The Right Source

Wilton Re does a significant amount of outsourcing, so adding another book of business to its existing relationship with BPO outsourcer CSC made perfect sense. "It's quite simple," says Enrico Treglio, senior vice president and COO with Wilton Re. "We feel there are certain things we are experts at–things we like to concentrate and focus on."

On the other side of that equation, Treglio claims, the reinsurer also looks at the capabilities other companies have, such as more back-office expertise, more bandwidth, and more resources. "We get just as good, if not better, service by outsourcing," he says.

Among the benefits Wilton Re receives from the outsourcing arrangement are the volume of business handled by CSC and the quality of workers CSC can hire to handle that volume, in Treglio's view. "IT operations traditionally have been in-house and have run very well, but the cost of maintaining your servers, keeping people up-to-date on things such as security and viruses–if you have someone who does that for a group of companies, you get the best of both worlds," he says. "It's not only going to cost you less, but also you are going to get the most up-to-date folks, software, and best practices."

The book Wilton Re has contracted to CSC was handled internally and will be added to what Treglio refers to as a "significant amount of policies [with CSC] from an earlier relationship.

"When you talk about outsourcing, if I were to have the business process run internally, I don't care what anyone says, internal SLAs are not as easy to enforce as the ones you have with your external partners," asserts Treglio. "That assures better quality service, mostly for our policyholders, and it allows me to manage the business."

Using outsourcers is no excuse for getting lazy, though. "One of our philosophies is just because it is outsourced doesn't mean we relinquish our responsibility or our accountability," says Treglio. "We manage the outsourcers. The ability to manage outsourcers–whether they be IT, TPAs, or human resources–is not as easy as people think. You manage them just as you manage your own people."

When it came time to add the new life reinsurance book of business, Wilton Re and members of senior management had a long and good relationship with CSC. "[CSC] had handled two other blocks for us at the time, one where we partnered with Protective Life Insurance Co. and one of our own blocks," says Treglio.

It wasn't a difficult decision to continue working with CSC. "Quite frankly, and I don't say this lightly, I would put CSC's back-office operations up against any insurance company's out there," attests Treglio. "The process and procedures and the use of technology are superior."

What makes CSC stand out for Wilton Re is the vendor's ability to manage workflow, points out Treglio. "It has to manage call center volumes to make sure it is meeting specific SLAs," he says. "It does that by using up-to-date technology that monitors volume."

CSC currently does a good chunk of its policy administration work in its Nashville location, Treglio indicates, but if the Nashville location starts to get too busy, some of the work can move over to the Jacksonville or Dallas locations. "You don't have that internally," he says.

The effective use of workflow also means CSRs in Jacksonville can pull up Wilton Re's operating guidelines on their screen even if the CSRs are not processing Wilton Re business on a daily basis and be able to process it efficiently as well as answer any policyholders' questions, adds Treglio.

CSC will be processing the Wilton Re business as of July 1, he reports. The conversion started in the third quarter of 2008. "There always are issues in conversions," he says. "Most of the time, it's legacy work. Sometimes, it's just getting the data in, getting it clean, and getting the policies and procedures running."

Once everything is up, running, and clean, Treglio predicts a smooth transition. "I'll get monthly feeds to my systems here," he says. "I'll have my financial transactions shortly thereafter. [CSC] does some analysis for me on my transactions, and that also will come in a quick period of time. CSC handles all my complaints and claims–all my customer interaction."

Wilton Re is sold on outsourcing and believes most insurance companies would benefit by outsourcing their back office. "The volume makes the cost/benefit just a no-brainer," concludes Treglio. "I don't know why more insurance companies don't do it."