SAN JOSE, Calif.--May 22, 2006-- Adobe Systems Incorporated and the Association for Cooperative Operations Research and Development (ACORD) today announced the delivery of more than 150 ACORD insurance forms in Adobe Portable Document Format (PDF). Through new ACORD PDF fillable Forms, insurance companies, agencies and vendors can automate and simplify customer communication, capture data more accurately and securely, and reduce re-keying costs and errors associated with manual data entry. Delivery of additional ACORD fillable Forms will be provided on a phased approach between April and September 2006. ACORD members can now easily add intelligence to ACORD fillable Forms in PDF through Adobe offerings such as Adobe LiveCycle Designer and Adobe LiveCycle Forms software. Members can interact with ACORD fillable Forms in PDF while online or offline, thereby extending the reach of their insurance applications inside and outside the firewall via free Adobe Reader software. By adding advanced data collection and validation to ACORD fillable Forms, insurance companies can automate forms processes to achieve greater efficiency with higher data quality, while integrating remote workflows into the automated process. "Insurance agents demand that carriers supply them with solutions that are familiar and easy to use," said John Kellington, chief technology officer and senior vice president of Ohio Casualty Group, Fairfield, Ohio and chair of the ACORD Standards Committee. "By combining the ubiquity of PDF with ACORD eForms and business logic to create an entire submission package from a single XML request, Adobe is enabling carriers to leverage the ACORD standard and their investment in XML-based applications to do better business." "Insurers are adopting the ACORD fillable Forms to increase flexibility, improve efficiency and reduce costs by automating the exchange of information, extending their backend systems and decreasing their reliance on manual data entry," said Eugene Lee, vice president of vertical and solutions marketing at Adobe. "The integrity of Adobe PDF and the ubiquity of Adobe Reader combined with the ACORD XML data standard enable insurers to improve the level of engagement between their agents, brokers and customers and accelerate the exchange of business critical information." "ACORD supplies over half of the insurance forms used in the industry to enable insurance companies to meet all regulatory requirements," said Aziz Hussein, chief technology officer for ACORD. "The new PDF ACORD fillable forms, combined with the ACORD XML standard, will enable our members to improve quality and service through automation of expensive manual processing, while complying with government mandates." The new ACORD fillable Forms in Adobe PDF interoperate with the ACORD XML data standard, and are available on the ACORD Advantage program web site, www.acordadvantage.org.