Automation and digital transformation

Automation presents companies with a huge opportunity to increase output, reduce human error, and allow employees to focus on less manual tasks. More than half of all CFOs say they plan to use data analytics, AI, automation, and cloud solutions to drive digital transformation at their companies, according to a recent survey by . And, when strategic finance coach Oana Labes asked her LinkedIn followers recently , digital transformation was the top choice for 23% in the poll.

That’s why are undergoing a digital and AI transformation. And where data is easily available, the results have been striking. For example, total shareholder returns for digital transformation leaders averaged 8.1% as opposed to 4.9% otherwise. The same study also found that revenues grew faster and expenses grew slower for digital-leading companies. 

Try building more automation into your reporting. By doing so, you and/or your team can focus their time on reporting. 

New ways to drive predictive modeling

Anyone in finance is looking for ways to better anticipate spending and revenue trends. AI and new technologies have opened up new ways to do just that. There are two simple steps in predictive modeling: Learn what might happen, and take steps to respond. 

There is often so much underlying data that can provide insight into spending and revenue forecasting. AI tools can process that data and reveal potential outcomes for your team to respond to. 

Here again, by leaning on AI to analyze data and identify trends, your people can then focus on telling a story with the data to potential stakeholders. We’ve leaned into AI and machine learning to enhance our: 

• Late-fee modeling 
• Interest rate action step plan
• Finance fee and operating interest reporting and modeling
• Credit and fraud loss reporting and modeling 

Financial discipline and growth

External forces such as interest rates, inflation, and employee turnover are often outside of a CFO’s or finance team’s control. In light of that, finance must play a larger role in driving the strategic agenda to ensure financial discipline and support profitable outcomes. 

Finance also needs to play a front-row seat in driving discipline to put a face to the need. Tightening finances can be seen as , so your concerns must be understood and communicated across teams and throughout the organization.

Investment in talent and ways of working

You’ve probably heard that it’s cheaper to retain a customer than it is to attract a new customer. Well, the same is true of your employees. It costs 33% of a person’s annual salary to replace them, according to one study. For example, that means if an employee making $75,000 per year leaves your company, it will cost $25,000 to replace that employee. Keep in mind that there’s a cost to hiring, training, and getting the new employee to the level of experience of the employee you lost. 

There’s a role for finance to play in ensuring a company is investing in its employees on many fronts, including: 

• Employee retention
• Ways of working/efficient operations
• New skills to adapt to a fast-evolving business world

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The information in this blog post is for educational purposes only. It is not legal or tax advice. For legal or tax advice, you should consult your own legal counsel, tax and investment advisers. 

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If you made it to Scottsdale this year, I can’t thank you enough for taking time out of your busy schedule to be at our event and for making the most out of the learning opportunities we served up via keynotes, breakout sessions, spotlight sessions, partner panels, our innovation demo stage and our hands-on lab. I look forward to seeing what all this networking and idea-swapping yields in the coming months. (And before we know it, it will be time for next year’s conference in another famously sunny spot—Miami.)

I also want to again congratulate the winners of this year’s Partner Excellence Awards. Recipients were recognized for reaching significant milestones across several areas, including growth, evangelism, leadership, innovation and customer service as well as overall outstanding partner successes. The winners span our partner base, with large to mid-sized health plans, banks, payroll providers, private exchanges and leading third-party administrators representing a breadth of leadership, knowledge and expertise across industries.

The ����VlogHealth Partner Excellence Award categories and winners are:

Growth Excellence

• Consolidated Admin Services, LLC
• HealthPartners
• Optum
• UPMC Health Plan

Evangelist

• Group Dynamic, Inc.
• Kaiser Permanente
• Medica

Innovator

• BPAS, Inc.
• PNC
• Sentinel Benefits & Financial Group

Market Maker

• BenefitWallet
• HSA Bank, a Division of Webster Bank
• ThrivePass

Sales Excellence

• Administrative Solutions, Inc. (ASi)
• Chard Snyder Benefit Solutions
• Pro-Flex Administrators, LLC

Service Excellence

• Associated Bank
• Benefit Strategies, LLC

Solution Visionary

• Alerus
• Benefitfocus, Inc.
• Paychex

Leadership

• Rob Hayes, BASIC

New Partner of the Year

• Bank of America Merrill Lynch

Card Innovation Partner of the Year

• HealthSCOPE Benefits

Billing Partner of the Year

• Ameriflex

CDH Platform Partner of the Year

• Infinisource Benefit Services

Partner of the Year

• Discovery Benefits, Inc.

During this year’s conference, we also released our first ����VlogHealth Clear Insights Report, with guidance on how employers can play an even greater part in enabling their employees to feel confident about managing their healthcare expenses. To gather these insights, we asked approximately 1,100 American workers questions about their employer-sponsored health insurance, decision-making processes, healthcare spending habits and challenges, and preferred tools for learning about plans, among other topics.

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As our Partners, you help us connect ����VlogHealth to more than 300,000 employers and more than 25 million consumers across the U.S. and Canada. Because you work tirelessly with us to reduce costs and simplify the business of healthcare, we’re committed to providing a superior value proposition for you in multiple ways. One of these is through Partner Conference, which gives our Partners the opportunity to come together for an intense agenda of learning, networking and celebrating. Here are some of the good things to look forward to this year:

A motivational keynote message will be delivered by two-time New York Times best-selling author , the creator of Fascination Advantage®, the first communication assessment that measures how others perceive you.

I’ll also be speaking at the conference, as will these :

• Jeff Bakke, chief strategy officer, ����VlogHealth
• Chris Byrd, executive vice president and corporate development officer, ����VlogHealth
• Matt Dallahan, senior vice president, ����VlogHealth
• Sarah Gordon, chief strategy officer, Center for Financial Services Innovation
• Brad Holmes, managing vice president, Gartner

This year’s conference will also include concurrent breakout sessions, innovation demo stage presentations, spotlight sessions, hands-on labs and partner panels. Additionally, there will be numerous networking opportunities, a sponsor expo and the annual Partner Awards dinner and program.

And as Partners, you will get a sneak peek of the exciting new features and functionality in the upcoming ����VlogHealth Cloud June 2018 release, which will include user interface refreshes and mobile payments for COBRA.

You will also hear about upcoming ����VlogHealth 2018 Marketing & Sales Bootcamps planned for June 12-13 in Buffalo, New York, and July 17-18 in Boston, Massachusetts.

Find the full agenda .

We look forward to hosting you, and encourage you to share your Partner Conference 2018 experience in real time via Twitter #WEXPC2018.

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