Press Releases

Leading Financial Services Organizations Choose Authoria HR to Power Employee Self-Service Initiatives

Household International, American Family, and CUNA Mutual Group Among Leading Organizations Delivering World Class B2E Services

Waltham, MA – March 25, 2003 – 

Authoria, Inc., the world leader in personalized, Web-based human resource communication, today announced the continued adoption and endorsement of its flagship Authoria HR software by leading financial services organizations like Household International, CUNA Mutual Group, and American Family Insurance.

Financial services organizations like these rely on their keen focus on customer service as a hallmark of their businesses. These organizations also realize the importance of providing the same high levels of service to their employees that they offer to their customers each day.

"At Household International, we pride ourselves on being the employer of choice," said Bridget Schulz, senior benefits analyst, Household International. "Our use of Authoria is another way that we highlight our commitment to our people. We realize that a major part of our success is the ability to recruit, attract, and retain the very best people possible. Authoria helps us do that."

Financial services companies, like those in many other industries today, are finding that continued investment in e-HR technology is one of the best ways to control costs, create efficiencies, and derive true value from their corporate and HR portal initiatives. Specifically, by delivering more and more HR services on-line, encouraging employee self-service and automating other administrative tasks, companies get more value from their portals while refocusing their HR departments priorities. These companies have also realized that investments in e-HR can help to increase the perceived value of the benefits offered to employees, while improving the companys ability to keep key employees loyal, engaged and feeling satisfied with their work environment.

Selected implementations of Authoria HR within financial service institutions include:

Household International -- Household Internationals businesses are leading providers of consumer loans, credit cards, auto finance and credit insurance products in the United States, United Kingdom and Canada. In the United States, Household's largest business, founded in 1878, operates under the two oldest and most recognized names in consumer finance - HFC and Beneficial. Household is also one of the nation's largest issuers of private label and general-purpose credit cards, including The GM Card and the AFL-CIO's Union Plus card.

Authoria powers the human resources portion of Households company intranet called "Inside HR," where Household's more than 28,000 US-based employees can access personalized benefits and HR policy information.

American Family Insurance -- Employee self-service allows employees and managers to access information anytime, anywhere and has allowed the HR department to shift its focus from an administrative role to a more strategic role. In fact, the HR team experienced a roughly 15% productivity gain in the first six months following implementation. As a result, American Familys HR division is more proactive in providing business solutions around people-related issues.

CUNA Mutual Group -- CUNA Mutual's use of Authoria HR is a powerful example of how an employee self-service Business-to-Employee (B2E) initiative can yield considerable ROI. CUNA successfully shortened the open enrollment period by two weeks and will realize a projected $2.3 million in productivity savings over five years. The project enjoyed rapid adoption by employees in the first week of implementation and the field sales team enjoyed the convenience of enrolling in their 2003 benefits program over the web.

"The financial services customer has come to expect a very high level of customer service from the organization they have chosen to do business with. Authoria helps these organizations deliver this same level of superior service to their employees," said Tod Loofbourrow, president and CEO of Authoria. "As the competition for customers and talented employees continues to grow within the financial services industry, Authoria is proud to provide the tools and HR knowledge resources that keep employees well informed and focused within the workplace."

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 human resource information to millions of people at some of the world's largest companies, including Boeing, Motorola 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

CUNA Mutual Group is the leading financial services provider to credit unions and their members worldwide. Their mission is creating financial security, and their vision is to be the best at serving credit unions and their members. CUNA Mutual Group currently has some 5,000 employees and assets of more than $8.5 billion. American Family Insurance has provided a full line of insurance coverage since 1927. Today, they have more than seven million policies in force. American Family has more than 4,000 agents and over 7,000 employees in 15 states and has more than $9 billion in assets. Authoria HR provides personalized HR knowledge to employees and managers through People Place, a Human Resources intranet powered by Authoria HR and PeopleSoft to deliver employee and manager self-service capabilities.