Wells Fargo Brings Rating In-House

In order to keep sensitive data closer to home, Wells Fargo Insurance, Inc. (San Francisco)-- which previously outsourced its call-center rating functionality to companies owned by some of its insurance company partners --has implemented InsBridge (Plano, Texas) Rating Solutions in its homeowners insurance call center. Wells Fargo is using InsBridge RateManager, SoftRater and AgentRater, as well as InsBridge Professional Services for its call center rating needs.

"In the past we outsourced rating but with privacy and data-sharing concerns that is difficult so we decided to bring that functionality in-house," contends Steve Veno, chief operating officer, Wells Fargo. "InsBridge was part of a greater plan to build up our call center functionality."

Wells Fargo, which markets P&C, life and health coverages underwritten by various insurers, awarded the contract to InsBridge because "they were willing to provide us with lots of customization to make this work," relates Veno. Wells Fargo was also impressed with InsBridge's ability to integrate with its telephony system and back-end sales tracking system.

"InsBridge allows us to have a multiple insurance company rating platform on our agent's desktops so if a customer calls, an agent can provide them with their rating options and bind the coverage over the phone," relates Veno. Since the InsBridge products' implementation in August, Well Fargo's producer experience has also improved, relates Veno. "The agents are seeing great benefits associated with providing customers with options," he says.