BOSTON (October 10, 2006) - In the year since HighRoads broadened its offerings to help Fortune 500 companies manage the employee benefits lifecycle far more efficiently and cost effectively, the company has signed 72 direct and indirect new customers, more than doubled company revenue, and won three high-profile industry awards. This dramatic market validation reflects today´s intense demand for a new paradigm to control rising benefit costs.
HighRoads´ expansion of its solution offerings last year coincided with a move to give customers the choice to tap its Benefits Lifecycle Management (BLM) solution in a Software as a Service (SaaS) delivery model or as a hosted Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) service. Today, its BLM solutions are broadly used by the world´s largest companies, and consulting firms to automate the multiple benefits processes and transactions throughout the annual cycle - from procurement, to employee communication and compliance, to vendor management and renewals, transforming manually intensive processes into efficient, streamlined operations.
Customers have consistently proven HighRoads´ ability to reduce overall health and welfare costs by more than 15 percent, dramatically reduce cycle time, and create a centralized benefits information bank to support intelligent decision-making. As a result, HR teams can refocus their efforts on initiatives like evaluating consumerism in healthcare, assessing plan appropriateness to demographics, establishing better training opportunities and more.
"Everyone´s grappling with the dual challenges of rising healthcare costs and the need to roll out competitive benefits programs that valued employees deserve," said Michael Byers, chief operating officer of HighRoads. "Our customers are achieving both by shedding time-consuming, paper-based processes and maximizing value at each stage of the benefits lifecycle."
Rapidly Expanding Customer Base
New customers include IBM, Kraft, Honeywell and The TJX Companies, Inc. -joining a blue-chip portfolio that includes Florida Power & Light, Ford, General Dynamics, Staples and the State of Missouri. HighRoads continues its record of 100 percent customer retention while converting longstanding accounts to its new subscription model, driving a 118 percent increase in overall revenue.
Today, HighRoads serves organizations with tens of thousands of employees, and has a particularly strong base in retail, manufacturing, energy and the government sectors.
Taking Home Top Honors
HighRoads took home two major product awards, for technology and innovation. HR Executive named BLM 2006 a Top HR Product of the Year, one of the industry´s most valued awards. The team also won the MITX Technology Award as the top HR technology in New England. Both awards cited the product´s innovation and effectiveness at solving a major business challenge.
Customer Success
Customers´ successes in managing contracts and procurement are drawing attention from peers. Kathy Durbin, director of benefits for H-E-B Grocery, won the prestigious 2006 Employee Benefit News Benny Award - Judges´ Choice, for improving quality and cutting several million dollars in administrative and procurement costs for its benefits programs, which serve more than 6,000 employees.
Durbin joined Owens Corning´s Mark Snyder in highlighting their experiences at the Heath & Human Capital Management World Congress, the annual conference for HR leaders and innovators. Another HighRoads customer, Henry Eickelberg of General Dynamics, shared his strategy to lower benefits cost by streamlining administration with the highly respected National Business Group on Health.
Company Growth and Investment
HighRoads dramatically accelerated growth with new investments, several new solutions and a customer summit.
The company´s 2006 version of its BLM flagship offering streamlines sourcing, administration and evaluation of large-scale employee plans. New global data management capabilities let multinational organizations automate resource-intensive processes worldwide.
HighRoads´ strong market traction attracted an $8.0 million investment from existing investors Kodiak Venture Partners, RBC Capital and AH Ventures, and introduced a new investor, Egan-Managed Capital.
It also launched its firstCustomer Summit, another milepost of HighRoads´ market leadership and growing customer demand. Benefit directors and other HR executives exchanged both best practices and strategies reducing costs and increasing the quality of benefit plans. The next summit will be held in November.
"HighRoads´ platform is increasingly tapped as a key component in an industry-wide transformation underway in the Human Resources function - where professionals are refocusing efforts onto strategic initiative that drive value to the organization and offloading hefty administrative burdens where it makes sense," said Byers, "Now they have time to focus on the business initiatives where they can make the greatest impact."