Data Management Solutions for Employee Benefits
Regardless of your practice area – Health & Welfare, Defined Benefit, Defined Contribution, Employee Communications, Compensation, or Financial Management – you have a wide range of data management needs.  You need solutions for data extraction, data consolidation, data reconciliation, data inquiry, data analysis, data validation, data cleansing, data preparation, data entry, data reporting, data integration, data conversion and data migration just to name a few.

The Solution is Applaud-Benefits™
Our Applaud-Benefits™ software is the only Rapid Application Development (RAD) tool designed for employee benefit consultants.  Applaud-Benefits delivers data management solutions in less than 50% of the time and cost of any other alternative.

When we designed Applaud-Benefits, we studied what benefits consultants do.  We analyzed the processes they go through and the data management challenges they routinely face.  Our goal in designing Applaud was to create an environment to minimize the time and cost of managing client data. 

No other software provides the flexibility of Applaud.  As a direct result, no other professional services organization can match Premier International's quality, speed and affordable cost. 

So how does the Applaud-Benefits data management solution work?  Every project is different.  That's where Applaud's flexibility and Rapid Application Development (RAD) tools play such an important role.  A summary of Applaud's primary features and is provided below…

Data Extraction
In most cases the data management project begins by extracting client data into Applaud’s Data Repository.  Applaud’s powerful data extraction capabilities make it easy to extract data from any combination of disparate source systems and files.  Applaud’s proprietary Data Repository speeds the various phases of the data management project. 

Data Profiling
Applaud provides robust profiling tools.  Profiling provides detailed data statistics to guide the next steps of the project.  For character data, Applaud’s automatic profiling identifies all distinct values (i.e., every code value) and their frequency distribution.  For numeric data, profiling displays statistics including the highest, lowest, average and total, as well as the number of positive values, negative values, zero/null values and any non-numeric values.  For dates it identifies the highest and lowest dates and the number of blank/null values as well as any invalid date values. 

Profiling is a quick way to identify data failures such as missing, invalid and inconsistent data.  The results of profiling direct the next steps of the data management project.

Data Analysis
Armed with the results of profiling, the project moves into the analysis phase.  Applaud’s four styles of report generators and other advanced analysis tools quickly identify data problems such as redundant data, orphans, failures in data relationship rules, invalid integrity constraints, parent/child issues, etc. 

Data Entry
Further, Applaud includes the ability to quickly construct data entry screens (with comprehensive data validation) to capture changes for selected data.  These screens can be used as needed to enter data changes into the source tables (in the existing system), target tables (in a new system being implemented), or intermediate tables (in the Applaud data repository).  Data changes stored in the Applaud data repository can be used to "override" appropriate data values at the "go live" date.

Data Inquiry
Applaud includes robust ad hoc query capabilities.  With Applaud, it is easy to perform complex queries.  Query results may be used to modify live data (using the data entry screens described above), or may result in printed reports as needed.

Data Validation
Applaud includes a powerful ad hoc query capability.  Queries may be performed real-time, resulting in the ability to change data values in selected records.  Alternatively ad hoc queries may result in printed reports.  Applaud's ad hoc selection is easy enough for the most inexperienced user to quickly master.

Data Cleansing/Scrubbing
Next, invalid data values must be corrected and missing data must be calculated or otherwise provided.  This often involves complex transformation rules and additional data sources containing crosswalk/lookup tables to compute the values for selected data elements.  3rd party data may easily be appended as needed.  Additional data can be easily inserted and applied at any step of the process.  Applaud makes this process easy with its ability to quickly insert complex transformation logic and the ability to easily add any number of crosswalk/lookup tables to any component.

Name/Address Data Cleansing
In addition, Applaud's comprehensive name/address cleansing offers the ability to compute zip+4 codes, CASS certify addresses, determine if addresses actually exist, geocode addresses (latitude/longitude calculation), compute county names, and more. 

Manual Data Cleansing Support
Applaud can also interface with Excel for manual cleansing projects.  Applaud can build “batches” of data in Excel spreadsheets for manual cleansing and can provide comprehensive validation upon re-importing the data after the cleansing. Cleansed data can be stored in the Applaud data repository until the “go live” date.  Controls can be provided that report the status of each batch of data to ensure that every batch is correctly processed.  Ongoing evaluation features may be activated that monitor subsequent changes during cleansing and report any issues that may cause problems. 

