Authoria Makes Employee Benefits Open Enrollment Season A Success For Many U.S. Companies

Authoria, Inc., the world leader in personalized, Web-based human resource communication, today announced that nearly one million employees nationwide are using Authoria HR for employee benefits open enrollment self-service this season at leading companies like Wells Fargo, Travelers Property Casualty, Square D/Schneider Electric, CUNA Mutual Group, and Sutter Health.

Open enrollment, which typically occurs from October through December of each year, is one of the most challenging and costly times of the year for HR professionals. At the same time, employees are under pressure to make informed benefits selections for themselves and their families for the following year.

"Communicating benefit packages and helping employees understand what they are eligible for during open enrollment can cost organizations significant amounts of money," said Rob Maina, executive director, CIBC World Markets. "Using traditional paper-based methods and interactive voice response (IVR) systems, we estimate the cost to be about $75 per employee, per year. Using technology products like Authoria HR to help streamline the open enrollment process can dramatically reduce that cost by as much as 60 to 80 percent."

Communicating benefits information to a diverse and distributed workforce is a daunting task, especially at large employers with multiple benefit offerings. The greater the number of benefit plans offered, the greater the number of employee questions. To produce accurate answers, HR professionals need to know which plans an employee is eligible for, the group the employee belongs to, whether the employee is union or non-union, and so on. The task is made more difficult with the flood of last-minute calls to HR as enrollment deadlines loom.

That's where Authoria HR comes in. Authoria HR is enterprise software that dramatically improves the business process around employee communication and open enrollment. Authoria HR collects and stores benefit and HR policy information in a single location and then provides it to employees online, empowering them with the personalized information they need to make informed decisions, while easing the burden on HR departments.  Enrollments are completed quickly and on time -- with employees experiencing better service and the satisfaction of making more informed choices. For example, Authoria HR can create instant plan comparisons online that are personalized to each employee. With instant, side-by-side comparison of plan components and costs, employees can choose only the plans and features that best suit their needs.

"Authoria is the leader in providing technology that streamlines HR business processes like benefits open enrollment and the creation of Summary Plan Descriptions," said Tod Loofbourrow, president and CEO of Authoria. "We're delighted with the rapid adoption of our technology by leading companies like Wells Fargo, Travelers Property Casualty, Square D/Schneider Electric, CUNA Mutual Group, and Sutter Health during this open enrollment season -- which underscores a broader, international trend of companies embracing employee self-service and e-HR."

About Authoria

Authoria is the world leader in personalized, Web-based human resource communication. Authoria HR is the knowledge application standard in the software industry.  Over one hundred organizations worldwide rely on Authoria to dramatically improve employee communication while streamlining costs. Authoria's knowledge applications manage and communicate complex information to millions of people at some of the world's largest companies, including Boeing, Motorola, Weyerhaeuser and Wells Fargo. Among Authoria's partners are industry-leaders PeopleSoft, Towers Perrin, IBM BCS and Accenture. Based in Waltham, MA, Authoria has been ranked three times by Inc. Magazine as one of America's fastest-growing private companies and has been recognized by Deloitte & Touche in the New England Fast 50 four times and the National Fast 500 twice. For more information, please visit www.authoria.com.

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Note to editors: Authoria, Authoria eSPD, Authoria HR, Authoria Outsourcer, Authoria HR US Policies, Authoria HR US Benefits, Authoria HR UK Policies and Authoria HR UK Benefits are trademarks or registered trademarks of Authoria, Inc. in the United States and other countries.  All other product names and references contained herein remain the service marks, trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective owners.

For more information:
David Fleming
Authoria
781-530-2040       
david.fleming@authoria.com

Doug Russell
Schwartz Communications
(781) 684-0770
authoria@schwartz-pr.com