IVANS Team Among Inaugural Group to Receive ACORD Certified Expert Designation

Four IVANS Members Honored at 2010 ACORD LOMA Insurance Systems Forum for their Expertise in ACORD Standards Implementation

Stamford, Conn. (Vocus) May 26, 2010 -- IVANS, Inc. announced today that four members of its property-casualty implementation team are among the first in the insurance industry to successfully complete the ACORD Certified Expert (ACE) Program given by the Association for Cooperative Operations Research and Development. The ACE program, which requires all candidates to pass three comprehensive examinations, produces a specialized pool of Subject Matter Experts (SMEs) and certified ACORD standards implementers to support the insurance industry. IVANS entire team of agency-carrier interface specialists is expected to receive the ACE designation by the end of June, 2010.

The four members of IVANS staff who have already completed the ACE program were honored at an ACORD luncheon on May 24 during the 2010 ACORD LOMA Conference in Las Vegas. They included:

With more carriers and agents adopting automation technology, the pace of implementations has increased dramatically. In 2009, IVANS saw a 15% increase in number of agents connecting to carriers and reported a record 163,000 connections. On average, IVANS implementation team completes over 200 download projects a year. ACORD wanted a credible way to ensure individuals in the industry demonstrated expertise to maintain the quality of implementations, reduce errors and lower cost. An ACE certification requires a candidate to take and pass three exams. These exams test a person’s proficiency on ACORD information, industry knowledge and standards knowledge. Continuing education is mandatory for maintaining ACE certification.

“In the insurance industry, it is in everyone’s best interest for good communication to occur between carriers and agents, and ACORD’s standards play a critical role in making that happen, “ said Clare DeNicola, president and CEO of IVANS, Inc. “For over 27 years, IVANS has been instrumental in implementing standards for hundreds of carriers, and the ACE designation is an important investment in our team’s skills. We are proud to have so many from our staff members participate in the inaugural class, as this is a powerful testament to their proven proficiency in the ACORD standards implementation.”

About ACORD
ACORD (Association for Cooperative Operations Research and Development) is a global, nonprofit standards development organization serving the insurance industry and related financial services industries. ACORD’s mission is to facilitate the development of open consensus data standards and standard forms. Its members include hundreds of insurance and reinsurance companies, agents and brokers, software providers, and industry associations worldwide. ACORD works with these organizations towards a goal of improved data communication across diverse platforms through implementation of standards. ACORD maintains offices in New York and London. For more information, visit www.acord.org.

About IVANS
IVANS, Inc. provides the property/casualty insurance and healthcare industries with fully managed network, electronic data interchange (EDI) and agency-company interface solutions to help solve complex business issues. Headquartered in Stamford, Conn. and a CMS approved vendor, IVANS serves over 1,000 insurance and healthcare organizations, more than 30,000 independent agents and 135,000 healthcare providers. With over 27 years of experience successfully managing networks, the company also offers its clients relentless customer service, security solutions, reliable and accessible technical helpdesk support and expert enablement. IVANS, which was formed by 21 insurance companies, also has offices in Tampa, Fla. and Cincinnati, Ohio. For more information, visit www.ivans.com.

Contact:                            
Cecile M. Locurto
IVANS, Inc.
100 First Stamford Place, 3rd Floor
Stamford, CT 06902
203-698-7218                                        

# # #

Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/IVANS/ACORD/prweb4055694.htm.