MITEM Enables AmeriBen's New Self-Service
Benefits Administration Solution
Helping employers help themselves
just became easier, thanks to the non-invasive approach to legacy integration
pioneered by MITEM
MENLO
PARK, Calif., - November 20, 2001 - MITEM® Corporation, a leading
provider of legacy integration software and e-Business solutions announced
today that AmeriBen Solutions, a benefits administration organization,
servicing some of the leading employers in the country, has deployed MitemView
to provide direct legacy systems access for its new self-service benefits
administration package.
This self-service Web application enables Ameriben's clients to manage
employee benefit eligibility information themselves, rather than manually
creating and sending change order forms to AmeriBen for processing.
To accomplish this, AmeriBen needed a reliable approach to directly
link to their clients' legacy systems allowing automatic updating of
employee eligibility information. MitemView is designed to enable real-time
application integration without requiring changes or additions to existing
applications. This non-invasive approach, pioneered by MITEM, has been
used effectively in a wide variety of projects ranging from call center
management and procurement to Web-based self-service.
AmeriBen's third-party administrator (TPA) services are in high demand
by the growing number of organizations opting for self-funded benefits
plans versus fully-insured plans. AmeriBen's success depends on its
ability to help client companies recruit and retain employees by offering
comprehensive benefits packages that make it easy to enroll employees,
make changes and access information.
Two years ago, AmeriBen's clients were mostly small companies with
100 to 500 employees enrolled in each company's plan. As AmeriBen grew
and attracted larger clients (5,000 to 8,000 individuals), these clients
wanted to manage employee eligibility information themselves, rather
than manually sending change order forms to AmeriBen for processing.
To address this need, AmeriBen developed a self-service Web application
that links directly to their legacy system to automatically update employee
eligibility information.
"We used MitemView to provide the critical legacy connection in
a new Web-based application to automate and integrate the high volume
of eligibility data changes and updates we previously received as hardcopy
change forms," said Damon Sutherland, Systems Analyst, of AmeriBen.
"Now our clients can process these changes themselves, using a
wizard-like GUI, and employee benefits information is instantly updated
on our backend system, rather than waiting for our staff to enter it."
MitemView serves as the link between AmeriBen's legacy system, a Digital
Equipment Corporation (DEC) Alpha ES40 server running OpenVMS, and a
SQL server housing each Web transaction. The clients' human resources
department enters their employee's eligibility data and MitemView takes
that data from the Web application and integrates it with the legacy
database, instantly updating eligibility information at the source.
Prior to selecting MitemView, AmeriBen explored many other technology
options.
"A batch file approach wasn't real time. It wasn't quick enough
and the system was limited in the ways information could be sent. Front-end
options, such as screen scraping, were too slow and couldn't handle
the amount of traffic we anticipated. We also tried a DDE link to a
Telnet server, however when an undiscovered state occurred, the Telnet
server wasn't able to recover and the system went down," said Sutherland.
"When we looked at MitemView, we found it easily handled the problem
of undiscovered states and was much more robust and reliable. MitemView
allows the ability to recover, and you can tell exactly why the error
occurred."
With MitemView solving the complex legacy integration problem at the
back-end, AmeriBen's eligibility system has provided significant business
value. The system has been live since May 1 and has never gone down,
while competitors' systems have experienced downtime. AmeriBen's competitiors
using off-the-shelf claims processing software have reported spending
more time and money on system maintenance, while AmeriBen has been able
to decrease its eligibility department staff by nearly 50 percent and
simultaneously grow its business by 33 percent.
"MITEM has enabled us to meet new demands of our larger customers
so they could incrementally grow their business. Plus, it has enabled
us to decrease our costs in administering eligibility information, while
handling a higher volume of business - 650 transactions per day. It
provides a sophisticated, accurate, reliable system that was easy to
deploy and is simple to maintain. In many respects, MitemView has far
exceeded our expectations," said Sutherland.
AmeriBen plans to use MitemView to add more features and options to
its basic eligibility system. Additional options for HMO style plans
and COBRA maintenance may be added. These features would give AmeriBen
additional plan design options it could offer via their MitemView enhanced
Web enrollment package, helping to make it easier for their clients
to retain employees - a primary industry benchmark for competitiveness.
Founded in 1964, AmeriBen Solutions (www.ameriben.com)
is one of the oldest benefit administration organizations in the country.
For over 35 years, the company has provided benefit and human resource
solutions for some of the leading organizations in the country. And
as a wholly owned subsidiary of IEC Group (one of the nations' premier
human resource consulting organizations) AmeriBen possesses the technology,
expertise and stability necessary to service employers of virtually
any size or industry.
Contact:
MITEM Corporation
Andy Nelson
650.323.1500
pr@mitem.com
###
|
