HighRoads (Woburn, MA)
Driving Better HR Results
HighRoads President and COO Mike Byers recalls that one of the company's
Fortune 100 clients once said, "Finance has data; human resources has
excuses." Companies today are devoting unnecessary capital to inefficient
HR processes without any kind of return on that investment. HighRoads offers
a new way to manage these HR programs and suppliers, improving the employee
experience while dramatically reducing costs for large, complex organizations.
Problem: Complex Functions, Simplistic Technologies
In large companies, finance and manufacturing divisions have ERP systems. Marketing and sales have CRM. But human resources professionals, who are responsible for dozens of health and welfare programs (medical, dental, vision, disease management) for as many as a half a million active and retired employees, continue to rely on email, telephone and spreadsheets to get their jobs done.
Further, with globalization, M&A activity and union negotiations, these companies' programs are growing increasingly complex, yet the technology remains static - and the processes inefficient. Data is disaggregated, and institutional knowledge leaves with HR professionals when they resign or retire. As a result, Byers says, these organizations frequently pay third-party consultants top dollar to run administrative systems, rather than provide strategic counsel.
Solution: Point. Click. Save.
HighRoads offers a technology-enabled service that centralizes this disparate HR content into a single managed repository to automate the entire HR supplier management process. This centralization helps organizations achieve efficiencies, realize significant savings and, for the first time, easily analyze the impacts of shifts in HR strategies and providers.
Specifically, HighRoads' packaged solutions address HR processes including:
Byers says that about 20 percent of the FORTUNE 500 uses one or all of HighRoads' solutions, realizing significant efficiencies and savings. He points to one large client for which those savings are paying dividends. "The client established a tobacco cessation program with some of the dollars saved by using HighRoads," he says. "Their objective now is to save about $1 billion in [smoking-related] claims costs over the next six years, and we're proud to be part of that story."
In large companies, finance and manufacturing divisions have ERP systems. Marketing and sales have CRM. But human resources professionals, who are responsible for dozens of health and welfare programs (medical, dental, vision, disease management) for as many as a half a million active and retired employees, continue to rely on email, telephone and spreadsheets to get their jobs done.
Further, with globalization, M&A activity and union negotiations, these companies' programs are growing increasingly complex, yet the technology remains static - and the processes inefficient. Data is disaggregated, and institutional knowledge leaves with HR professionals when they resign or retire. As a result, Byers says, these organizations frequently pay third-party consultants top dollar to run administrative systems, rather than provide strategic counsel.
Solution: Point. Click. Save.
HighRoads offers a technology-enabled service that centralizes this disparate HR content into a single managed repository to automate the entire HR supplier management process. This centralization helps organizations achieve efficiencies, realize significant savings and, for the first time, easily analyze the impacts of shifts in HR strategies and providers.
Specifically, HighRoads' packaged solutions address HR processes including:
- Supplier management - tracks performance guarantees, helping clients evaluate suppliers
- Contract management - notifies clients when one of hundreds of HR contracts is up for renewal
- Third-party data integration - manages and aggregates client data for open enrollment
- Global data management - rolls up global data to ensure compliance with country requirements
- Procurement management - automates the RFP and renewal process
- SPD management - provides automated legal review and updates for mandatory documents
- Union negotiations management - reflects program changes as result of union negotiations
- Merger & acquisition management -- increases responsiveness following corporate divestitures
Byers says that about 20 percent of the FORTUNE 500 uses one or all of HighRoads' solutions, realizing significant efficiencies and savings. He points to one large client for which those savings are paying dividends. "The client established a tobacco cessation program with some of the dollars saved by using HighRoads," he says. "Their objective now is to save about $1 billion in [smoking-related] claims costs over the next six years, and we're proud to be part of that story."
Q&A with Mike Byers, President and COO, HighRoads
Q: The information you're dealing with is very confidential. What kind of controls are you putting in?
A: We are HIPAA compliant. We've gone all through the security regulations. We're not dealing with the claims data, though.
Q: Can you talk about the competitive landscape? As a company with a few hundred employees, we tend to get a lot of new HR platforms, and it sounds like you've got something very distinctive here.
A: We frequently get lumped in with the human capital management category -- the Taleos, Connexes, Authorias of the world. We don't compete with them at all. We compete with Mercer, Towers Perrin, and Hewitt. We are typically a third of the cost, and we don't have a technology-based competitor.
Q: I'm curious how you came to the conclusion that tools like MTorus and Ariba were not suitable for HR data.
A: Actually, the clients have told us that. I think those tools have been really specific for the procurement team. The complexity of an RFP and the way it gets scored for a medical plan design is so different than ordering generic parts.
Q: Do you have a mid-market solution?
A: We don't have a mid-market solution or a lower end. The smallest two clients we have are Monster.com and ABB with 5,000 lives. That end of the market we tend to find the traditional broker such as Marsh.
Q: The information you're dealing with is very confidential. What kind of controls are you putting in?
A: We are HIPAA compliant. We've gone all through the security regulations. We're not dealing with the claims data, though.
Q: Can you talk about the competitive landscape? As a company with a few hundred employees, we tend to get a lot of new HR platforms, and it sounds like you've got something very distinctive here.
A: We frequently get lumped in with the human capital management category -- the Taleos, Connexes, Authorias of the world. We don't compete with them at all. We compete with Mercer, Towers Perrin, and Hewitt. We are typically a third of the cost, and we don't have a technology-based competitor.
Q: I'm curious how you came to the conclusion that tools like MTorus and Ariba were not suitable for HR data.
A: Actually, the clients have told us that. I think those tools have been really specific for the procurement team. The complexity of an RFP and the way it gets scored for a medical plan design is so different than ordering generic parts.
Q: Do you have a mid-market solution?
A: We don't have a mid-market solution or a lower end. The smallest two clients we have are Monster.com and ABB with 5,000 lives. That end of the market we tend to find the traditional broker such as Marsh.