Tom Tsaris, APA
Embracing change is paying off for Tom Tsaris. By implementing PensionPro for his two businesses, Tsaris has saved more than $130k a year in personnel costs. “That doesn’t account for the dollar value on time savings and efficiencies, which is easily another six figures annually,” he said.
Tsaris owns All Valley Administrators, LLC as well as ERISA Compliance Services, Inc., a third party administrator of qualified health & welfare plans. “We are on an exponential trajectory for growth of our administration revenue,” he started to explain. Tsaris knew he needed to ensure operational efficiency, contain costs, and ensure exceptional client service to realize that growth.
Two years ago, he decided to move away from paper files and spreadsheets and automate the entire process. “I was looking to be even more effective in the service and support that we offer without the spiral of adding more people,” Tsaris said. He used to staff each administrator with an assistant, but that has now become unnecessary and the basis for the significant reduction in overhead.
“We’ve seen a dramatic improvement with what we’re doing,” he said. “We’ve increased efficiency, effectiveness, responsiveness and morale, and we’re much more proactive with clients — all with a direct impact to the bottom line.”
Tsaris offers advice to industry peers looking to do the same thing. He recommends embracing technology, implementing in phases, and using persistence in encouraging employees and clients to adopt new systems. To encourage staff buy-in, he set productivity and timeframe goals with financial rewards tied to those goals. “Even long term, experienced administrators who are by nature, resistant to change, can be coaxed to embrace it,” he said.
For clients, he didn’t offer any other alternative. “We explain that it’s in their best interest to use secure, encrypted pipeline for all of our data and communications — email doesn’t do it anymore,” said Tsaris. “There is little pushback. Gen X and the Millennials are starting to run the show, society has changed.”
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