Q2 2024 progress update

Regulatory notification and market assurance

Virtual data room

Deloitte is managing a virtual data room which holds artefacts that support market governance and assurance activities to support phase one cutover to the new platform. The artefacts can be used by market participants to perform appropriate due diligence and will include test results, operational resilience plans and results, cutover plans, operational readiness and market readiness survey results.

Access to the data room has been made available to the Blueprint Two champions from each market firm and others as required. You can open the data room here if you’ve registered using the link in the invitation email.

For any questions or issues regarding access to the data room, contact [email protected].

White paper

The whitepaper is available via the data room, and explains the acceptance criterias, assurance mechanisms and tolerance thresholds to ensure a safe cutover. The purpose of the document is to ensure senior executives understand the changes proposed in the adoption and cutover plan to the new platform. This executive summary summarises more of the context, purpose and content of the white paper.

Adoption guide

Phase one adoption guide, version 3

The third version of the phase one adoption guide was published to the Blueprint Two website in June 2024. The guide is aimed specifically at those leading the implementation of phase one digital services. It includes new and updated content around functionality and provides more in-depth information around the mandatory and optional activities required to successfully adopt phase one. There are two tailored versions of the guide for brokers and carriers, plus accompanying checklists, to allow market firms to focus on processes, adoption activities, messaging specifications and portal requirements relevant to them. The guides can be downloaded on the adoption guide page of the Blueprint Two website.

Market engagement and adoption

24 June Blueprint Two market event

500 market participants attended our 24 June Blueprint Two Working Session, where they heard from Chris Halbard, Velonetic CEO, and Bob James, Lloyd’s COO, on the decision to postpone the phase one cutover, scheduled for target date of October 2024. The plenary session also featured updates on testing, cutover, data copy, and regulatory notification and market assurance, and there were separate breakout sessions on these topics to enable plenty of discussion. 

The slides and recordings from the event are available on our events page.

Market engagement activities

We have continued our programme of C-suite engagement, including fortnightly managing agent COO sessions, a tailored session for Chief Risk Officers and two sessions for managing agent Board Chairs.

Over 250 market participants attended a virtual drop-in session on 23 May 2024, where our experts provided progress updates on testing and onboarding. Attendees also had the opportunity to ask their questions to our panel. The slides and recording from the session can be found here. The registration link for future virtual drop-in sessions will be posted on the events page of the Blueprint Two website.

On 12 June, we held a virtual market readiness event in conjunction with LIIBA for smaller brokers. With 65 brokers in attendance, the topics covered included the digital processing service agreement (DPSA), training, the importance of market readiness and next steps.

We also refreshed the 'Frequently asked questions' (FAQ) page on our Blueprint Two website.
 

Testing and Vanguard

We have resolved the issues which prevented the start of market testing, in particular challenges around onboarding of users and a critical defect discovered in the process that enables automated broker premium submissions, known as DRI. The team are now preparing for full market testing to begin across the three pillars of Vanguard (our early adopters group), customer coordinated testing (led by LIMOSS) and enhanced customer testing. 

The testing schedule is currently being reviewed and replanned, in line with the scope of the build. Testing start dates are confirmed as follows: 

• Wider Vanguard testing is expected to start the week commencing 15 July, following completion of 12 test journeys that demonstrate the new digital services platform works for all markets, input methods, and claims and premiums.

• We'll share further details on the LIMOSS-led customer coordinated testing following the next Testing Steering Committee on 17 July.

  • We’re mindful of your resource planning, and with this in mind, we don’t anticipate customer coordinated testing will begin before August 2024. The programme will continue to engage with your teams on the process, providing certainty over testing start dates and resources that will be required, as and when we are able to. 

We’ll keep you updated on our progress by issuing our fortnightly testing update and scorecard. These will be shared with CEOs, COOs and CROs to support your assurance activities and build confidence in the testing framework.

Training

In Q2, market participants were invited to book for Velonetic’s programme of instructor-led training – both in-person and virtual. Following the postponement of phase one cutover, a market communication was sent detailing the next steps for rescheduling these sessions. Syllabuses are available on Velonetic’s training web page. The second iteration of the User Manuals were also published in June on the Velonetic Education learning platform, and the latest version of 'Change context' has also been added to the platform and the training web page.

Cutover 

On 31 May, the cutover plan was released to the market. This plan has been developed to demonstrate how we’ll cutover to the new digital services when it is safe to do so.

You can access both the executive summary and the cutover plan on the cutover page of the Velonetic Blueprint Two website. We are iterating the documents with additional details, such as customer journeys, on an ongoing basis. Here you can also find the results of our second paper-based rehearsal, which was held on 20 June 2024. 

Velonetic will be holding walkthroughs and workshops of the cutover plan in August and September 2024. The walkthroughs will outline key dates and activities such as dress rehearsals and the four stages of cutover, as well as action required by market firms. The workshops will be held to focus on premiums, claims, settlement and contingency, respectively. More information on how to register for these sessions will be provided soon.

Onboarding

The first version of the onboarding guide was published to the Blueprint Two website on 30 April. The document covers what the onboarding process entails and further information around the support available. 

Onboarding for customer coordinated testing is in progress. There have been a number of lessons learned and these are being incorporated into the onboarding process for the transition to the live systems. The onboarding guide will be updated to incorporate all of these lessons learned.

Velonetic released a training video (accessible via the learning platform) and a guide to support customers onboarding to the testing environment. The latest number of customers onboarded to the testing environment can be found here.