| Online
Benefit Management: Process Automation
for the Rest of Us |
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The Simple Way May Be Best |
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Everyone uses it and its software developer
distributes it at no cost. No, it's not a
screensaver, junk mail, or a new come on to earn
thousands of dollars while you browse the
Internet. It's Adobe Acrobat Reader, and it may
offer the best way to automate your processes. |
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Although the benefits of online process
automation are compelling - 24/7 availability,
remote access, faster transactions, greater
accuracy, and enhanced employee and customer
satisfaction - it's implementation has been
slow. Why? For many, it has been its significant
capital investment, minimal internal resources
and support, and perhaps a fear of committing to
a solution that can turn out to be the software
equivalent of an Edsel. |
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Cybermate focus has been on online Applications,
its vision has always been a wider application
of online automation for virtually any process. |
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How It Works |
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To begin, Adobe Acrobat uses existing forms,
with which employees and customers are already
familiar. There's no training or learning curve.
The only difference is that a paper form has
been replaced with a faithful online equivalent.
A PDF version of the form is created, and
interactive fields are then developed. Although
the user only needs the free Acrobat Reader
application to use an online PDF form, the
complete Adobe Acrobat application is needed to
create forms with interactive fields. |
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To the user, nothing has changed other than the
fact that the form they have always used is now
online. To you, much has changed: There is no
manual inputting, no interpretation of
handwritten information, no photocopying, and no
filing. In addition, the data captured by the
form is always there, at your fingertips,
whenever you need it. The underlying process
represented by the form has now been automated.
It's as simple as that. |
| Taking the
Risk Out of Process Automation |
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At the heart of Cybermate is Adobe's PDF
(Portable Document Format) technology, which
offers a powerful process automation solution.
Moreover, because it can work with existing
applications throughout your organization,
you're not asked to invest in high-cost,
proprietary technology. Here are some of the
important features of PDF technology: |
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There is no software or licenses to buy.
Users complete PDF forms using the freely
and universally available Acrobat Reader,
which puts process automation on the PC of
any employee, customer, vendor, or supplier. |
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Data collected by PDF forms
can be sent to any database. |
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PDF forms use open-source code based on
JavaScript, which means maintenance can be
easily performed in-house or by consultants. |
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PDF forms provide an enterprise-wide
solution they can be used to solve
practically any data-gathering endeavor
within an organization. |
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Based on an organization existing forms,
interactive PDF forms reflect the repository
of the practical experience already built
into in the existing forms over time,
reflecting real world trial and error. This
allows a faster and less expensive
development cycle for PDF forms, since
several steps required by many proprietary
systems to identify and analyze existing
transactions are eliminated. |
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PDF forms can be posted on the Web,
Intranets, Extranets, local servers, or on
desktop PCs. Moreover, because a PDF
document faithfully reproduces the originals
graphic design, PDF forms also provide the
option to distribute forms by traditional
hardcopy methods and allow for the scanning
of hardcopy submissions. |
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PDF forms support electronic signatures, and
adapt easily to the typical office
information flow (multiple approvals,
signatures, etc). The digital completion of
documents will become more widespread as the
use of electronic signatures to verify
transactions matures over the next few
years. |
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PDF forms support complex and sophisticated
calculations, further speeding transactions.
For example, employee benefit elections can
be converted into payroll deductions on the
fly and the results can be sent
automatically to appropriate departments,
such as human resources and payroll. You
also can build flags into interactive fields
that will alert users when they need to
correct entries or take specific actions. |
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PDF forms make communication over
geographical distances easier, while
adhering to legal and other standards,
thereby allowing strategic decisions to be
made more efficiently. |
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Data collected by PDF forms can be stored
digitally on available magnetic or other
storage media, allowing the retrieval of
transactions at any time without the need to
keep paper records. |
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PDF forms can automate virtually any
process. Moreover, by keeping development
costs low, you can automate more processes. |
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| Putting PDF to
the Test |
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Carroll County General Hospital (CCGH) is a
regional medical center located in Northern
Maryland. It has about eleven hundred employees
who have been enrolling in its group benefit
plans manually upon hire and each year during an
annual enrollment period. |
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This manual process required CCGH's human
resources department to essentially shut down
once a year, devoting most of its resources to
manage employee elections and their
implementation as of the following January 1.
