This presentation was made on PSST's approach to building the company at Techfest Louisville 2017, hosted by the Technology Association of Louisville Kentucky.
12. “Can you help us with the
Affordable Care Act for
employer compliance and
reporting?”
- K12 District
“We’re
on it!”
- PSST
2012
13. Applicable Large Employers (ALEs)
– Employers with 50+ Employees
• Track employee hours (full- and part-time)
• Make health insurance offers to all eligible
employees
• Keep records of waivers
• Generate and distribute 1095 forms for all
employees
• File 1094 Forms with IRS
• Retrieve ACA employee data - IRS audit
• And more
2012
19. Affordable Care Act
• Leverage an emerging market need by
creating a solution for the market need
• Move that solution quickly to the market
• Manage the challenges that come with rapid
growth and increasing competition
20. Our Approach
• Vision to be the most comprehensive
ACA solution in the market
– Brand Positioning
– Product Development
– Client Service & Support
– Commitment to Security
– Go-To-Market Strategies
– Innovations Center
25. Product Development
• Latest development technologies and
techniques
• Enhanced user experience
• Training and professional
development for PSST developers
26. Client Service & Support
(AKA Client Success)
• Experts on ACA rules & regulations as
well as our solution software:
• Insurance
• HR
• Legal professionals
• Consultants and advocates
27. Client Service & Support
(AKA Client Success)
• Follow our successful in-place model for
Client Success:
• dedicated account manager for each
client
• live person answering the phone
• call back within 24 hours
28. Client Service & Support
(AKA Client Success)
• Informational ACA webinars
• Comprehensive product training
• Quick and seamless installation
29. Commitment to Security
SOC Compliance
• Independent Audit conducted by
Dean Dorton
• Dedicated internal team
• Process began in May 2015
• Team addressed 400 gaps
• Completed April 2017
30. Go to Market Strategies
• Engaged with Gartner, a leading research
and advisory firm
• Refined PSST Value story
• Shaped messaging
• Clear brand differentiation
31. Innovations Center
• Process for getting new products to
market quicker
• Create avenue for professional
development for staff
• Bring new technologies to PSST
solutions
32. Innovations Center
• Move to AWS Cloud Environment
– Flexible; can scale up and down as needed
– Easy to maintain (no servers to patch)
– Modern and secure infrastructure
– Resilient with multiple geographic regions and
availability zones
– Pay for what you use (no CapEx)
– Global leader
33. Innovations Center
APIs
- Core API - .Net Core WebAPI running under AWS
Lambda, behind AWS API Gateway, with
Swagger.io for API documentation
- ConnectStream API - .Net Core WebAPI running in
load balanced, auto-scaling AWS Elastic Beanstalk
environment
- Employee Portal API - .Net Core WebAPI running
in load balanced, auto-scaling AWS Elastic
Beanstalk environment
34. Innovations Center
• UIs (Employee Portal and ConnectStream)
– AngularJS javascript framework
– Bootstrap CSS framework
– Stored in AWS S3 and pushed out to national
edge locations via the AWS Cloudfront content
delivery network
35. Innovations Center
Batch Processing
- AWS Step Functions to manage batch processes
- AWS Lambda functions written in .Net Core to do the
work
- AWS SQS to provide decoupled queue of work to be
processed
Data Storage
- AWS DynamoDB for document-based data objects
- SQL Server in AWS RDS for relation data storage
- AWS S3 for file-based storage
Logging
- AWS Cloudwatch for centralized logging
37. Trends and Take-Aways
• User expectations are evolving rapidly and
expectations for ease and intuitive design
are much higher today than they were five
or even two years ago; and
• Positive user experience leads to greater
product satisfaction, which leads to longer
and expanded client relationships.
38. In Conclusion
• Based on our experience at PSST, I am
confident if you adopt “I am not the user”
as your new development mantra and seek
professional input into the user experience,
the results will be:
–More user-friendly products for your
clients
–Enduring and expanded client
relationships.
Notes de l'éditeur
Intro Remarks and Greetings
Before we get started, let’s have a throw back to 2012.
The “Avengers” was the “Top Grossing Movie” at more than $632 million.
Michael Phelps became the most decorated Olympian in the world at the Summer Olympics,
The land-roving “Curiosity” lands on Mars after a 9-month journey through space and begins its exploration mission.
