Zevo Co-Founder: A Pioneer’s Perspective on Benefits Technology
Steve Helsing knows the space—he's been in it since the beginning. After the digital pioneers of the '90s established the internet as a viable arena for enterprise, Steve found himself captivated by outsourcing: a radically new method of doing business capable of changing how processes could be done to deliver employee benefits. He joined a startup in Atlanta, which soon steered him into a career in the singular and surpassingly complex space of Benefits Technology (or BenTech). Twenty-five years later, however, Steve is amazed by what the industry has failed to become.
The benefits systems created in the '90s and early 2000s are the systems employers use today. With their outdated platforms, insurance carriers often perpetuate clunky, limited, and agonizing systems to operate. Meanwhile, more modern BenTech companies who claim to offer solutions often need more key foundational structures, limiting their progress.
In recent years, significant BenTech players have been sold to private equity or acquired by insurance carriers. They have subsequently encountered strategy shifts that change the market's perspective on their offering. This new change in direction often disintermediates independent benefits administration firms and their ability to adequately support the client's HR teams. Today, we have seen the availability of modern BenTech platforms remain small because of the extreme complexity and runway needed to build a compelling set of tools.
In recent years, significant BenTech players have been sold to private equity or acquired by insurance carriers. They have subsequently encountered strategy shifts that change the market's perspective on their offering. This new change in direction often disintermediates independent benefits administration firms and their ability to adequately support the client's HR teams. Today, we have seen the availability of modern BenTech platforms remain small because of the extreme complexity and runway needed to build a compelling set of tools.
As noted, this space is incredibly complex and, at its core, is a data management business – which most early providers miss. Because of these commonplace mistakes and the rigidity of insurance carriers, the opportunity for innovation in BenTech remains just as plentiful as it was twenty-five years ago. Zevo has several distinct competitive advantages. We pioneered a unique automated auditing system called DataPatrol. Every data element is routinely monitored for common and not so common potential mistakes, enabling pristine data transfer between systems. The flexibility of our benefit product modeling and reporting capabilities is unmatched for core and voluntary products. Our user experience is more intuitive than any system out there. Our partner oriented approach leads us to build a relationship not subject to the whims of investors and large return profit seeking
But opportunity doesn't mean much without real, well-informed solutions to the myriad problems plaguing benefits. That's why Steve and his partners started Zevo Benefits. Zevo was shaped in a generational light—the benefits veterans' industry expertise synthesized with modern innovators' technological ingenuity. Without the synergy of both parties, a solution cannot be designed that will also endure.
No one knows what healthcare in the United States will look like in the next ten years. There may be a general shift in the workforce, or the costs of prescriptions might fluctuate. Many new entrepreneurial endeavors will be in this space in the coming years. Still, they will surely fail without a good understanding of where we have come from and where we might be going, and this space does not evolve as fast as other technology segments.
"Legacy," Steve says. "Not ambition. That's what Zevo's all about. Ask yourself: how are you ready for the future if you're sitting on ten-year-old tech? Or if you are trying to start a new platform with little experience of how things work in our space?"
If your vendor, like most, has their own agenda? Well, you were out of luck from the start. True change cannot happen as it has been attempted or is being attempted. The pursuit must be practical and moral—that is the nature of progress. And that is Zevo's purpose.