When clients of American Benefits Consulting had concerns about data sharing, privacy and security, Craig Guiffre, the firm’s managing director, had faith in one person who could develop a solution to alleviate their fears.
Jay Koppisety, chief information officer of American Benefits Consulting and director of technology for Alliant’s voluntary benefits practice, was that adviser, and he was able to create a number of collaboration sites for the benefits consulting firm, which they use with clients to share information.
“[Koppisety] structured the interchange of information in a way that would make clients feel comfortable about how their information was being protected,” Guiffre says.
Koppisety has been with American Benefits Consulting, an Alliant Employee Benefits company, for more than two decades. He helps develop enrollment platforms and backend solutions for clients — work that is just one of the reasons why Koppisety has been selected as Employee Benefit Adviser’s 2019 Technology Adviser of the Year.
“The biggest challenge to benefits [implementation] is the backend administration,” Koppisety says. “A lot of technology goes along with that.”
That technology comes at a cost, he says, and larger organizations are better equipped financially to take on that burden, while small organizations may not have the same needs. The middle market, Koppisety noticed, seemed to be getting left in the lurch.
With that challenge in mind, Koppisety sought a way to ensure that all markets have equal access to modern and efficient applications. As a result, he developed a new platform for the delivery of voluntary benefits in the middle market.
He leveraged American Benefits Consulting’s existing platform for the large market, which required substantial development to ensure functionality that is critical for firms with few employees but many needs.
In many cases, platforms must serve multiple functions, including education, engagement, enrollment, billing, record-keeping and reporting, and do so in a multi-device environment, while maintaining flexibility and security, he says.
“The new platform launch was a significant step forward for Alliant, and a market success,” Koppisety says. “My focus has always been on developing benefits technologies that contribute significant operational and marketing efficiencies.”
Koppisety is always thinking about trends, innovation and the latest developments in tech that can have a particular impact on the benefits space, Guiffre says.
“He does it with a real eye toward the business and how [technology] improves the lives of those around him,” Guiffre adds.
Guiffre, who has known and worked with Koppisety for almost a decade, describes his colleague as someone who is constantly innovating, but while also understanding how to take a practical approach to a problem.
“What I value about what [Koppisety] does is not only his ability to say ‘wow, wouldn’t it be amazing if,’ but also the way he says ‘I see you guys are having a challenge, and I’ve thought of ways to fix this problem,’” Guiffre says.
