Ease

Ease is a cloud-based benefits administration and HR platform built for insurance brokers, employers and employees, with a particular focus on small and medium-sized businesses (the company says it serves organizations "right on down to two employees"). Brokers use Ease to quote plans, manage client accounts and support open enrollment across a book of business, while employers use it to run online enrollment, manage employee records, and maintain HR and compliance data.

The platform centers on paperless open enrollment: employees complete benefits elections online, brokers and employers manage plan setup and eligibility rules, and data flows out to insurance carriers and payroll systems through Ease's Marketplace of premium integration partners. Ease reports serving more than 2,300 agencies, 85,000+ employer groups and 3.4 million+ employees.

Ease was acquired by Employee Navigator, and the two companies have been integrating roadmaps and shared infrastructure since the acquisition. Payroll connectivity is a core part of the value proposition: Ease syncs demographic changes and benefit deductions from open enrollment, new hire enrollment and qualifying life events into connected payroll systems via API or file-based connectors, reducing duplicate data entry between benefits and payroll.