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| Benefitfocus rolls out multi-language technology/support |
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Charleston, SC – July 5, 2005 – Benefitfocus.com, Inc., the leading provider of employee benefits software and services, is releasing new multi-language technology. The company will begin offering a Spanish language version of its enrollment technology on July 9.
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| "We have had Spanish support in our call center since 2003, but after July 9, we’ll also be offering the employee enrollment application in Spanish," says Nancy Sansom, Vice President of Product Management for Benefitfocus.com. "We’ve built the application so that it can support any language; Spanish is just the first. We will also have other languages such as Russian, Mandarin Chinese and French. Our system is already extremely user friendly, and now with its multi-lingual capabilities, it will be easy to use for employees whose primary language is not English."
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Benefitfocus offers employees and employers secure, online access to benefits and human resource information. Benefitfocus’ suite of products and services includes large and small group electronic enrollment, electronic billing, and data exchange services. They replace time-consuming, expensive and error-prone paper processes allowing companies to administer all of their benefit offerings through one interface.
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During its 2004 user conference, Benefitfocus asked its participants to rank 35 features in order of importance; the number one feature requested was Spanish support. “Our customers have been clamoring for Spanish enrollment, and we have delivered it,” says Sansom.
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The Town of Cary, North Carolina started using Benefitfocus’ system in May. “About two percent of our employee population is comprised of Hispanic workers who speak limited English,” says Dale Johnson, Benefits Manager for the Town of Cary. “We are always concerned about communicating effectively with this population, and a Spanish version of the software would go a long way in meeting our needs. It would also provide a means for the Hispanic employee with limited English skills to feel more comfortable with decisions about their benefits and give them a better sense of ownership in the process.”
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Historically, Benefitfocus has been proactive about meeting employees’ language needs, sending onsite Spanish speaking support and offering translations of essential enrollment information to groups. Now, with new multi-language capabilities, a screen will prompt employees to choose their preferred language. Because the system is built by utilizing “Language Catalogs,” additional languages and dialects can be quickly deployed and maintained. This language catalog engine stores all the text in the database instead of the webpage, so users can simply select their language preference to be shown each time they log in.
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Hispanics are the largest and fastest-growing minority ethnic group in the United States, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. The Hispanic population of the United States will increase by almost 25 million people by 2020, and second-generation Hispanics will account for 47 percent of that growth. Insurance carriers and employers are eager to be serve their Spanish and multi-lingual customers.
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About Benefitfocus
Benefitfocus.com, Inc. (Benefitfocus) is a leading provider of benefits administration software and services, offering employees and employers access to all benefits and human resource information securely over the Internet. Linking this data to payroll vendors and benefit providers, Benefitfocus applications seamlessly exchange data, therefore reducing errors and costs associated with traditional paper-based forms. Benefitfocus applications are designed to make companies more efficient, cost-effective, and more focused on delivering actual benefits instead of spending time on undue paperwork.
The company is headquartered in Mount Pleasant, SC (Charleston), and has an established client base of over 8,000 corporate employers in all fifty states.
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