Elections were made on paper forms, which
required four to five weeks from the opening of
the election period until the elections were
manually keyed-in. |
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When Cybermate began discussions with CCGH in
May, 2000, Christina Arenz, CCGH's Sr. Benefits
Specialist, had already investigated a number of
automated enrollment systems used by other
health care organizations and local employers.
What she found was a wide range of products,
priced from the low six to seven figures, and
with varying degrees of implementation success.
Cybermate felt it could provide the
functionality CCGH required at a cost within
their budget. |
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The first step was to consolidate the existing
benefit enrollment forms CCGH used for new hires
and annual enrollment. Because the same set of
forms were used for both processes, the goal
from the beginning was to provide CCGH with a
unified benefits enrollment system that could be
used at any time of the year. Upon completing a
consolidated nine-page benefits enrollment form,
Cybermate then set about building the
interactive fields. |
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In CCGHs case, PDF technology was used to build
a complete enrollment system with the following
features: |
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The enrollment form is accessed online from
CCGHs human resources Intranet. One concern
from the outset, something shared by many
employers, is that relatively few CCGH
employees had a desktop PC or access to one.
Although many solutions were discussed, CCGH
chose to set up a bank of PCs in a room that
afforded privacy that could be used for
initial benefit enrollment on an as-needed
basis and by appointment during annual
enrollment. |
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Security was established in a traditional
manner. Upon hire, a human resources
administrator sets up a record for the new
employee with a temporary password and
personal identification number. Upon initial
log-on, the employee is then asked to select
a new password and PIN. |
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After logging on, employees are asked to
review a screen with general enrollment
instructions, and are then prompted to make
their elections by opening an enrollment
form. |
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For annual enrollment, the PDF form is
populated with an employees current benefit
elections obtained from CCGHs HRIS. |
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Employees are taken through the enrollment
process in a logical sequence: medical,
dental, disability, and life and accident
insurance elections are made in that order.
Fields within the form are flagged so that
if an employee makes an incorrect or
inappropriate entry, he or she receives a
message explaining how to correctly enter
the information. In addition, the form is
designed to prevent employees from
proceeding from one page to the next until
all the required information is entered. |
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Payroll deductions, reflecting actual
employee elections, are calculated on the
fly. |
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Upon completion, employees see a summary
page of their elections, including their
before-tax and after-tax contributions. At
this point they have the option of printing
a copy of the completed form for their own
records. After they are satisfied with their
elections, employees may then electronically
submit their forms. |
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Completed forms are sent by e-mail to a
dedicated address, where human resources may
then review the elections. |
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Reviewed and approved elections are locked.
At this point, an employee may review his or
her elections, but not change them without
intervention by Human Resources. |
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Human Resources may unlock forms at any time
if changes are needed during the year. |
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Elections made for prior periods are
maintained in a history section, which can
be accessed anytime by Human Resources and
the employee. |
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At
any time, Human Resources has ready access
to information about who has submitted
elections and who has not. |
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Information alerts make Human Resources job
easier. For example, Cybermate developed a
list of pending submissions before end of
open enrollment, summaries of employee form
submissions, etc. for CCGH. |
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The system can alert
employees to deadlines and the status of
elections. |
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Approved, data is sent
automatically to the CCGH HRIS and payroll
systems. |
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Electronic enrollment reports are
automatically generated and sent to the
appropriate vendors to interface directly
with their electronic systems. |
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The Bottom Line |
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Cybermate delivered a complete enrollment system
to CCGH within seven months and within CCGH's
budget. By basing the enrollment transactions on
the procedures contained in existing forms, we
saved weeks, if not months, of analysis,
planning, and review. Employees found not an
exotic new system, but the same forms with which
they had become familiar. By using a technology
that was flexible, updates and future
installations will be far less costly, and by
using open-code software, most employers won't
need to come to Cybermate for changes or
updates. |
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