LIXI@WORK Feb 2012 - Edition #36

2012 promises to be an important year for LIXI members, licensees and the Australian lending industry at large. The LIXI CEO and newly formed Board of Directors have made some big promises that require commitment, expertise and community involvement. The LIXI 2.0 Reform Program continues to stand up project after project in response to those promises of creating the best possible benefits for Australian lending industry participants; an anticipated delivery date within the first half of 2012 currently looks set to be met with wide industry involvement and participation.

I am looking forward an exciting year working with you all and an exciting 2012!

Jennifer Hill, LIXI Membership & Project Coordinator

Background: The LIXI 2.0 LIXI 2.0 Reform Program was launched in October 2010; this program of projects will deliver on LIXI’s key value proposition to members by delivering increased efficiency, reduced costs and lower barriers of entry to users of the standards by delivered these key initiatives;

1) an updated, comprehensive data dictionary (known as the CAL 2.0 Data Dictionary Project, also referred to as the CAL 2.0 Data Requirements Project)

2) a review of the current technical architecture (known as the LIXI 2.0 Technical Architecture Project)

3) An examination and rework of LIXI change management process (the LIXI 2.0 Change Management Project).

These projects will enable publication of CAL 2.0 within the first half of 2012. Updates on the specific projects are outlined below.

The goal of the CAL 2.0 Data Dictionary Project is to provide a single, unambiguous and inclusive vocabulary for the new CAL 2.0 standard, while ensuring backwards compatibility with CAL 1.x. All Australian lenders and other interested members were invited to participate in a gap analysis of work done to date on the 16th of December 2011. The deadline for (phase one) gap analysis inclusions is February 29th 2012.

A working group will most likely be established in March 2012 to resolve any outstanding definitional and requirements issues with a view to releasing Version One of the Data Dictionary as soon as May 2012. If you would like to be involved in the project (and are not already receiving routine updates) please contact Jennifer Hill at admin@lixi.org.au

The LIXI 2.0 Technical Architecture Project began in late October 2011 with the initiation of the working group; since then the working group has successfully signed off on the Project Brief and defined the high level architectural requirements. The weightings of those requirements are also nearing completion in order to complete a scorecard for submissions. It is anticipated that a call for architectural submissions will be released in early February. The deadline for submissions has yet to be determined but will be announced shortly.

LIXI has engaged an international independent expert, Rachael Sokolowski, to review the submissions against the balanced scorecard (developed by the working group) which will culminate in a recommendation for an updated technical architecture. The benefits of the new architecture will include making it easier to extend the standard to support new data requirements, making the roll out of common changes faster and cheaper by providing a method for publishing business rules in a standard format, and lowering the effort to make and maintain implementations by simplifying the underlying LIXI data model.

LIXI 2.0 Change Management Project intends to define and document how changes to the LIXI Methodology and Lifecycle Management process will incorporate solutions to the fundamental and long-standing issues related to change management with LIXI’s current process. It is anticipated that the executive project brief will be complete by the end of February 2012.

If you would like to be involved in any of these (or future) projects, and/or are not already receiving routine updates, please contact Jennifer Hill at admin@lixi.org.au

The Variations Standards Working Group published their first draft Business and Functional requirements documents on November 28th, 2011 and with no comments received prior to the January 6th deadline, the documents will soon be released in final form. The last meeting of 2011 successfully saw the vocab working group discuss, debate and build sample XML for approximately 40-50% of the functional requirements. The working group will continue with the XML building phase and this is estimated to take for another few months to finalize.

After a brief hiatus for the holidays, the Variations working group had their first meeting of 2012 on January 11th with subsequent meetings on January 18th and February 1. One of the current issues for the Variations working group has to do with how to capturing existing vs. new information for existing loan accounts. The Loan Details segment already has information about how to vary an existing account and was used as part of Settlement instructions and may be useful for Variations. LIXI would like to hear from experts such as companies that routinely exchange information with a settlement agent. Please contact admin@lixi.org.au with information on this issue.

If you would like to be added the Applications Working Group (which is responsible for the Variations Standard development), please contact Jennifer Hill (admin@lixi.org.au) for more information.

The Settlement Instructions Standardupdate 1.2a package was released on 12 December 2011 with no further feedback.

The CAL 1.5c update package was released on 12 December 2011 with no further feedback. Please see LIXI@Work Edition #35 December 2011 for specifics of the included changes

The Genworth LMI schema has recently been updated; the Genworth LIXI LMI 3.0 Package Release is available to members and licensees on the LIXI website. Thank you to Stanley Huang and Genworth LMI for the contribution.

Following on from the successful event held in Sydney in 2011, the technical training “LIXI Fundamentals” will be held in Melbourne on Friday, February 24th.

This succinct, informative one day course will be presented by industry heavy weights, John Spracklin and Rick Jelliffe and will address the realities of XML standards within the Australian lending industry, why they are needed, how they are used and how they may (or may not) be implemented.

The morning session will focus on active LIXI messaging standards alongside the current use of those standards within the lending industry, especially in relation to the Credit Application Language (CAL) Schema. The afternoon session is designed for those working with the standards on a regular basis and will address the technical issues associated with implementation and testing. The session will follow a mock credit application through the implementation and testing phases and examine real life challenges and pain points associated with these phases.

Schema architects, software designers, web service implementers and business analysis will benefit from this technical training. A prior understanding of schema and a basic comprehension of the loan application process will be helpful.

To register, follow this link.

Cost for LIXI members is $250pp for one session or $400pp for both. Cost for non-LIXI members: $350pp for one session or $600pp for both. All fees are GST inclusive and refreshments and lunch are included in the session cost.

LIXI Membership and licensee fees are due at the beginning of each calendar year with invoices based on the previous year’s membership status. Please notify LIXI immediately if there are any changes to your membership company’s particulars and your invoice will be re-issued with those changes ASAP.

Just a reminder that LIXI membership and licensing have different purposes; membership provides an opportunity to contribute to the design of new LIXI standards through the working groups as well as participating in the operation of LIXI though voting at the AGM and standing for a seat on the Board of Directors. Opportunities for participation exist within the LIXI events such as Evening Series, Technical Training workshops and as well as the annual LIXI Forum. All the member events provide a level of networking, either within the event or as an organised extension to it.

Licensing is required for all companies utilising the LIXI standards as part of their business processes. The LIXI standards are not open source, nor are they free; the standards can only be utilised through the annual licensing program.

The cost of the membership and licenses has been kept at a very affordable level, with the first increase this year since 2006. Categories and tiers are available which are appropriate to all levels of businesses in the lending chain. Please view this webpage for a comprehensive list of licensee levels and prices.

There has never been a more exciting time in the development of Australian XML standards development; LIXI 2.0 is under development, working groups are producing high quality, relevant standards and the board skill set is continually evolving. Memberships are available for 2012. LIXI welcomes your involvement - Join now!