And the San Francisco Giants become baseball’s World Series Champions in a win over Detroit Tigers, 4 out of 4 games.
So why 2012? I’ll come back with an answer after I give you some quick background about the company I work for, PSST.
We’ll come back to that, but first let me give you a a little background on PSST.
PSST was founded in 1990 by entrepreneurs Larry Roach and Connie Younger-Roach.
We are a software company specializing in integration and compliance solutions.
Our services and solutions focus on providing efficiencies and cost-savings for HR, Finance, Payroll and Benefits management.
So let’s go back to 2012.
This is what PSST looked like in 2012. We were successfully serving 2 verticals. Our primary was a niche market in K12 vertical with a financial management system known as Munis Integration.
We actually had about 90% saturation within the state of Kentucky.
And we had about 150 clients in 15 states with 11 employees.
It was in 2012 PSST received a special phone call out of the blue.
A Kentucky school district called PSST and asked if we could develop a solution that would allow them to comply with the federal employer mandates of the Affordable Care Act…...
The affordable care act, enacted in 2012 would require all employers with 50 or more employees to track employee hours to ensure offers of health insurance coverage was made to eligible employees.
Do you realize how large of a market opportunity we were looking at in 2012? Every school district in the United States with 50 or more employees would need this same solution.
How many K12 School districts do you think are in the United States?
Well I can tell you exactly how many… A LOT!!
Well I can tell you very precisely… A LOT!!
But wait… about 9 months into the development of the ACA solution for K12 districts, PSST got another surprise phone call.
Only this time it was from a commercial third party administrator looking to partner with an ACA solutions provider.
Do you realize how large of a market opportunity we were looking at in 2012? ALL U.S. employers with 50 or more employees would have to track and report. How many businesses in the United States do you think are in the United States?
Well I can tell you very precisely… PLENTY!
Those 2 telephone calls put PSST on a path to new opportunities and now 5 years later..
We offer solutions to more than 30 business verticals, and have grown our presence in the K12 niche market, especially with providing integration solutions a number of Financial Management, HR and Payroll Systems. We’re not just about Munis.
management system.
We have 700 clients
Our products are in 36 states
And we now have 29 employees.
So what happened at PSST between those 2 special telephone calls and today?
That’s what I’d like to share with today.
Love it or hate it, the Affordable Care Act provided PSST with an opportunity to:
Leverage an emerging marketing need – and it wasn’t just emerging, it was dodging and weaving as the Obama Administration began to move deadlines and grant extensions – all while there seemed to be a significant political movement to Repeal and Replace the ACA.
We had to create a solution for the market need – not only in our area of expertise of K12, but in a brand new market space for PSST.
And we had to move quickly as employer compliance was to begin in 2013.
Plus we had to manage the challenges that come with rapid growth and increasing competition.
Our vision to be the best ACA solution in the market was the touchstone for every initiative.
Now remember, PSST in 2012 had solid brand standing among K12 in the state of Kentucky, with products in about 11 other states on a smaller scale.
Our strategy was to leverage the nationwide recognition among businesses and K12 districts of their NEED for an ACA compliance and tracking rather than rely on anyone’s recognition of the PSST brand beyond the state of Kentucky.
So our solution became ACA-Track … developed and powered by PSST.
We even had a separately branded web site just for ACA-Track.
At times, we felt like we were building a plane in the air.
Federal deadlines were constantly moving; compliance requirements and we needed additional development resources
We knew we couldn’t scale up development staff rapidly enough to get to market quickly, so we looked out of house for additional resources.
We developed a strategic relationship with Slingshot, formerly known as Ignew, to get to the best product development.
Hired industry and product experts
Steep learning curve needed to be leveled
Major investment but would help team ramp up rapidly.
We needed to be a complete solution with consultative and advocate roles for our clients.
Hired industry and product experts
Steep learning curve needed to be leveled
Positioning ourselves as the Go To Experts of ACA
Training to ensure positive user experience
Product installation quick and easy for clients
Positioning ourselves as the Go To Experts of ACA
Training to ensure positive user experience
Product installation quick and easy for clients
Value story – quantifying our marketable points of difference.
Messaging that resonates with our target audiences.
Clearly differentiate our brand from increasing national competition
Value story – quantifying our marketable points of difference.
Messaging that resonates with our target audiences.
Clearly differentiate our brand from increasing national competition