As employee benefits brokers evaluate carriers and benefits administration platforms to recommend to their clients, there's a crucial factor that often gets overlooked: digital connectivity and data exchange capabilities. While price, functionality, and plan design are important, modern digital connectivity can save brokers and their employer clients time and money by streamlining group benefits enrollment and administration. It's time for brokers to make digital connectivity a key factor in their evaluation process. Here's why — and how — to do it.

Digital connectivity — the lifeline of the benefits ecosystem

While electronic data interchange (EDI) has been used for decades to electronically send enrollment information from HR and benefits administration systems to carriers, it has many shortcomings. In recent years, the industry has shifted towards application programming interfaces (APIs) for enhanced, scalable data exchange. However, only a few benefits carriers and administration platforms have adopted APIs thus far, making it critical for brokers to advocate for better digital connectivity.

Benefits carriers and administration platforms that use enhanced, API-powered data exchange provide better service to brokers, employers, and employees: faster enrollment, fewer errors, streamlined account maintenance, and more.