Willis Launches E-Commerce for Employee Benefits

Business Wire, Oct 25, 2000

Business Editors

NASHVILLE, Tenn.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Oct. 25, 2000

Willis North America Inc. will launch a comprehensive e-business solution for its employee benefits clients, providing products and services unparalleled in the industry.

"When 'The Willis Experience' is fully deployed," announced Phil Neff, Willis' Benefits Practice leader, "our clients will have access to a package of productivity tools, information and expertise that far surpasses anything now available in the brokerage community. We are effectively combining the efficiency and round-the-clock accessibility of the Internet with the expertise of Willis... a powerful advantage for our clients." Willis partnered with three Web-based companies to provide the framework of its e-commerce initiative.

- BenefitPoint, Inc., the leading Internet-based employee benefits
infrastructure company, will provide the electronic platform to enable
efficient client management; connectivity to carriers for product procurement
and renewal processing, analytics and data-mining; and set-up tools for
benefits administration and online enrollment services.

- iBenefits, Inc. is an Internet-based solution for benefits enrollment and
administration, providing tools for employee self-service enrollment,
communications, benefit administrations services and real-time reporting
capabilities.

- Arbor Associates, Inc. will provide full-service Web/IVR-based benefit plan
administration for employers, including enrollment, employee status changes,
carrier feeds (premium and eligibility) and payroll integration.

"Building upon these partnerships, 'The Willis Experience' will provide internal business process automation and connectivity, as well as enable our people to deliver bundled services to our clients, offering them interactive solutions to their benefits administration needs," added Craig Davidson, e-business leader for Willis' Benefits Practice. "We are providing a platform that includes the development of customized, benefits websites; assistance in communicating with employees; streamlined services; one-of-a-kind analytical tools; point-and-click access to our knowledge, and much more," said Davidson.

Willis' e-commerce enterprise for benefits began in four markets: Chicago, Phoenix, Baltimore and Washington, D.C. It rolls out nationwide over the next 12 months.

Willis' Benefits Practice is a part of Willis North America Inc. based in Nashville, Tenn. Willis is the largest private risk management consultant and insurance broker in the world, employing more than 12,000 professionals in 235 offices and using all of its expertise to help its clients succeed.

About our partners...

BenefitPoint, Inc.

"We are excited about our relationship with Willis and look forward to helping them meet their goals of greater efficiency, improved productivity and the ability to provide new products and services to their clients." said Mark A. Pulito, chairman, president and CEO of BenefitPoint. "When global leaders such as Willis endorse the BenefitPoint solution, we know that we have successfully identified and met the real needs of the industry" BenefitPoint, Inc. delivers the leading Internet-based employee benefits infrastructure for the distribution and management of group insurance and financial products. As the central nervous system of the employee benefits industry, BenefitPoint provides a complete set of b2b services enabling benefits professionals to manage the entire group health insurance and benefits lifecycle. Releasing its first solution in December 1999, BenefitPoint has already received widespread industry adoption from regional and national insurance carriers as well as from more than 120 of the leading U.S.-based brokerage and consulting firms. For more information about BenefitPoint, visit www.benefitpoint.com

iBenefits

"iBenefits applauds Willis' decision to bring work-changing technology directly to our clients," said Jeff Graves, CEO, iBenefits. "Benefits administration stands to gain more efficiency from the Web than almost any other business function." iBenefits is a leading application service provider to the employee benefits industry, offering Web-based enrollment and administration tools to mid- and large-sized employers, benefit brokers, third party administrators and insurance carriers. iBenefits recently merged with UltraLink, a pioneer in the field of health plan management services for Fortune 1000 employers. For more information about iBenefits, visit www.iBenefits.com.

Arbor Associates

"The Willis consultants clearly are among the leading insurance advisors in the industry," said Jeff Rosenblum, president, Arbor Associates. "This expertise, combined with Arbor's proven track record in managing complex challenges of Web-IVR enrollment/eligibility, results in a powerful partnership that will ultimately provide our mutual clients with an unparalleled end-to-end solution."

Arbor Associates provides business-to-business administration services connecting employers and their employees to insurance carriers, service providers, call centers, payroll providers and internal HRIS systems. Arbor's business mission is facilitating accurate Web/IVR enrollment, carrier billing and eligibility and payroll integration. For the past 10 years, Arbor's partnership with clients has enabled their clients to spend their valuable time on critical, strategic initiatives rather than day-to-day transactional benefits administration. Arbor's disciplined approach, extensive audits and proven best practices have resulted in reduced benefits costs by increasing accuracy, eliminating redundancies and reducing expensive processing errors.