Automatic for the People

Janis Rizzuto - October 1, 2002

How WausauBenefits made PSA a reality for the whole company.

A new company needs new systems, thought Kevin Flahive, the freshly minted director of IT at Wausau Benefits in  Wausau, Wis.It was October 2000, and the employee benefit plan administrator had just spun off from Wausau Insurance Companies.

    

The first new system Flahive sought was for IT resource and project management. He wanted to run tighter projects and to assign money spent in IT to particular product lines, such as health, dental or pharmacy administration. Flahive wanted a full-blown PSA tool.

    

At A Glance: Tool: PlanView  Implemented: 2001 Cost: $400K   Current users: 950

After rigorously screening vendors and narrowing his choices to two, Flahive asked for a meeting with Wausau Benefits' executive committee. Armed with goals and objectives, Flahive told the group how PSA would benefit his new department. He did a good job. If PSA was as good as Flahive said, then the whole company needed it, the executive group reasoned. And with that, Flahive got what he wanted-and more. Fortunately, he also got some help.

    

"As we grew this from an IT initiative to a corporate initiative, additional reviewers at the director level were assigned to me to help make the decision," Flahive…

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