Tower Group has fully acquired OneBeacon’s Personal Lines. To handle this change, Boston Software has made a few simple but important modifications to your WinRater program.

• All OneBeacon names and logos within WinRater and SinglePoint have changed. OneBeacon Auto is now labeled as Tower Group and OneBeacon OneChoice Home now appears as Tower OneChoice.
• WinRater Auto -  Underwriting Tab: WinRater uses prior carrier information in order to determine if a quote is new business or renewal. If the prior carrier was OneBeacon you will need to select “Tower” from the dropdown.
• WinRater Home - Credit Reports: you will be able to retrieve credit information within WinRater while performing home quoting as you always have. However, you must change your old OneBeacon password to your new Tower Group password.*

*You should have received a new Credit Retrieval password from Tower Group and instructions on how to update it in the Tower Agent Portal. Once this is done, see the instructions below on how to update the new password in WinRater so your credit retrieval workflow will not be interrupted.

Once a quote is opened, this is how to update your password in WinRater:
1) Click “Credit Reports Tab”
2) Click “Settings”
3) Enter your updated password
4) Click “Apply”

Please Note: only the password is changing for the Credit Retrieval. The producer code and User ID will remain the same.

Watch a step-by-step video that shows you how to push your SinglePoint App data through the Peerless’ Agent Portal web site.

Watch a step-by-step video that shows you how to push your SinglePoint App data through the Safety Express web system.

A few agents have told me that they were not confident with the accuracy of WinRater Auto quotes. That’s not something we like to hear. So of course we investigated closely with closely carriers and our staff.

We found out that WinRater is extremely accurate!  You know what else we found out?  That in the vast majority (over 90%) of the cases where a WinRater quote does not match the carrier DEC page it is because the agent or CSR did not enter enough information in WinRater or entered the wrong information.  That’s probably not want you want to hear, but it’s true.

With Managed Competition, carriers require very specific driver, vehicle, and underwriting data. Cutting corners when entering info in WinRater is only going to get you an inaccurate quote.  Four things you can do to help your staff keep track of these specific carrier requirements and quote accurately:

1. Refer to the WinRater Auto Tip Sheet on our web site while you are quoting.  This easy-to-understand reference guide will definitely help.

2. Contact Phyllis Panico at phyllis@bostonsoftware.com. Her job is to make sure she you understand the different carrier requirements. She is also the person to speak to when your WinRater quote does not match your DEC page.

3.  Contact me, Tonya Pickett, at tonya@bostonsoftware.com and I can visit your agency to answer questions and train CSRs. I’m happy to help.

4.  Talk to us! Let us know how we can improve WinRater, be more accurate, etc. Remember this is a partnership between you, us, and your carriers and we have to rely on each other for success.

Due to popular demand, we are extending our SinglePoint Webinar series on Tuesdays and Thursdays at 1pm! Join us for “Tonya’s 30-minute Tune-Up,” a quick and informative online seminar to help your agency get the most out of SinglePoint.

Gain a thorough understanding of the SinglePoint submission workflow that is guaranteed to save you time & keystrokes.

Discussion includes setting up and optimizing SinglePoint for your agency.

Time: 1:00pm-1:30pm

Click on a date to register for a webinar:

Tuesday, September 16th

Thursday, September 18th

Tuesday, September 23rd

Thursday, September 25th

Tuesday, September 30th

Join us for “Tonya’s 30-minute Tune-Up,” a quick and informative online seminar to help your agency get the most out of SinglePoint.

Gain a thorough understanding of the SinglePoint submission workflow that is guaranteed to save you time & keystrokes.

Discussion includes setting up and optimizing SinglePoint for your agency.

Time: 1:00pm-1:30pm

Click on a date to register for a webinar:
Thursday, September 4th
Tuesday, September 9th
Thursday, September 11th

Hey, just in case you didn’t know, WinRater integrates & automates many rating functions, making your agency workflow easier. You should definitely take advantage of these:

Submission of new business Apps for private passenger auto via SinglePoint:
Arbella, Commerce, Encompass, Hanover, MAIP/CAR, National Grange, Norfolk & Dedham, One Beacon, and Travelers.
Coming Soon: Peerless, Quincy Mutual, Vermont Mutual, and others…

Submission of new business Apps for homeowners via SinglePoint:
Arbella and Safety.
Coming Soon: Peerless, Quincy Mutual, Vermont Mutual, and others…

Credit report retrieval in WinRater Home:
Arbella, Bunker Hill, Commerce, General Casualty, Hanover, Hingham, National Grange, Norfolk & Dedham, One Beacon, Quincy Mutual, Safety, and others coming soon.

Agency Management Systems:AMS 360, AMS AfW, AMS Online, AMS Prime, APPLIED, DORIS, InStar, Sagitta, SIS, Special Agent.

For more information contact Tonya at tonya@bostonsoftware.com or 781-449-8585.

Many business applications, including WinRater, have problems running on the Microsoft VISTA Home platform.  We have been fielding many calls trying to trouble VISTA-related issues.  It can get pretty ugly.  Considering the amount of technical support we have to field at this busy time, we have to drop  VISTA-related calls down on our priority list.  We STRONGLY SUGGEST you upgrade to VISTA BUSINESS edition.  It costs approximately $200.00, but you’ll save a lot of time and headaches.