10 Signs It’s Time to Replace Your Benefit Administration System

As we step into a future full of technology, it might seem obvious that an agile, functional system is a must-have for any self-administered fund. The ability to efficiently serve your participants while providing access to their benefit information from any screen is no longer a vision of the past. Now is the best time to ask yourself, “Is my fund office limited by the performance and functionality of our current benefit administration system?” Below, we’ve outlined the top 10 areas of frustration we’ve heard from administrators and how BenefitDriven can position your fund to improve organizational efficiency and reliability. If any of these 10 signs point to your fund, it may be time to consider an upgrade.

01. Your Workarounds Exceed Your Work

Your existing benefit administration system may have served you until now, but as the industry evolves, it may be struggling to keep up. Utilizing outdated processes and workarounds to overcome system inflexibility harms employee productivity. Equipped with added tools for end-to-end automation, an upgraded system should be designed to streamline the flow of your fund operations, helping you avoid manual workarounds.

02. It’s a Security & Compliance Risk

Security remains a top priority for fund offices today as cloud-based applications extend access to all stakeholders via a common platform. In light of increasing security breaches and compromises, legacy systems are less resistant to cyberattacks, phishing attempts, and malware. As legacy vendors sunset important components, unsupported technology will not see the updates and patches necessary to keep the system compliant with the latest security requirements.

03. Outdated Technology is Costing You

Older or improperly implemented IT solutions will inevitably fail, resulting in sunk costs and reduced productivity. The real cost of running a legacy benefit administration system remains high compared to modern, cloud-based solutions. Just like the software itself, the underlying infrastructure of a legacy system even becomes more expensive to maintain as it ages. As we face new compliance regulations, having a forward-looking benefit administration platform behind you can be an asset that helps grow your business.

04. Difficulty in Remote Work & Collaboration

Business requirements today are more flexible than before. The confines of the physical office are no longer relevant for some fund offices. Too many vendors still run on ancient technologies, and if your current system doesn’t offer work-from-home support, perhaps it’s time to look into a more flexible solution. Cloud-based solutions are offered via secure, online access, meaning you’re always up-to-date and can ensure productivity from anywhere that your team is working.

05. It’s Not an End-to-End Solution

If you’re using different technology for administering your Health & Welfare and Pension plans, it may mean those pieces aren’t working together to create one seamless solution. A true end-to-end solution provides what you need at every step in the administration process, gaining real-time collaboration across your departments. Consolidating the core tasks in self-administering your fund to a single software solution reduces costs, increases efficiency, and allows you to focus on serving your participants.

06. Unresponsiveness to Your Operational Needs

It’s not just the technology, in our world, it’s the people behind the technology that makes the biggest difference. While today’s landscape continues to shift towards online conversations and virtual support, nothing can beat a solid, grass-roots business model. It is important to work with and build relationships with people that care about your operation and are determined to be good partners.

07. It Doesn’t Integrate With Other Systems

Software that struggles with or is unable to integrate with other systems can pose serious problems, leading to data duplication and inconsistencies. It’s important to select a reliable technology vendor that enables your fund’s ability to take advantage of the partnerships you have in place.

08. Converting Your Data Poses a Significant Challenge

The overall difficulty of exporting critical pieces of data from legacy systems often makes a switchover difficult. As conversions represent the transition of the key data at the heart of your operations from one system to another, the ability to access your data is vital to its success. If you are concerned about conversion and the quality of data available from your current system, you are probably already behind the times. It’s time to search for a partner that takes a personal approach in supporting your implementation goals.

09. You Were Given a Roadmap to Nowhere

If you’re with a legacy vendor, you may have even stopped receiving updates. Some vendors have sunsetted important components such that the features you used to have no longer function or are even supported, leading to compatibility issues or even data loss. When choosing the right technology partners, it’s important to seek out a vendor with plenty of industry experience and a track record to match.

10. You Simply Need More

Recognizing the need for a new benefit administration solution can be a key step for many fund offices. Users want to work with the best tools available, and their enterprise software should enable that. If you can spot these signs or similar warnings in your benefit administration system, then perhaps it’s time to take a step toward positive change.

Why BenefitDriven is Different

BenefitDriven dares to be different in a space that seems to avoid change. We start with technology backed by an experienced team of industry professionals committed to providing the highest level of service to make our clients’ work more accurate and efficient. Not only are we constantly evolving to keep up with new rules and regulations, but BenefitDriven also has a best-in-class cybersecurity framework that allows access to data only to users that are properly authorized and authenticated.

As leaders in the space, we are constantly innovating our technology to best fit the needs of fund offices and their plan participants. BenefitDriven brings over 40 years of experience in providing software solutions to Taft-Hartley Trust Funds and understands the nuances of the industry. We are experienced and accustomed to programming and working with plans that have unusual benefit plan parameters. From contributions to claims, BenefitDriven was designed to consolidate the core tasks in self-administering your fund to reduce costs, increase efficiency, and focus on serving your participants.

Conversion Made Easy

Having converted data from over 20 different administration systems with varying file layouts, BenefitDriven has significant experience in handling transitions. We have a large, dedicated transition team of seasoned professionals to perform the data conversions and programming required to interface with your third-party vendors. We place everything at your fingertips, allowing you to implement confidently with extensive visibility along the way.

BenefitDriven is integration-ready by default. In addition to the standard or even custom file format interfaces, our application can integrate with your API-accessible systems and reliably connect with new trading partners.

Why Wait?

BenefitDriven is setting the new standard in benefit administration technology solutions, delivering the flexibility, technology, and reliability that legacy systems lack. Whether you’re a small, self-administered fund office or a national trust fund, we design a collaborative process to reflect your needs, specific conversion goals, timing considerations, and implementation philosophy to ensure a successful go-live and smooth ongoing operations. Our team brings vision and an advanced level of knowledge and expertise to the challenges faced by multi-employer benefit plans, allowing our customers to leverage the power of BenefitDriven in the most efficient, cost-effective way. We aim to be the last benefit administration technology solution you’ll ever need.