Letter from Lloyd’s to the London market, 07 August 2024
Our last Blueprint Two communication on 9 July promised an update in early August. This note provides a summary of recent activity, in particular the status of the re-plan.
Following the postponement of phase one cutover, the Velonetic shareholders (DXC, the IUA and Lloyd’s) have been working alongside the management team at Velonetic and the Blueprint Two programme team to establish a credible timeline to complete the remaining technology build; the testing of the platform; and the quality assurance of both activities.
Re-plan
Over the last three weeks, the shareholders have held two detailed workshops to develop the consolidated, end-to-end plan that will deliver phase one digital services.
The workshops have considered several key factors that may impact the delivery and timescales of the end-to-end plan and as such we have included additional contingency, to mitigate:
- The possibility of another problem, such as the Document Repository Interface (DRI) issue previously advised, which enables automated broker premium submissions
- Gaps or additional complexities found within the original build scope that need to be addressed
- Lessons we have learned through testing, including the complexity of onboarding market participants; system integration testing (SIT) and user acceptance testing (UAT); and the value of the Vanguard early adopter programme.
One of the lessons learned, and something you may have experienced within your own firm, is the lack of documentation on how the processes and systems work together to process business. The existing platform is over thirty years old, and as we have worked to document both processes and technology, we have often had to complete this from scratch.
Testing
As part of the re-plan exercise, we are revisiting the framework for customer testing. We’ll continue to run Vanguard testing in the same way, and will add an additional phase of vendor testing to run in parallel. Only when these two testing phases are complete will the code be released for coordinated customer testing (CCT) led by LIMOSS, and enhanced testing, conducted by individual firms. This will ensure the code tested by the vast majority of the market is as error-free as possible.
We anticipate CCT will not commence until late Q4 2024 and will likely run into Q1 2025. With this in mind, market participants involved in CCT can stand down testing resources until then, and until further notice. We’ll provide greater detail on the revised testing framework as we roll out the re-plan.
Particular thanks go to the market participants and vendors within the Vanguard group for their ongoing support and flexibility as we continue to navigate testing. Vanguard is key to delivering phase one digital services safely and importantly supports the broader market ahead of CCT.
Next steps
A final workshop is scheduled on 14 August to complete the end-to-end re-plan.
The plan will then be reviewed with the Lloyd’s Council, the Velonetic Board and market associations, with publication shortly thereafter. We anticipate sharing the revised plan by the end of August and will host a virtual walk-through of this for your teams.
As discussed at our event for Chief Risk Officers on 24 June, we’ll continue to update your teams on the regulatory notification process and activities to be undertaken ahead of phase one cutover. This will include a dedicated session to support completion of the material outsourcing notification (MON), which will be aligned to the re-plan, and we’ll provide further detail in due course.
Our next market event for COOs, change and implementation specialists, and claims managers will take place on 7 October, and will provide additional time to discuss the re-plan and revised testing framework. We’ll continue to release regular testing reports to update you on our testing progress, to support market assurance activities and build confidence.
As set out in previous communications, we will only decide a new cutover date – informed by market feedback – once a number of key activities have been completed or are near-completion, including the safe delivery of the technology build; strong testing progress; and materially progressing the necessary assurance, governance and regulatory notification activities.
The programme will continue to engage with you and your teams to assist your planning and resourcing, and we appreciate your patience and ongoing support. Your feedback is important to us, so do reach out if you require anything.
We wish you and your loved ones a relaxing summer break and look forward to reconnecting in September as we move forward. Thank you once again for your support.
Best regards,
John Neal Bob James
CEO, Lloyd’s COO, Lloyd’s
