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Working with a knowledgeable industry advisor was very important to Texas Instruments. HighRoads helped us transition from a 'custom' approach to benefits administration to standard best practice processing, enabling cost reduction and improved quality."
- Lita Alessandra, vice-president and manager of Compensation, Benefits and HR M&A for Texas Instruments

Texas Instruments

Texas Instruments Improves Care Quality while Reducing Costs with HighRoads HR Administration Consulting

Overview

Texas Instruments Incorporated (TI) provides innovative semiconductor technologies to help customers create the world's most advanced electronics. Its analog, embedded processing and wireless technologies permeate daily life in many different ways, from digital communications and entertainment to medical services, automotive systems and wide-ranging applications in between.

From TI's earliest days, the objective has been to use the company's unique technical skills to fundamentally change markets and create entirely new ones. A constant thread throughout the company's history has been its use of progressively more complex real-time signal processing technology – with advances ranging from the incremental to the revolutionary – to literally and repeatedly change the world.

Business Challenge

TI was faced with the expiration of its defined contribution, deferred compensation, health & welfare, and defined benefits administration contracts with a vendor they had worked with for over seven years. With a staff already doing more with less, TI lacked the resources to effectively and efficiently evaluate, identify, negotiate and manage the process of bringing on a new vendor. TI was also looking for a vendor solution that was significantly more automated and with appropriate controls to preemptively identify errors, thus avoiding the burden of such errors on its stakeholders and beneficiaries.

Additionally, TI had a limited amount of the industry knowledge needed to find one provider that had the cost, quality and technical capabilities aligned with their corporate benefits strategy. TI needed someone that knew industry standards and with experience in vendor selection and contract negotiations. Experience in implementation management, and the ability to work collaboratively with the TI team were also key considerations.

"It was important for us to work with someone who had set up successful vendor relationships," said Lita Alessandra, vice-president and manager of Compensation, Benefits and HR M&A for TI. "We needed an experienced advisor who could augment the TI team with strong content knowledge, leadership and project management skills."

The HighRoads HR Administration Consulting Solution

The HR team at TI needed to make changes in the way they managed their vendor relationships. As an initial step toward tackling its benefits administration challenge, TI turned to HighRoads' HR Administration Consulting to manage the vendor selection. This was the first component of the overall HR Control suite of services for benefits supply chain management. The success of the program hinged on partnering with an expert to implement a best practices approach to source a benefits administration provider.

TI hired HighRoads to automate and streamline the vendor sourcing process, reduce overall costs, and provide benefits administration to the company's thousands of participants. This was an ambitious goal, and TI adopted a holistic approach ensuring visibility, value and control over the entire project management process.

he HighRoads advisor determined five key areas of focus to transition the time-intensive, custom practices to a more standard and automated process.

• Identifying the individuals' roles and responsibilities – determining internal resources and "who does what" eliminates repetitive work
• Determining key evaluation criteria and deal breakers with vendors – defining the "must have's" in service delivery and the contract and knowing the vendors' capabilities in providing these services
• Establishing a negotiation strategy – focusing on contract components that are important to the company and establishing benchmark metrics
• Aligning a vendor to the corporate goals – affiliating with an innovative and stable vendor who will meet or exceed expectations that match the strategic goals of the company
• Providing vendor on-boarding – managing a seamless transition between the old versus the new, as well as limiting the amount of disruption for TI participants

"HighRoads provided the model to implement a new vendor without causing significant disruption to our employees and other participants enrolled in the plans," said Alessandra. "We were able to improve the quality and the participants' experience while reducing on-going administration costs."

Results

HighRoads' HR Administration Consulting provided unprecedented levels of visibility into vendor selection, negotiation and implementation processes. They also provided a critical framework for informed decision-making. This insight enabled TI to engage in the highest quality of vendor services ultimately providing a better participant experience.

The team followed an industry best practices approach. "We saw an immediate improvement in quality, at a reduced cost, that strengthened the participants' confidence and experience," said Alessandra. For the first time, TI experienced these benefits:

• End-to-end management of the vendor process – HighRoads developed the request for proposals, consolidated all responses for analysis, negotiated contract components, and provided implementation governance to drive operational excellence. This shortened the negotiation cycle by three months and provided a seamless transition to the ongoing administration from the new provider.
• Reduced costs associated with vendor bids and enhanced Service Level Agreements – HighRoads helped TI negotiate a comprehensive set of key service level metrics and performance guarantees that were at or above industry standards. They also negotiated associated fees that focused on accuracy, responsiveness and customer satisfaction.
• Guaranteed transparency and audit trail – HighRoads provided access to service delivery criteria and contract components that provided a historical view of the decision-making process. This access included the cost comparisons and audit assessments created during the process.
• Creation of a successful framework for vendor relationships – HighRoads educated the TI team on the vendor market standards including service levels, scope of services and pricing. TI received insight and oversight on the implementation process to avoid issues, delays and fees. HighRoads encouraged TI to take a proactive approach to managing the provider.

TI and its new vendor formed a partnership allowing the HR department to be more strategic and cost effective in the design and administration of their benefits.

About HighRoads Consulting

HighRoads Consulting provides Health and Welfare, HR Administration and Communications consulting to large and mid-size employers, at dramatically reduced rates and increased efficiencies by leveraging HighRoads industry standard technology. HighRoads consulting is a refreshing alternative for industry advice that – for the first time – puts employers in control and immediately improves bottom line results.

About HighRoads

The world's largest employers – such as General Dynamics, Honeywell, IBM, Staples and Boeing – choose HighRoads to gain complete control over their health care costs and compliance. With HighRoads' service, employers – for the first time – have online access to benefits plan information and pricing, competitive benefits benchmarks, and complete benefits supply chain management. The privately-held company is headquartered in Woburn, Mass.

To learn more about HighRoads Consulting click here.