CIECA VEHICLE DAMAGE & IMAGING (VDI)

BUSINESS PLAN

Committee Membership, Level of Commitment, and Pilot Participants

Committee membership is open to any company that is a member of CIECA.

Pilot participants: To be determined.

Process Flow

The CIECA Vehicle Damage and Imaging Committee is responsible for developing and maintaining services associated with the Vehicle Damage Claim Settlement process flow.

Deliverables

The VDI Committee deliverables are:

·        The implementation guides for

o       Appraisal Assignments

o       Appraisals

o       Supplemental Appraisals

·        Aggregates and Elements to be added to the BMS to support these implementation guides

·        Code Tables and Codes to be added to the CIECA Code Table used by the BMS

The Committee’s first deliverable will be the BMS additions needed for the appraisal.  These will be delivered to the Architecture committee as the VDI committee’s recommendation for BMS inclusions. 

The second deliverable will be to concurrently develop the:

o       Appraisal Implementation Guide

o       Assignment Implementation Guide

Note:  the Schema associated with the BMS is a product of Architecture and is produced after the BMS has been approved.

The group will determine subsequent deliverables at a later time.

Benefits to Industry Segments

The establishment of complete and relevant industry standard implementation guides will potentially provide the collision industry:

• The ability to reduce errors when data is exchanged between applications 
• The elimination of redundant data entry
• The improvement of appraisal and/or repair cycle time

Specifically the XML Standards affords these benefits:

• It is developed by industry participants for industry participants.
• It does not require EDI translators.
• It is accessible to smaller scale companies and/or applications participating in the industry.
• Management of the standard by CIECA streamlines development, approval, revision, enhancement and publication.

Risk or Barrier Assessment

An industry cross segment needs to be brought together to commit to developing the Vehicle Damage and Imaging messages and implementation guides.  The first task will be to agree upon and complete the first communication message. 

Resource Requirements

Money:

Rooms needed for face-to-face meetings will be needed in the event volunteers are not able to host meetings.  All support for web services (posting of meeting schedules, minutes, etc.), teleconference services and CIECA membership tools are included with CIECA membership.

Staff  

Staff time for project support are included with CIECA membership for approved projects.  Staff time will include project management assistance as well as technical assistance.

Volunteer Time:

Business volunteers will be needed to identify business requirements of the message contents.  Representation from multiple areas of the business segment will make the message development more complete and better serve the entire industry.  Business volunteers will also be needed for the development of the Implementation Guides.

Technical volunteers will be needed to complete the translation of business needs to the BMS representation of those business needs and work with Architecture in this integration.  Assistance will be made available from members of Architecture.

Estimated Project Duration

The first deliverable will be understanding the elements required to exchange the first three VDI services identified by the Committee as deliverables. This will be completed by 4^th quarter, 2003.  Also completed will be the BMS additions for submission to the Architecture committee, code table and code entries, and schema additions for the assignment and appraisal for submission to the Architecture committee.  In addition, the implementation guide for the assignment and appraisal is planned to be completed by the end of the 4^th quarter 2003.  Later deliverables have been identified above in the Messages Types chart in the Scope and Objectives section.

Questions for SAB Review

Is this project included in the CIECA 2004 Strategic Plan?    

·        Yes.

This is a new development project or a maintenance/enhancement project?

·        New.

What will be the anticipated impact on other CIECA efforts or standards? 

·        The work with the other groups creating Assignment implementation guides should be coordinated.

The Architecture resources will be needed to assist in understanding the BMS and completing the integration into the BMS.

·        This group will need technical support familiar with the BMS and schema.

To assist in supporting this committee these items can help identify areas of need.

Are members of the committee familiar with or do they have:

            Business representation?

            Technical representation?

            Membership tools?  (on www.CIECA.com)

            XML development?

            CIECA’s BMS?