Willis's WillPLACE goes live

Willis has launched WillPLACE, a global placement system that will rival Aon’s Global Risk Insight Platform (GRIP).

WillPLACE links up specialist software with a database to help Willis staff match their clients’ insurance needs with the most appropriate insurers.

The brokerage claims WillPLACE is unique as it has been designed around Willis’s clients. Insurance Times revealed Willis’s plans to launch the database last week.

Willis chief executive and chairman Joe Plumeri said: “WillPLACE in many ways represents the future of broking and a deeper, more collaborative relationship between Willis and its clients.”

WillPLACE was launched as a pilot program in Italy one year ago. By the end of the first quarter of 2012, WillPLACE will have been rolled out across areas including Europe, the USA, Canada and Latin America.

After this phase of the rollout is complete, more than 70 percent of premium that Willis places into the insurance market will go through WillPLACE.

Willis Group President Grahame Millwater said: “WillPLACE has been developed to bring 21^st Century technology directly into the traditional broking process, breaking the mould of how business has been done in the industry, enhancing transparency and giving clients the best information to help guide their insurance decisions.”

Insurers can pay to get benchmarking information such as reasons they are gaining or losing business from WillPLACE.

Some insurers will provide Willis with an additional fee on placements matched through the WillPLACE system. These insurers receive additional reporting and consultative services for that fee. Clients may direct Willis to opt out of this additional remuneration.