In a Year Marked by Uncertainty, PlanSource Added 18 New Partners and More Than 1,000 New Employers
PlanSource, the technology company that automates and simplifies employee benefits programs, shared a recap of 2020 and its direction for 2021. More than 1,000 new employers representing 1.6 million employees selected PlanSource to simplify and automate their employee benefit programs in 2020. PlanSource now serves more than 7.5 million consumers across 5,000 customers through its work with more than 500 brokers and resellers.
The company’s 100 percent digital experience, real-time APIs and easy-to-use consumer-grade workflows proved invaluable by helping HR teams engage their employees outside of traditional office settings. Examples of new customers selecting PlanSource in 2020 include AmeriVet Partners Management, Inc., Ashley Furniture Industries, Little Sprouts and Thrive Restaurant Group, who are all now live on the PlanSource platform and rated their implementation experience a 5 out of 5.
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PlanSource is known for its commitment to partnerships. In 2020 PlanSource added four new partners: Allstate Benefits, Cigna, Reliance Standard and SunLife. These carriers join the PlanSource Boost program, which also includes Aflac, Guardian, Lincoln Financial Group, MetLife, Mutual of Omaha, Prudential, The Hartford, The Standard, Unum and Voya. The Boost program is modernizing the HR and consumer experience with real-time APIs and optimized shopping content and workflows. PlanSource also welcomed a record number of new resellers in 2020, including Catto & Catto, Employee Family Protection, Forester Benefits Management, ProValue, Summit Services and Synergy Enrollment & Benefits.
PlanSource launched the industry’s first-ever Plan Configuration API in 2020 that allows customers to import plan and cost data directly from their carriers in real-time, which improves accuracy and saves time at implementation and annual renewal. Other projects completed in 2020 include Provider Directory integration with multiple carriers and new and improved Evidence of Insurability integrations. PlanSource now offers Evidence of Insurability integrations with eight leading insurance carriers. These integrations streamline the shopping and enrollment process for employees while completely eliminating a burdensome administrative process for HR professionals.
COVID-19 put benefits at the core of the employee experience. In addition to making sure employees had access to the experts at PlanSource who could answer their questions and offer guidance, the company offered free text messaging campaigns throughout 2020 as part of its COVID-19 response. At a time when HR and benefits professionals were overwhelmed and addressing unprecedented challenges with their workforce, the employee communications tool allowed HR managers to stay in touch with employees by sending targeted messages from the PlanSource system. Employers used the free text messaging feature to update employees about schedule changes and office closings, to explain how to use critically important benefits such as telehealth and Employee Assistance Programs and to send reminders and notifications during open enrollment.
Open enrollment is the culmination of months of hard work by HR teams and provides an opportunity for employees to understand their options better and choose the right benefits for their families. Fifty percent more employees accessed the PlanSource system during the Fall open enrollment season in 2020 compared to the prior year, and yet the system response times were 10 percent faster. In addition, 97 percent of PlanSource customers used the new Guided Renewal experience to configure their benefits for the new year. The Guided Renewal experience uses smart defaults, artificial intelligence and data-driven metrics to simplify the renewal process drastically. This new technology puts HR professionals in the driver’s seat and typically reduces customer effort by 20-40 percent.
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“We held our open enrollment in December, and it went great. We’ve been a PlanSource customer for more than eight years, and our open enrollment is more seamless for us each year. The shopping and enrollment experience is easy for our employees, and we received great feedback about the video we created with PlanSource to communicate our benefit changes,” said Andrea Evanter, Senior Vice President of Human Capital at The CORE Group.
PlanSource deploys four major product releases per year for its ISO 27001 certification and SSAE18 SOC 2 Type 2 audited platform. In 2020, PlanSource added support for state-level ACA reporting and added new features related to the California Consumer Privacy Act. Moreover, PlanSource released a new version of its mobile app, which provided access to all the features available in the desktop version. Mobile self-service was more important than ever in 2020, with mobile usage increasing by 67 percent compared to the prior year as it enables employees to start, continue and finish the benefits shopping experience on any device.
“We have employees in all 50 states, and they love that PlanSource is mobile-friendly, which was especially important to them during 2020. They get on PlanSource constantly to check their benefits and answer their own questions throughout the year, which is convenient for them and saves time for our HR team,” shared Evanter.
Investing in talent continues to be an incredibly important initiative for PlanSource. In 2020, PlanSource hired Alan Primeaux as Chief Operating Officer, Harsh Chugh as Chief Financial Officer, and promoted Kellee Frazier to Chief of Staff. PlanSource also opened a new office in Bengaluru, India, which provides access to top talent and faster speed-to-market for product development. The India location has 70 team members today and will grow to 190 team members over the next few months. By the end of 2021, PlanSource will have more than 290 team members focused exclusively on R&D and is currently hiring more than 250 positions globally.
Dayne Williams, Chief Executive Officer at PlanSource, commented, “Our goal in 2020 was to reduce the stress and workload of HR and benefits professionals who were facing unprecedented challenges. With 2020 behind us, I’m excited about the investments we are making in technology and APIs as part of PlanSource Boost that will continue to modernize and differentiate the experience for our customers and their employees.”
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