So where’s the paper?

Shannon Oatway, Business Edge
The loss of a major client in 1999 prompted Benefit Management Ltd.'s David Roberts to trash the paper chase and jump online.

The business of benefits management is notorious for mountains of paperwork. But paper is a rare commodity at Benefit Management Ltd.

A tour of its Calgary office with its glistening desktops speaks volumes about how this small company is taking the industry by storm with its online program of real-time benefits management solutions known as Benefits PlanNet.

According to David Roberts, president and chief executive of Benefits Management, the old-fashioned paper shuffle, even in an industry hung up on outdated traditional business practices, is no match for the stylish online system of benefits administration his company has developed through technology partners Xwave and Microsoft.

The PlanNet program, launched last October by Benefit Management, a full-service benefits and consulting company, is designed to save plan administrators time and headaches.

Benefits management is one of the most cumbersome and time-consuming tasks human-resources executives face.

“We were the first real-time benefits provider (in Canada),” says Roberts. “There are still a lot of companies going the old paper-reimbursement route with a lot of people shuffling a lot of paper. But from an efficiency point of view, the automated electronic systems are really so much more efficient.

“I really don’t see the industry turning back from that. Initially, the modern way of doing business was shunned, like pulling teeth. But it’s difficult to stop a train, turn it around and get someone moving in another direction.”

Benefit Management, headquartered in Calgary, is negotiating with several prospective partners in the insurance business for potential lucrative alliances with PlanNet.

Roberts says the company is considering one of two options, of taking on one partner with a 40-per-cent share of PlanNet or four partners who would each purchase 10 per cent shares of PlanNet.

Benefit Management began developing PlanNet in 1999 after it lost a major client because it wasn’t plugged in to the Internet.

“The reason we decided we wanted to go to the Internet was because we lost a significant client of about 800 people that moved (its business) to Great West Life,” said Roberts. “We had a better product, we had a lower price to the tune of $300,000, but we just didn’t have the Internet service. So we just didn’t stack up on one of the three legs of the stool. It was a big slap in the face, losing a significant client.”

Benefit Management recently showcased PlanNet, in conjunction with Xwave and Microsoft, for the insurance industry, attracting insurance titans such as Standard Life, Manulife Financial, RBC Insurance, Sun Life, Wawanesa, Liberty Mutual and Manitoba Blue Cross at the Banff Springs Hotel.

“There has been tremendous interest and our dilemma is whether to go to several players (partners) or just one,” said Roberts.

“It (PlanNet) is like a baby. You know it has great potential and you want to let it go and let it do what it can do. We are so far ahead of the industry that we have to take advantage of that window.”

Benefit Management contracted Xwave, a Canadian information technology organization, to implement PlanNet, which provides plan administrators with Web-enabled access to management of their company’s employee benefits. The program works on the Microsoft e-commerce platform.

“You access the system online, it’s real-time and it’s secure,” said Roberts. “It’s not a piece of paper that gets lost on a chain of three or four desks. It’s something you as a plan administrator have control over.

“The industry has been talking for some time about e-commerce and about how the Internet is going to look, but it hasn’t done very much to accomplish that vision. Most of the systems that were put in place were in essence almost a glorified e-mail system whereby you’re putting in a request to make a change but not actually getting into the system and making the change in real time.”

Prior to co-founding Benefit Management in 1995, Roberts worked in the industry with North American Life and Labelle & Morel Benefit Services.

His experience led him to adopt a philosophy of “better, not bigger” at Benefit Management.

“The insurance industry has been around a long time and it developed long-standing processes and systems and bureaucratic organizations that take a long time to accomplish very little,” said Roberts. “We kind of view ourselves as a company that if we’re coming up to an iceberg, we’re not the Titanic. We can actually, turn, avoid it and circle around the iceberg three times. We really feel like we have the ability to be nimble enough to respond to what the industry has been saying it wants for some time.”

Roberts says PlanNet may ultimately be utilized in payroll administration and other human resources areas.

Benefit Management, a privately-held company which has 30 employees at offices in Calgary and Edmonton, does have its sights set at becoming bigger. It is setting up a third office in Montreal. The company already serves more than 500 companies in North America.

“We want to be a truly national company and to be truly national in this country you have to be bilingual,” said Roberts.

Web Watch:

www.benefits.ca xwave.com

E-mail feedback:

Gyle Konotopetz can be reached at: gyle@businessedge.ca