Beacon Application Services and PeopleSoft:
A Financial Services Success Story
Anthem Blue Cross
Blue Shield of Connecticut Leverages PeopleSoft General Ledger for Better
Management Reporting and Timely Close
Anthem improved analysis and reporting and achieved a more timely close by
implementing PeopleSoft’s General Ledger application.
PeopleSoft Products
Implemented:
PeopleSoft
General Ledger
The Customer
Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Connecticut (Anthem) is the leading
health care management company in Connecticut, providing health care
benefits and health care management programs for approximately 914,000
members. Anthem provides health benefits for their members, as well as for
those who participate under federal programs such as Medicare, Medicaid and
Federal Employee Health Benefits Plans. Anthem is an independent
corporation, part of a system of 52 Blue Cross and Blue Shield plans
representing about 65 million members nationwide, making them part of the
largest health care prepayment system in the world.
The Challenge
Anthem was faced with aging mainframe systems that could no longer respond
to the information needs of an insurance organization in an increasingly
consolidating, competitive industry. Anthem needed to implement an ERP
solution that would provide the data they needed to manage the business with
the speed and flexibility required by today’s fast-paced healthcare
environment.
The Solution
As the first phase of its ERP strategy, Anthem decided to implement
PeopleSoft’s General Ledger application. Anthem chose Beacon Application
Services as its implementation partner. Beacon provided a small team of
highly experienced consultants to ensure that the system met Anthem’s
business objectives and was delivered on time within budget. A key factor in
the success of the implementation was the early completion of a Conference
Room Pilot designed to educate core team members and ensure management
commitment early in the project.
According to William Wong, Manager of Financial Systems of Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield of Connecticut, "The Beacon partners fulfilled all our general ledger and unique cost allocation requirements by listening and working closely with our financial and technical people. We implemented the PeopleSoft General Ledger on time and within budget."
Why PeopleSoft and
Beacon Application Services?
Anthem selected PeopleSoft for the effectiveness of its integrated financial
solution in meeting Anthem’s business requirements, its demonstrated success
in the insurance industry and its plans to develop vertical solutions for
the financial services industry. Anthem selected Beacon for the exceptional
experience level of its consultants, the company’s long history of
successful implementations, particularly in financial services and at other
Blue Cross/Blue Shields in particular, and Beacon’s expert knowledge of the
PeopleSoft applications and how to apply them to financial, accounting and
data management challenges in the insurance industry.
Benefits
Anthem has achieved vastly improved access to its financial data for better
analysis of the business. With strict demands to ensure CAS compliancy,
Beacon was able to construct a complex set of allocations taking advantage
of PeopleSoft’s rich functionality to support Medicare/Medicaid
requirements. Additionally, Anthem has been able to meet the challenge of
integrating its business with the parent company - meeting tight deadlines
for consolidated reporting. Delivering the foundation for Anthem’s financial
systems on time, within budget and within scope has set the stage for future
success with additional PeopleSoft applications.
Beacon was instrumental in the planning, construction, testing, and deployment of the system. Anthem was able to gain important momentum early in the project by tapping into Beacon’s experience. In addition, Beacon assisted Anthem to deploy internal resources effectively by efficiently planning the time required from key production staff and by closely monitoring resource issues and filling gaps where necessary. Yet Beacon was rigorous in ensuring that Anthem employees received the knowledge transfer to allow them to take full advantage of the PeopleSoft system in the future. Finally, Beacon worked with Anthem to implement a conversion solution and rigorous system and performance testing to ensure data integrity and a smooth production deployment in spite of extremely high volumes of data and a complex system configuration.
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