FAQ
Q: How do I get access to the Origo website?A: To get full access to the Origo Standards website, click on the 'new user' button and complete the registration form. You will immediately have restricted access to the site. Following authorisation of your registration you will be assigned full access rights, which will be confirmed by email.
Q: What is the contact address of Origo?A: Origo Services Limited
Moyen House
Heriot Watt Research Park North
Edinburgh
EH14 4AP Q: What are the Origo Standards?A: Our Standards are designed to meet the requirements of specific business processes, supporting a range of Retirement, Investment and Protection products. The Business and Technical Standards that we develop and maintain make it possible for Financial Services companies to exchange data with their partners electronically in an efficient and cost-effective manner. Comprising a common language and set of rules, they conform fully to W3C standards and cover all types of business transactions and processes from Quotations right through to Contract Enquiries.
Q: How do I become and Origo Standards Holder?A: Contact us at enquiries@origoservices.com. We will ask you some details about your organisation and then add you to the list of Standards Holders. This will allow you to access the Origo Standards and participate in Working Groups. The Origo Standards are free to IFAs, Software Companies and Portals. The cost to Product Providers is £12,500.00 plus VAT per annum which includes Origo's Sponsors. Q: Do you provide an information pack on the Origo Standards?Q: Who should I contact for detailed technical information?A: Use the 'Contact Us' function on the website to email Origo with your query. We will then arrange for the appropriate technician to contact you. Alternatively, please phone Origo on 0131 451 5181 and ask for Standards Administration who will be able to deal with your query.
Q: How do I know which version of a Standard I should be using, and will I have to support multiple versions?A: Speak to your Trading Partners to find if they are currently using an Origo Standard for the service you want to implement. Look also at the version of the Standard that is most widely adopted within the industry. You may have to support multiple versions with different Trading Partners, but remember thar Origo provide translators that convert from one message version to another.
Q: Who do I contact to attend an Education Session?A: To book a place on an Education Session, please contact our Standards Administrator by telephone on 0131 451 5181 or via e-mail to enquires@origoservices.com. Q: To enable me to get involved in developing the Origo Standards, how do I become a member of a Working Group?A: Once you are a Standards Holder, you are entitled to put your name forward or to be nominated to become a member on a group.
Q: How can I find out which organisations have adopted the Origo Standards?A: There is a portion of this site that details the organisations who have adopted the Origo Standards. It details which Standards the organisations is using. You can find this within Put in Link
Q: What does Origo stand for?A: Origo is derived from the Latin AB ORIGAM, meaning development from first principles. Origo’s mission is to be the Centre of Excellence for e-Business in the Financial Services sector. By delivering essential common capabilities and components, we will facilitate the industry's ability to develop and maintain cost efficient channels to market.
Q: How do I get access to the Origo website?A: To get full access to the Origo Standards website, click on the 'new user' button and complete the registration form. You will immediately have restricted access to the site. Following authorisation of your registration you will be assigned full access rights, which will be confirmed by email.
Q: What are your opening hours?A: Origo's opening hours are Monday to Friday, 9.00am to 5.30pm.
Q: What is the telephone number of Origo?A: 0131 451 5181
Q: What is the contact address of Origo?A: Origo Services Limited
Moyen House
Heriot Watt Research Park North
Edinburgh
Scotland
EH14 4AP
Q: What are the Origo Standards?A: Our Standards are designed to meet the requirements of specific business processes, supporting a range of Retirement, Investment and Protection products. The Business and Technical Standards that we develop and maintain make it possible for Financial Services companies to exchange data with their partners electronically in an efficient and cost-effective manner. Comprising a common language and set of rules, they conform fully to W3C standards and cover all types of business transactions and processes from Quotations right through to Contract Enquiries.
Q: How do I become an Origo Standards Holder?A: Contact us at enquiries@origoservices.com. We will ask you some details about your organisation and then add you to the list of Standards Holders. This will allow you to access the Origo Standards and participate in Working Groups. The Origo Standards are free to IFAs, Software Companies and Portals. The cost to Product Providers is £12,500 plus VAT per annum which includes Origo's Sponsors. Q: Who uses which Origo Standard?A: The 'Who Is Using Standards' menu option provides information on standards usage by organisation, by organisation type and by Standard.
Q: Who should I contact for detailed technical information?A: Use the 'Contact Us' function on the website to email Origo with your query. We will then arrange for the appropriate technician to contact you. Alternatively, please phone Origo on 0131 451 5181 and ask for Standards Administration who will be able to deal with your query.
