Message #13 From:
Stock News Bot Date: December 18, 2006 05:00:00 AM
WFC News Wells Fargo Recognized by Independent Research Firm for Designing the Highest-Rated B2B Site of All Sites Reviewed
SAN FRANCISCO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Wells Fargo & Company (NYSE:WFC) was recognized for producing the
highest-rated business-to-business (B2B) Web site by Forrester Research
in the November 2006 report by Forrester titled, “Best
and Worst of B2B Site Design, 2006.”
Of the 16 major B2B sites evaluated, only two passed Forrester’s
review, with Wells Fargo (wellsfargo.com/biz) earning the top score of
30. The largest sites from four industries were analyzed, including
financial services, logistics, software and professional services. They
were scored for their ability to accomplish relevant B2B goals, user
friendliness and best practices. The average score across all sites was
7.9, well below the passing mark of 25.
“Because our aim is to provide useful,
easy-to-use services that also boost small businesses’
productivity, we’re very pleased to be given
this recognition by Forrester,” said Richard
Weeks, senior vice president of Business Internet Services at Wells
Fargo. “We want to provide small business
owners with credible resources, education and guidance, as well as
best-of-breed products and services. In the ever changing business
world, we continue to respond to our customers needs by working with
them directly to keep abreast of their business challenges and
requirements.”
In Forrester’s report "Best Practice Examples
of Standout User Experiences" section, Wells Fargo was recognized for
having "value added information critical to small and midsize businesses
like information on the basics of business taxes and how to best use
small business accounting software packages such as QuickBooks and
Microsoft Money.”
Wells Fargo is America’s #1 small business
lender (CRA 2002-2005) and the second largest SBA lender in dollars
(2006). Through our outreach and education programs, we have loaned more
than $33 billion since 1995 to women, African American, Latino and Asian
businesses owners.
Wells Fargo’s small business website supports
its online banking services, created to provide customers with a variety
of resources that help them more efficiently manage their businesses.
They include:
Wells Fargo's Online Payments Suite(SM)
for small businesses:
Business Bill Pay enables customers to make payments up
to $50,000 and arrange payments in advance. By scheduling a payment
for one-time or periodic expenses, such as rent and leases, customers
can be assured that payments will be made securely and on time, saving
them the effort of mailing payments.
Vendor Pay, a module of Direct Pay, provides business
owners and authorized signers with the ability to electronically pay
invoices of up to $250,000 to vendors and suppliers. Payments can be
scheduled in advance and a customer chooses settlement via one or
two-day ACH. In addition, payees receive email notification of
payments along with remittance information. As with all Direct Pay
services, payments can only be released by an owner or authorized
signer using the RSA SecurID®
two-factor authentication token.
Employer Direct Pay, a module of Direct Pay, lets
business owners and authorized signers directly deposit employee net
pay, reimbursed expenses and commissions and also make one-time or
recurring payments to contractors or agents. The service is fully
integrated with Business Online®Banking and simplifies payroll distribution while eliminating
potential check fraud.
WellsTAX®enables businesses to pay their business taxes online, anytime.
The process is as simple as transferring funds between accounts, and
ensures federal, and many state and local business tax deadlines are
met. Business owners receive immediate confirmation of tax payments.
Business Online®
Banking, a free service for all small business customers, features:
Deposit Detail Images allows businesses to view summary
details and images of all items deposited to their checking account.
Eliminating photo copying, or requesting a copy of a deposit slip or
check by mail. Business owners simply log on to their account and see
images of each check deposited. He or she can also authorize their
accountants and employees (up to 25 people) with view only access to
the account for budgeting and tracking purposes, including accessing
online statements. In addition, Deposit Detail may serve as a disaster
recovery tool if a business’ paper process
is ever interrupted.
Business Spending Report allows customers to track their
spending for 16 months by a variety of expense categories such as
supply/stationery and utilities/telecom for Wells Fargo®
Business Check Card, Credit Card and Bill Pay.
E-mail Alerts are free and delivered to customers’
email addresses, providing personalized information to help
effectively manage cash flow and monitor recent account activity, in
addition to helping to detect and prevent fraud.
About Wells Fargo
Wells Fargo & Company is a diversified financial services company with
$483 billion in assets, providing banking, insurance, investments,
mortgage and consumer finance to more than 23 million customers from
more than 6,100 stores and the internet (wellsfargo.com) across North
America and internationally.Wells Fargo Bank, N.A. has the
highest possible credit rating, "Aaa," from Moody's Investors Service
and the highest credit rating given to a U.S. bank, "AA+," from Standard
& Poor's Ratings Services.
