Case Study
Nationwide®
Sovos Tax Information Reporting helped Nationwide decrease its B notices and penalty notices by more than a third in its first year of subscription.
Nationwide cuts B notices by 34% in the first year with Sovos
Summary
Business Challenges
- Nationwide’s previous vendor exposed the company to risk by failing to update its systems in a timely manner.
- The company was not aligned in its compliance efforts throughout its numerous departments, some of which tried to handle the process internally.
Solution
- Nationwide wanted a complete, end-to-end solution that could help it centralize its reporting efforts across the organization.
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The company also sought to ease the burden of compliance on its employees, allowing them to focus on more important and timely business practices.
Benefits
- Sovos consolidates and automates data aggregation
and transmittals on an easy-to- use platform that Nationwide employees can access in real time. - Sovos updates regulatory requirements in the system as they occur, enabling Nationwide to remain compliant at all times.
The Company
Nationwide started as a small auto insurer for Ohio farmers. Over the past 80 years, the firm has grown into one of the world’s largest insurance and financial services providers, boasting over $157 billion in statutory assets. Nationwide has expanded its reach to offer domestic property and casualty insurance, life insurance and retirement savings, asset management, and strategic investment.
The Challenge
Nationwide previously used another vendor’s solution whose software compliance updates and modifications exposed the company to unnecessary risk. The system was not updated on time and enhancement were integrated slowly. In addition, certain areas of the organization were doing their own processing, which led to nonalignment throughout the company.
The Solution
Between the lack of updates and inconsistency in reporting, Nationwide decided it needed to find a more comprehensive solution to suit its compliance needs. The company wanted to free its employees from the burden of compliance so they could return to focusing on core business practices.
“We have much more control over what is being reported, and we are
able to balance much more efficiently since using [Sovos solutions].
I believe being with Sovos Compliance has allowed my department
to take on additional business without adding employees.”
Shannon Morris
Senior Tax Analyst at Nationwide Financial
The Benefits
The Sovos Tax Information Reporting platform creates transmittals, manages the information returns process, and files required data to the IRS, SSA, state agencies and US territories. The system consolidates data from Nationwide’s 17 feeder systems, allowing Nationwide employees easy access with a secure web login whenever and wherever they need. Throughout the entire process, Nationwide receives continuous feedback through performance audit reports. Sovos also monitors regulatory requirements and updates the system immediately when changes are needed.
The Results
Since switching over to Sovos Tax Information Reporting, Nationwide has consolidated all departmental reporting into one entity. The improvements in efficiency and uniformity have been enormous. Because Nationwide is now in better position to control all filings, they are faster and more responsive to penalty notices. If remittals do not balance to 1099s, Nationwide has the ability to find which forms are out of balance or at least narrow down which administrative area is responsible. The company has freed up resources to focus on core competencies.
Why Sovos?
Nationwide was confident Sovos solutions could provide expertise, efficiency and ease-of-use, and determined Sovos would yield greater accuracy in compliance and less risk in information reporting. Nationwide Insurance, a division of the parent organization, had been using Sovos solutions for three years prior to the company’s decision to centralize its compliance efforts in 2005, so the organization had a proven track record of success with Sovos.