The challenge

Imagine needing a quick answer about your benefits — only to face five portals, each requiring separate logins. That was the daily reality for all active and retired members of a major professional sports players association.

For years, players had endured a fragmented member experience that forced them to hunt for their medical, pension and other benefits information across a maze of websites. Worse, because so much of a player’s time is spent on the road, the inability to easily and safely access benefits on a mobile device as well as desktop was a constant source of frustration.

Leadership of the players association and its league knew it was an issue, and the stakes were high: The latest collective bargaining agreement mandated a total rewards experience that streamlined access for thousands of members with widely different benefit eligibility rules.

Any solution would have to deliver better service, reduce administrative burden and finally bring order to a complex web of vendors and carriers. And it had to take into consideration the very unique information security challenges of some of the highest-profile people on the planet.

Our solution

The project began with a clear vision: Make benefits easy to access, anytime and anywhere.

Working closely with the association and league, Segal’s Administration & Technology Consulting (ATC) team translated this vision into a detailed RFP, spelling out requirements for single sign-on, multi-factor authentication, role-based access, mobile compatibility, scheduled data feeds from multiple benefit programs, user-friendly design and more.

We then curated vendor demos and oversaw a rigorous selection process that prioritized functionality and security, ensuring the final choice was based on real capabilities — not just promises. Post-selection, ATC served as the client’s program lead, coordinating the portal vendor and multiple benefit administrators, aligning schedules and managing scope, as well as coordinating application and security testing and remediation.

The results

The portal did more than collapse five logins into one — it transformed the member experience.

With ATC’s guidance, all core benefits — medical, dental, vision, mental health, life/AD&D, disability, pension, 401(k), tuition and others — are now visible in one place, with single sign-on and seamless jump-outs to each carrier.

Behind the scenes, the portal’s architecture means no sensitive data is duplicated. Scheduled feeds from each carrier keep information current and secure, while maintaining strong internal controls.

Disciplined vendor oversight, defined data feed schedules and rigorous user-acceptance testing have reduced risk and rework — delivering a solution that’s resilient, secure and easier to manage.

Overall, ATC helped a client turn a once-frustrating experience into a model of modern member service. Moreover, the approach we took, from RFP to implementation, sets a replicable standard for other organizations that are facing fragmented benefits administration.