media centre: thomsons online benefits ask 'how flexible do you want us to be?'

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14 October 2003

thomsons online benefits ask "how flexible do you want us to be?"

Leading employee benefit consultancy, thomsons online benefits announced the release of their new industry leading .net technology solution at last week's 2003 Employee Benefits Exhibition.

thomsons say that they took the decision to totally redesign their technology in .net to handle different clients unique requirements when setting up, managing and communicating their employee benefit programme and this required both a totally flexible approach and technology solution. Chris Bruce, Director of Strategic Alliances & Technology at thomsons explains:

"Since our inception we have been using the potential web-based technology presented to break down the barriers to efficiency traditionally found in the way employee benefits were administrated and communicated. We are constantly striving to innovate our offering and our new technology will maintain our market leading position by enabling us to deliver whatever our clients require faster and cheaper. This solution will enable us to provide any benefit package for any size client no matter whether they require the simplest voluntary benefit package or the most complicated international flexible benefit package.

Over the past three years we have seen flexible benefits enquiries rise from being a handful to 50 per cent of new enquiries fielded, and we expect this figure to continue to rise in the future. As employers and employees become more used to the concept of flexible benefits, they want and expect employee benefits packages that are even more tailored to their specific needs and an online solution which integrates with their other key business applications (e.g. payroll, finance, HR)."

By redesigning the t-bX platform in .net technology thomsons online benefits will be able to:

• Be even more flexible in their approach to clients;
• Quicken their delivery time enabling them to offer a cheaper proposition to clients;
• Provide even more robust and secure technology;
• Integrate with clients existing applications simply;
• Develop additional functionality swiftly and at little cost.

Bruce goes on to add "Another of the key drivers of our business is to revolutionise the communication of employee benefits and to capture and engage employees interest to ensure they clearly understand what employee benefits they are provided with, how they operate and the value of the company's investment in them. This requires constantly innovating and changing the manner in which we communicate.

Using .net technology enables us to continually refresh this benefits message by utilising more and differing communication methods such as WAP and digital TV".

The t-bX platform can be used to administer and communicate both a range and combination of solutions:

• Flexible benefits;
• Traditional benefits;
• Voluntary benefits;
• Bespoke solutions (for example total remuneration statements).

thomsons online benefits received Inland Revenue approval in 2001 for signatureless enrolment into group personal pensions and stakeholder pensions. This enabled them to link their database directly with insurance companies removing the reconciliation issues associated with the traditional paper based process.

Ends

For more information on thomsons online benefits

Caroline Shenton
thomsons online benefits
Tel: 020 7808 7588
Email: cs@t-bx.com
www.thomsonsonlinebenefits.com