impact this will have on the pricing of their services with Velonetic. For any queries about how your organisation will be affected, please contact your Engagement Partner.

• There will be no additional costs arising out of the go-live of the Market Gateway (ASG Adept). There will be no need for market participants to go into a separate contract with ASG to use the new gateway; access to this gateway will be included in Velonetic services at no additional cost.

• There will be no additional costs regarding support by Velonetic for phase one self-testing. However, it is expected that each firm will need to budget for phase one testing to ensure it is successful within their firm.