Goodman Manufacturing achieves ACA compliance with Sovos

Case Study

Goodman Manufacturing

Goodman successfully achieved compliance and gained valuable flexibility within HR by using the Sovos ACA solution.

Summary

Business Challenges

  • Old, outdated HR and payroll systems that complicated the process of accessing data needed to comply with ACA regulations
  • HR team was relatively small and did not have the capacity to handle the increased workload
  • No point in hiring a single employee; Could take one person up to six months to complete requirements

Solution

Selected Sovos ACA Reporting solution to:

  • Successfully transmit data
  • Provide ongoing service and support after the sale
  • Allow internal HR staff to focus on other vital functions

Benefits

  • Affordable
  • Comprehensive capabilities
  • Simple integration

The Company

Goodman Manufacturing is a Houston-based manufacturer of Heating, Ventilating, and Air Conditioning (HVAC) products that has market presences throughout the United States and Canada. Goodman employs about 7,000 people in the U.S.

Goodman is self-insured, which renders it responsible for providing insurance to thousands of workers. Thecompany has leaned heavily on its broker and various consultants to stay current with legislation and updated regulations in the past. However, the implementation of ACA introduced new challenges for the human resources team.

The Challenge

Goodman used older and outdated HR and payroll systems that made it difficult to access the data that was needed to comply with new ACA regulations. Goodman was faced with the prospect of extensive manual data manipulation to keep up with new standards.

With a relatively lean HR team on site, the additional workload necessitated by open enrollment and year-end activities was overwhelming — even the task of distributing forms via mail would have stretched the team thin. Goodman considered its options and decided to outsource its filing process to a third party.

The Solution

Goodman estimated that it could take one full-time person about six months to fulfill all ACA reporting requirements singlehandedly, and quickly made the decision to utilize an outside web-based resource.

Some of the company’s requirements for an external solution included affordability, comprehensive in its capabilities and data, offered support to help the internal staff become acclimated with the technology, and had a proven track record of success.

“The risk is too high not to get it right. In my opinion, it’s a good investment to ensure you’re in compliance.”

Kristi Pittman

Director of Benefits & HR Shared Services, Goodman Manufacturing

The Benefits

Sovos offered an all-inclusive integration process by importing Goodman’s data, formatting necessary forms, distributing them to the appropriate parties, and then transmitting data to reporting agencies.

The Results

Goodman gained successful data transmittal, service and support after the sale was made, and the immeasurable employee time savings that can be attributed to the deployed solution. After successful implementation of Sovos’ ACA reporting solution, Goodman has been able to avoid penalties and fines associated with noncompliance while HR employees were able to remain focused on other important duties, such as open enrollment and year-end activities. Because of the smooth integration process and the comprehensive support the Sovos team provided, the Goodman staff is now comfortable using the software and confident in its ability to remain compliant.

Why Sovos?

After careful consideration, Goodman landed on Sovos as the right option due to a combination of Sovos’ pricing, comprehensive resources and abilities, and simple integration. In addition, Goodman was impressed with the Sovos team’s support — representatives walked the users through the process of implementing and using the software, rather than simply providing instructions in a manual — and web capabilities. Ultimately, Goodman felt at ease knowing that its compliance was in Sovos’ hands.