Q: Are there any other organisations who do what Origo do?A: There are other standards bodies that serve the Financial Services Industry. ACORD is a US based organisation that supports the life, annuity, and health product lines as well as life reinsurance for individual and group lines of business. POLARIS serves the UK General Insurance market, performing a similar role to Origo.
Q: What are the differences betwen EDIFACT Standards and XML Standards?A: EDIFACT and XML are different formats used for electronic messaging. They require different types of infrastructure to be in place for implementation. The data content of an EDIFACT message may differ from that of an XML message, depending on when the message services where developed.
Q: Why use XML as the Standards syntax?A: XML is a W3C standard interface format and as such is widely used in the development of e-commerce.
Q: Does my organisation need to adhere to the Standard exactly?A: Where appropriate, the Standards allow for Trading Partner Specific information to be added to a message. An example is Quotations, where a company may include information in the Quotation message that is not part of the Standard. Origo is seeking to minimise the variation across the industry in the implementation of Standards, as this drives up the cost of implementation and ongoing maintenance.
Q: How do I know which version of a Standard I should be using, and will I have to support multiple versions?A: Speak to your Trading Partners to find if they are currently using an Origo Standard for the service you want to implement. Look also at the version of the Standard that is most widely adopted within the industry. You may have to support multiple versions with different Trading Partners, Origo provided translators that converted from one message version to another for some of the older versions of Quotes and New Business. However we currently try to provide migration documentation to accompany a new version of a standard, for example : CE_Migration.pdf for the Contract Enquiry version 2.0 standard.
Q: What is the scope and range of the Origo Standards?A: The Origo Standards support Protection, Investment and Retirement products. The 'What Do We Do?' section of the Origo website contains an overview of the processes covered.
http://www.origoservices.com/OS10202.shtml
Q: Are the Origo Standards "benchmarked" or "mandatory"?A: Not at present, although we are considering how we can use the Origo logo to identify companies who can demonstrate implementation of Standards.
Q: Why do I sometimes have problems in validating XML messages that appear to be valid.A: Within the standard values for <message_version>, and other elements, Origo has used mixed case to ease readability. Where there are differences in the case between the XML message and the Origo Standard values, validation errors will occur. XML is case sensitive and so when using Origo standard values, it is important that the case is exactly as shown within the Origo Standard documents.
Q: What is Contract Enquiry?A: Contract Enquiry is an on-line messaging service for contract information and is based on the Origo Contract Enquiry Standards. It supports the functionality of making a request on a provider and receiving the response message duly populated with the requested information. Contract Enquiry currently supports a number of component services covering Real Time Valuations, Bulk Contract Details and specifically for Collective Investment products a Reconciliation service. The Standard Overview document http://www.origostandards.com/ provides a summary of the functionality and richness of the service. Q: What products are covered?A: The current implementations support Individual Personal Pensions and Group Personal Pensions at member level only (including Stakeholder), With Profit Bonds (Traditional, Unitised and Unit Linked), Distribution Bond, Hybrid Bond, Guaranteed Bonds (Growth, Equity and Income), ISA (all types), PEP (General & Single Company), OEIC, Unit Trusts and Investment Funds. It is intended to extend the product coverage in due course.
Q: What information is provided?A: The component services supported by separate Standards have its own specific data content which is documented in the Business Content Standards. The information supported overall by Contract Enquiry can be grouped as contract details, valuation information, fund breakdown details, transaction history and commission summary data. The message Standard allows for enquiries on a single contract, group contracts, client’s holdings and all contracts serviced by an intermediary.
Q: What are the benefits?A: The provision of on-line services gives speedier access to data, improved data integrity, more reliable client data, improved client servicing and a reduction in administration support. The Contract Enquiry messages have a common format and content across the industry and are not Provider specific.
Q: How can I find out which organisations are using Contract Enquiry?A: A number of companies are currently providing live services with further companies committing to implement services within the next 6 months. The full list of companies currently involved in the implementation of Contract Enquiry are shown in http://www.origostandards.com/ Q: What technology do I need to implement Contract Enquiry?A: To an extent, this will depend on the type of organisation you are, but broadly speaking, you will require knowledge of, and be able to support, current web technologies. The Contract Enquiry Standards are based on XML messaging and the transmission medium is HTTP. Software Providers can supply the appropriate technology solutions.
Q: Where can I find the Contract Enquiry Standards documentation?A: The Contract Enquiry Standards documentation set comprises a Process Model, Business Content, Message Implementation Guideline, Schema and supporting Errata for each component Standard. The Process Models give a diagrammatical representation of the various parties and their relationships.
