case studies: Kistler Tiffany Benefits

Established in 1972, Kistler Tiffany Benefits is one of the region’s largest group insurance brokerage and employee benefits consulting companies. They are a leader in offering a broad range of services to a client base of thousands of employers, associations, school districts, municipalities and unions. Their services range from design and installation of group insurance plans, to account management, to human resource outsourcing. They have a staff of 65 consultants and administrative support personnel located in four separate offices throughout the region.

Set Now Solutions was hired by KT Benefits to create a new web presence. The web site development kick-off meeting revealed their need for more expansive online capabilities; they not only needed a fresh look for their public web site, but they also needed a document and content management system. A large volume of emails, with sizable attachments, were being distributed on a daily basis, both internally and to their brokers and clients. The emails contained the latest updates for all of the products they supported, and consisted of Adobe PDF files and Word documents. This created a number of problems:

1. All of this email traffic created a tremendous load on their internal email server.
2. Not everyone on the distribution list wanted to receive every update, so they were becoming annoyed, and ignoring the correspondence
3. People’s in-boxes became bloated, and the brokers could not locate the latest or best updates and forms efficiently

Set Now Solutions also identified that the needs of brokers differed from the needs of direct clients, and we all agreed that the best solution would be a web site with both an employers & consumers section and an agents & brokers section. The path the user chooses from the home page of the site determines the message and content that they will see as they continue to browse the web site.

Solution: Whether the site visitor is a Broker or a direct Client, they can create a customized "My KT Benefits" home page. This allows them to get the information that meets their individual needs. They can prioritize & find the product info and updates used most, save frequently used web links, and filter resources by type, carrier or state. The personalized "My KT Benefits" page is free, and it’s accessible from any internet-equipped computer (which is great for sales reps on the road).

Since the "My KT Benefits" information displayed was not confidential, KT Benefits decided to make using a password optional. We also created an online FAQ about how the page worked so they could alleviate support phone calls.

The most powerful part of the site resides in the KT Benefits administrative area, which is a content and document management system. Here is an overview of some of the Administrative capabilities for KTB Staff:

• Ability to manage Carrier Updates & Notices. The Insurance Carrier updates and notices, which were being circulated by email to everyone, are now being placed in an online database. These updates and notices are now displayed in multiple areas of the web site and in the online and email newsletter.



• Manage "My KT Benefits" Members. They can also find a specific user’s information by name, email or KT rep name, which is handy in case someone forgets a password or a KTB rep wants to find out if their clients have signed up to use the system.



• Ability to enter staff notices and only display those notices to members who are marked as staff.



• Manage insurance carrier information that display on the web site, including necessary hyperlinks to the carrier web site which provides specific information such as pricing or applications.



• Manage broker contact information to display in their online directory and various other pages and forms on the web site.



• Manage job postings to display on either the consumer and/or broker sections of the web site.



• Manage events that display on the consumer and/or broker sections of the web site. They may also select any of these events to be included in the email newsletter which is also posted on the web site.



• Manage office locations to display on the consumer and/or broker sections of the web site on multiple pages and in online forms.



• Manage links that display on the consumer and/or broker sections of the web site.



• View site activity of who has signed up for the My KT Benefits feature.



• Ability to create and send their email newsletter which also dynamically displays on the web site and is archived for site visitors. Their email list is generated from people who sign up through the web site.



• Ability to modify and add content to the What’s New scroller on the home page.