These capabilities enable users to dynamically confirm (or reject) match candidates identified during the processing.  For example, Applaud can easily produce a spreadsheet of "probable" match candidates thus allowing the client to specify which records should be consolidated (or which should not be consolidated).   The spreadsheet data is extracted into Applaud and processed per the specifications provided. 

Data Preparation
Applaud is the ideal platform for data preparation for actuarial valuation and data preparation for benefit statements.  Data preparation projects are completed in less than 50% of any other alternative and the quality of the data is dramatically improved.

Data Matching
Applaud speeds the process of matching redundant/duplicate data from disparate sources.  Applaud provides the ability to match any type of data based on any number of flexible criteria.  Applaud's rapid application development approach allows the matching tools to be applied flexibly in any combination to solve any cleansing requirement.  Multiple criteria may be established.  Weighting may be applied to results to obtain "most likely" match combinations.  Negative criteria may be applied to reduce the possibility of "false positives".

Data Reconciliation
Applaud includes the ability to quickly reconcile differences between various source data.  For example, it is easy to determine and reconcile status changes from one period to another and data changes from different client files.  Applaud’s Data Repository acts as a powerful staging area where the reconciliation is performed.

Data Calculations
Applaud includes an intuitive programming language for calculations.  Applaud's programming tools offer complete flexibility for calculations.  A robust debug tool is also provided to speed resolution of programming issues. 

Data Transformation
Applaud includes the ability to satisfy the most complex transformation requirements. Applaud can base transformations on any combination of data and can apply an unlimited number of sources of 3rd party data in any step of the process.

Data Migration
In most system implementations the largest area of risk is data migration (the process of moving all of the data out of the legacy system that is being replaced into the new system).  According to The Standish Group, "72% of all data migration and consolidation projects experience significant cost overruns or fail".

Applaud delivers a conservative 50% reduction in the time and cost of data migration compared to every other alternative.  In addition, Applaud dramatically improves data quality and minimizes the risk of problems.

Data Interfaces/Integration
The goal is complete information sharing between disparate but related systems.  The advantages are significant, but the reality of the development project is daunting.  Applaud will speed the development effort, reducing the time and cost by over 50% compared to every other alternative. 

All interfaces constructed in Applaud may be run at selected times by Applaud’s robust batch scheduler.  Alternatively, all interfaces may be initiated by other batch schedulers.  In addition, end-users may launch interfaces as needed from Applaud's intuitive menu-driven user interface.  All interfaces can be run on the user’s workstation or may be directed to run on a batch queue server.

Data Warehouse Solutions
Applaud-Benefits includes the ability to create comprehensive data warehouse solutions for employee benefits data.  Data warehouse facilities have the ability to store both current and historical data for all clients.  Solutions are tailored to the exact requirements of each consulting firm (and each client).

Applaud-Pension™ is a pre-developed template offering flexible data warehouse capabilities for pension actuaries.  Applaud-Pension is the ideal solution for managing client pension data.

Administration Solutions
Applaud-Benefits also includes the ability to build comprehensive solutions for benefits administration.  Our Applaud-Administration™ software is a pre-built template for health & welfare administration.   It is a flexible platform designed to quickly deliver solutions customized to each client's needs.  Solutions are deployed in less than 50% of the time and cost of every other alternative.

The Applaud Advantages
By adopting Applaud-Benefits as your benefits data management platform you will:

	Improve client satisfaction by enhancing your level of responsiveness to your clients’ dynamic needs.
	Increase your team’s productivity.  By reducing time to deliver data management solutions, you will be able to more effectively manage data with your existing staff.
	Improve your data accuracy due to Applaud’s powerful data cleansing capabilities.
	Increase your profitability.  You’ll develop data management solutions for your clients faster and more cost-effectively.

Getting Started
The easiest way to see the Applaud solution in your environment is to outsource part of (or all of) a live data management project to our Applaud Professional Services Group.  Our hourly rates are very reasonable and you should expect at least a 50% reduction in the time spent compared to every other alternative.  (Note: There is no software cost if we outsource the project.) 

We recognize that you will want to be cautious in changing to a new approach to data management.  Our Two-Week Pilot Project is designed to give you a no-risk way to see the Applaud solution at work in your environment.

Following your first project you can make the decision to continue to outsource projects to our staff or to license the software and build an in-house center of Applaud expertise.  We assure you that either approach will yield excellent results. 

Contact us at 800-426-0428 or sales@premier-international.com to get started.