MISSISSAUGA, Ontario, April 06, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — SEB Administrative Services Inc. (“SEB Admin”), a subsidiary of Smart Employee Benefits Inc. (“SEB”, TSXV:SEB), is pleased to announce it has signed a “White Label TPA” joint venture (“JV”) agreement with Gesticonnect, a leading Third-Party Administrator (“TPA”) operating in Quebec focused on emerging market companies. The JV brings a strong partnership to SEB and expands our “White Label TPA” offering in the Quebec market. Pursuant to the JV, SEB will deploy and support our FlexPlus™ suite of benefit processing solutions and services to Gesticonnect clients.
The FlexPlus™ Value Proposition
SEB’s FlexPlus™ suite of products and services are leading edge and proven in the enterprise market. The same leading-edge functionality, available to some of Canada’s most sophisticated clients, will now be made available to emerging market clients. Many of our FlexPlus™ modules provide unique functionality not typically available in other administration solutions. This new level of digitization will provide Gesticonnect clients with new digital tools and features, including quotes, billings, manage broker commission, client management, analytics, security and voluntary insurance products. This will allow Gesticonnect to enhance their services and solutions to their clients. Brokers will enjoy new revenue models. Plan Sponsors and Plan Members will have an enhanced user experience, better analytics and more flexible benefit plan designs.
The FlexPlus™ TPA environment is fully supported and managed from a multi-lingual ecosystem in Montreal which also services a national client base across Canada. The Quebec market represents a significant share of SEB’s global business and this transaction allows SEB to both increase our commitment in Quebec and grow our local service delivery infrastructure in Quebec to service emerging clients in Quebec and across Canada.
States Tim Beaulieu, CFO of Smart Employee Benefits Inc., “SEB has a large presence in Quebec with multiple enterprise clients, both government and corporate. We currently provide benefit processing and IT solutions and services to more than 30 enterprise clients, representing over 120,000 employees and over $250M of premium. This JV with Gesticonnect expands SEB’s footprint in Quebec’s emerging market and allows us to increase our investment in our Quebec infrastructure. Our Quebec infrastructure is a critical component of our ecosystem supporting our national and global client base.”
States Denis Plante, Associate President of Gesticonnect, “The emerging market comprises 99.7% of all businesses in Quebec, a largely underserved market for leading benefits administration solutions. The JV with SEB brings highly cost-effective leading-edge technology and business solutions, currently available primarily in the enterprise market, to Brokers, MGAs and TPAs in Quebec.
The FlexPlus™ ecosystem will provide emerging businesses in Quebec access to fully bilingual digital solutions, allowing them to cost effectively provide more user-friendly access and more flexible benefit plan designs for their employees. FlexPlus™ will also provide analytics to make more optimal business decisions, enhancing their overall competitiveness. We have worked with SEB for the past year to assess the suitability of the FlexPlus™ platform for the Quebec emerging market. SEB’s existing client base in Quebec includes a number of Quebec’s largest and best-known entities, corporate and government. We are confident the FlexPlus™ solutions being made available to our emerging market clients are proven with leading edge bilingual functionality. These solutions are also deployed across Canada with a number of Canada’s largest employers. We are pleased that a huge portion of SEB’s operating infrastructure is bilingual, based in Quebec and serves both Quebec and SEB’s national client base. Our JV with SEB will contribute to the growth of SEB local infrastructure in Quebec.”
A Quebec-based Ecosystem to Modernize the SME Market
The evolution of benefits administration in the emerging market is long overdue. This JV brings together two innovative teams with benefits, technology and delivery expertise to ensure a strong requirements and strategy fit for the Quebec emerging market. Extending access to robust high value-added group benefits solutions with support from a Quebec based, dedicated multi-lingual team, will help harmonize the delivery of benefits to Quebec employees in the emerging market.
About Gesticonnect
Gesticonnect is a provider of innovative technology solutions that enable employers to enhance their benefits offering while simplifying the experience for employees and directors by integrating leading-edge proven technologies. Gesticonnect offers all of its solutions and services through its independent network of group insurance and annuity advisers. The JV with SEB puts Gesticonnect at the forefront of leading technology solutions for benefits processing in the Quebec marketplace.
About SEB Administrative Services Inc.
SEB Administrative Services Inc. (“SEB Admin”), a subsidiary of Smart Employee Benefits Inc. (“SEB”, TSXV:SEB), is a third-party administrator (“TPA”) providing leading edge cloud-based, fully bilingual, benefit processing solutions using SEB Admin’s proprietary technologies and custom solutions and services of Partners. SEB Admin’s “FlexPlus” platform provides single sign-on connectivity for all group benefit stakeholders. FlexPlus™ has over 20 modules supporting multiple revenue models, capturing over 90% of all benefit processing activities for all benefit types. Each module can operate standalone or as an integrated solution. SEB Admin manages benefit plan environments for more than 50 of Canada’s name brand companies and government entities. SEB Admin has over 350,000 plan members under administration and more than 180,000 additional plan members under contract and in transition; in total representing more than $1.3B of premium. FlexPlus™ cloud-enabled solutions support all plan designs – traditional, flex, cafeteria, hour bank, dollar bank, marketplace – via co-sourced, fully outsourced or SaaS models. Our solutions turn cost centers to profit centers for many of our clients and partners.
For further information about SEB Administrative Services Inc., please visit: www.seb-admin.com.
About Smart Employee Benefits Inc. (“SEB”):
SEB is a proven provider of leading-edge IT and benefits processing software, solutions and services for the Life and Group benefits marketplace and government. We design, customize, build and manage mission critical, end-to-end technology, people and infrastructure solutions using SEB’s proprietary technologies and expertise and partner technologies. We manage mission critical business process for over 150 blue chip and government accounts, nationally and globally. Over 90% of our revenue and contracts are multi-year contracts related to government, insurance, healthcare, benefits and e-commerce. Our solutions are supported nationally and globally by over 600 multi-certified technical professionals in a multi-lingual infrastructure, from 11 offices across Canada and globally.
Our solutions include both software and services driven ecosystems including multiple SaaS solutions, cloud solutions & services, managed services offering smart sourcing (near shore/offshore), managed security services, custom software development and support, professional services, deep systems integration expertise and multiple specialty practice areas including AI, CRM, BI, Portals, EDI, e-commerce, digital transformation, analytics, project management to mention a few. We have more than 20 partnerships with leading global and regional technology and consulting organizations.
For further information about Smart Employee Benefits Inc., please visit: www.seb-inc.com.
Forward-looking statements
This news release is intended for information purposes only. Statements made in this news release may contain “forward-looking” information about the company’s future business prospects. These statements while expressed in good faith and believed to have a reasonable basis are subject to risk and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those set forth or implied by such forward looking statements. Investors should consult a professional advisor before making any investment decision.
Neither TSX Venture Exchange Inc. nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange Inc.) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.
Media contacts
Mohamad El Chayah, President & CEO
SEB Administrative Services Inc.
Tel: 416.418.0619
mohamad.elchayah@seb-admin.com
www.seb-admin.com
Investor contact
John McKimm, President/CEO/CIO
Smart Employee Benefits Inc.
Tel: 416.460.2817
john.mckimm@seb-inc.com
www.seb-inc.com
