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Don’t recommend the wrong techvendor. Today, they’re popping up everywhere —especially in the HR and employee benefits industry. While they arecertainly trendy and have generated a lot of buzz, these newvendors often lack the service and experience to back up theirlofty promises. It’s more important than ever to be wary of vendorswho rely on a sleek user experience but lack health care expertise,powerful back-end technology, and a strong focus on security andcompliance. Ensuring all of those components are part of thevendor’s offering will optimize the value of your solution andavoid major headaches in the long-run for you and your clients. Here’s how you can make sure you don’t get burned:

1.) Don’t trust — verify. Compliance is key. As we’ve seen in this recent race to themarketplace, many tech vendors are so focused on growth that theylose sight of extremely important compliance requirements.Adherence to industry guidelines is crucial to avoiding seriouspenalties for your clients. In a recent interview, Rob Butler,founder and CEO of Maestro Health, warned that, “As companies startgaining momentum, it becomes even more alluring to cut corners.This is especially true in highly-regulated industries like healthcare benefit brokering, where hiring and training people mayrequire more time than the companies wish to spend.” Does thevendor have expert staff dedicated to compliance? Are there strict,documented procedures in place? Worthy vendors will not only adhereto guidelines themselves, but be able to relieve a lot of thisburden for you and your clients.

2.) Don’t skimp on data security. Thesedays, data breaches are a real and constant threat, especially whenit comes to personal health information. A recentNBC News report noted that “roughly one out of every threeAmericans had their health care records compromised, and “most werenot even aware of the problem.” Ask your vendor for proof oflicenses and certifications. When was their last security riskassessment? Can the vendor provide client references to validatetheir commitment to keeping your clients’ sensitive informationsafe? 3.) Take a look under thehood. Most Silicon Valley start-ups boast a flashyfront-end user experience, but fall short when it comes to strong,functional internal operations to support this on the back-end. Acool site is great, but that will be the last thing on anemployee’s mind if there was a mistake in their benefitsenrollment. Some key features of a robust back-endinclude:

• Sophisticated data transaction processing (checks andbalances)

• Scalability

• Billing/reconciliation capabilities

• Ease of integration with other solutions

• EDI connections

In addition, be sure to look into the vendor’s ability topersonalize and make configurations quickly and easily. Howefficiently can the vendor react to changes and respond to anyerrors that might occur? (Beware: Most vendors say they cancustomize quickly and easily, but unless their back-end technologyis strong, it will end up costing you and your clients far moretime and money than you bargained for.)

4.) Seek a service attitude – not just adepartment. Brokers can’t be expected to be the onlysource of guidance and support when it comes to implementing newemployee health and benefits solutions, and many tech-only vendorsaren’t of much help. Ask your vendor about the experience of theirservice teams. Do they have capacity to scale high-quality serviceto larger clients? A vendor with a service-minded attitude will beable to meet your clients where they are by personalizing a serviceexperience that meets their unique needs. Live chat, screensharing, email, phone, and in-person support should all beavailable, if needed. Vendors that can provide this level ofpersonal, expert support will end up making both you and yourclients’ lives much easier during implementation and throughout theyear. 5.) Measuretransparency. Over-promising and under-delivering runsrampant in the technology industry. Pay attention to the signs. Ifdeadlines consistently go unmet and you can’t seem to get astraight answer from anybody, that’s a red flag. While effort isappreciated, you should always look for results and clear proofpoints. Vendors should willingly share their current capabilitiesand pipelines. Request references. Talk to both satisfied andunsatisfied customers to get a complete view of the vendor. If youcan’t trust that a vendor will do what they say they can do for youand your clients, what’s the point?

6. Don’t forget about culture. Acompany’s culture usually says a lotabout their products and services. Do they have a clear set ofstrong corporate values? Is integrity and humility a greaterpriority than growth alone? A unified culture that isclient-focused will almost always result in a higher qualityproduct and service experience.

Recommending the wrong tech vendor can cost you, your client andtheir employees tons of time and money while putting all at seriousrisk of non-compliance penalties and data security issues. When avendor that you vouch for causes more headaches than they cure,your reputation as a trusted expert and advisor will be seriouslydamaged— along with your client base.