The Business Content describes the business functionality, requirements, and data content.
The Message Implementation Guideline describes the detailed XML message structure.
The Schema is a formal XML description of a message, which is machine-readable.
Errata records minor changes to the above documents.
The documents are available on the Origo website (http://www.origostandards.com/). Q: What additional implementation issues should I consider?A: Through the development and implementation of the Contract Enquiry messages, implementation experience and knowledge has evolved. A comprehensive library of documentation covering a variety of topics from Regulatory Issues through to Testing Requirements has been established. The implementation documentation are shown in http://www.origostandards.com/ Q: How secure is the information transfer?A: Contract Enquiry supports the use of ID and Password as well as Digital Certificates. Your business model will determine what security requires to be applied. In addition, if you use a Service Provider, they can provide advice on what security solution they support with Contract Enquiry.
Q: Where can I get more information?A: The Origo representatives responsible for Contract Enquiry are:-
Rankine Agnew (Life and Pensions)
John O'Hara (Life and Pensions)
Paul Millest (Collective Investments)
Q: Who do I contact to attend an Education Session?A: To book a place on an Education Session, please contact our Standards Administrator by telephone on 0131 451 5181 or via e-mail to enquires@origoservices.com. Q: How much are the Education Sessions?A: The cost of attending an Origo Education Session is £450.00 plus VAT per attendee.
If your organisation requires a tailored Education Session, which can be held either at your premises or here at Origo, this can be arranged. Please contact our Standards Administrators for further details.
Q: How do I get to Origo?A: Origo are located at the Heriot Watt Research Park North which is on the outskirts of Edinburgh. We are 10 minutes from Edinburgh Airport and between 25-45 minutes from the centre of Edinburgh. A map with detailed directions is available on the Origo Services website at http://www.origoservices.com/OS10503.shtml
Q: How much does it cost to join Origo?A: Only Product Providers are required to pay for the Origo Standards. The cost to Product Providers is £10,000.00 plus VAT per annum.
Q: Are the Data Models available in different formats, for example, in a format used by my organisation?A: The Logical Data Model is available in web page format i.e. HTML. The domain and message view models are available in either Rational Rose or HTML formats. The common Business Objects, Standard Data Types, Standards Values Lists are available as Rational Rose models and are also published as PDF format. These can all be downloaded from the Origo Standards website.
Q: How do I get involved in developing the Standards?A: Join one of the Origo Working Groups.
Q: How do I become a member of a Working Group?A: Once you are a Standards Holder, you are entitled to put your name forward or to be nominated to become a member of a Group.
Q: What is the process for producing a Standard e.g. Working Group set up/Terms of Reference/Business Content etc.?
Q: Who is dealing with which Projects in Origo?A: To find out the Origo representative for a particular Project area, please refer to our website section.
Put in link
Q: How can I find out which organisations have adopted the Origo Standards?A: There is a portion of this site that details the organisations that have adopted the Origo Standards. It details which Standards the organisation is using. You can find this within here Q: Who should I contact should I have a compliment or complaint regarding the service that Origo provides?A: Please contact our Standards Manager, Evelyn Owenson.
Q: What screen resolution is the Origo Standards website designed for?A: 1024 x 768
Q: Who owns OSIS?A: OSIS is a wholly owned subsidiary of Origo Services Limited.
Q: How do I find out more information about Unipass?A: www.unipass.co.uk has all the information you need about Unipass, as well as contact information for further detail.
Q: What do all those acronyms mean (ISEF, ISDD, ISML etc.)?A: Acronyms such as these are explained in the Glossary, but ISEF is "Industry Standard E-Commerce Framework", ISDD is "Industry Standard Data Dictionary" and ISML is "Industry Standard Mark-up Language". To view the Glossary, go to Put in link
Q: What is ISML, and what does it do?A: ISML Standards for Industry Standard Mark-up Language. Published as one of Origo's technical Standards, it is a computer language that allows the software developer to define the intentions of an electronic form, but not its presentation. An example of its use is in the definition of electronic application forms used for the submission of New Business.
Q: How do I change my e-mail address?A: The only way to change an e-mail address is to re-register. This is because it is a key identifier. It may also indicate a change of company.
Q: Why can I not see the Origo Standards?A: Either you do not have access authorised or you do not have the correct version of Adobe Acrobat installed. You should have at least Version 4.0 of Adobe Acrobat. If you do not have this, it can be obtained (free of charge) from
Adobe
