Covansys wins Wisconsin benefits system deal

Covansys Corp. of Farmington Hills, Mich., announced May 28 that it was awarded a $4.2 million contract to implement a new benefits payments system for the Wisconsin Retirement System.


The project, awarded by the Wisconsin Department of Employee Trust Funds, is Covansys' first major public-sector win in Wisconsin. Covansys, a global consulting and technology services company, provides retirement solutions or services in 16 states, said Sanjay Dudaney, Covansys' Benefit Payments System project executive.



Covansys will replace the current trust fund system with a custom-built benefit payments system by March 2004. The new system will use IBM's e-business infrastructure software, according to Covansys.


The current retirement system is antiquated, said Dave Hinrichs, assistant secretary of the Wisconsin Employee Trust Funds. The new benefits payment system will be a secure, Web-based, self-service system and will increase overall productivity and allow staff to focus on members' needs instead of routine processing tasks, Hinrichs said.

The employee trust funds serve more than 492,000 members, including 112,400 benefit recipients and 1,300 employers in Wisconsin.


The benefits payment system features integrated workflow and office automation capabilities that will improve the speed and accuracy of business processing. Other benefits include improved records management, reporting and process management, according to Covansys.


Covansys provides public-sector solutions to more than 25 states in the areas of health and human services, transportation, public retirement systems, labor and tax and revenue systems. The company derives 30 percent of its annual revenue from state and local government customers.