According to Fidelity, which administers health and welfare programs for more than 600,000 workers and retirees:  

• An estimated 60% of people making elections are now using the Internet to review their options and select their benefit plans for next year
• That number has increased dramatically from just 24% three years ago

Based upon the Aberdeen Group Study, this means a savings of $500 - $850 per employee per year in administration costs alone.

More Benefits
Recent surveys show the growth in online HR and benefits communications. 

• 91% of the respondents report using the Web to communicate with employees. (Towers Perrin)
• An estimated 60% of people making elections are now using the Internet to review their options and select their benefit plans for next year—up from 24% just three years ago. (Fidelity Investments)
• 95% of HR and benefit managers consider automated enrollment, administration, communication, and supplier management of benefit programs a technology imperative. (RewardsPlus)

Online Produces Results
Surveys also report the return of online investment.  

• Employees who are satisfied with their employer's health plan communication are 5 times more likely to be satisfied with their health plan than those employees who are not satisfied with their communications. (Watson Wyatt)
• Employers report improvements in: the quality and timeliness of HR services to employees (70%), employee awareness and appreciation of benefits (67%), overall organizational efficiency (67%) and the HR function (62%). (Towers Perrin)
• Self service open enrollment reduces inquiries by 75%. (Hunter Group)
• In addition, 66 percent of respondents said they were able to free up their HR departments to focus on broader company issues, 64 percent said they gained access to more information, and 58 percent said they receive quicker responses

Q. Is the Internet safe for transmitting employee data?
A. Your data and propriety information are secure with EnLinc.  We employ Secure Socket Layers (SSL) and Certificates issued by Thawte or Godaddy for our client sites. The system supports 128-bit to 256 bit encryption, the highest standard of security encryption available. Encryption strength is measured in key length — number of bits in the key. To decipher an SSL communication, one needs to generate the correct decoding key. Mathematically speaking, 2ⁿ possible values exist for an n-bit key. Thus, 40-bit encryption involves 2⁴⁰ possible values, 128-bit encryption 2¹²⁸ combinations and 256-bit keys involves a staggering 2²⁵⁶ possible combinations, rendering the encrypted data de facto impervious to intrusion. Even with a brute-force attack (the process of systematically trying all possible combinations until the right one is found) cracking a 256-bit encryption is computationally unfeasible.

About SSL

Public and Private Keys to Privacy
An SSL Certificate consists of a public key and a private key. The public key is used to encrypt information and the private key is used to decipher it. When a browser points to a secured domain, an SSL handshake authenticates the server and the client and establishes an encryption method and a unique session key. They can begin a secure session that guarantees message privacy and message integrity.

Without third-party verification, how do you know a Web site is an authentic representative of a business you trust? Every SSL Certificate is created for a particular server in a specific domain for a verified business entity. Like a passport or a driver’s license, an SSL Certificate is issued by a trusted authority. When the SSL handshake occurs, the browser requires authentication from the server. If the information does not match or the certificate has expired, the browser displays an error message.

EnLinc uses advanced firewall FortiGate Antivirus Firewalls for Enterprise. 
FortiGate Antivirus Firewalls for Enterprise, meets our enterprise-class requirement for performance, availability and reliability. They include all of the key capabilities provided by other FortiGate models, with integrated, real-time antivirus, firewall, VPN, network intrusion detection and prevention, and traffic-shaping services.

Fortinet understands the need for timely and thorough intrusion prevention updates through our FortiGuard Intrusion Prevention (IPS) subscription service offering. Like the three other FortiGuard subscription services offerings, Fortinet's IPS offers the industry's fastest response and global updates via the FortiGuard global distribution network.

Using FortiGuard Subscription services prevents both new and yet unknown threats and vulnerabilities from gaining access to your network and its valuable applications or data assets by preventing and responding to today's fast-spreading attacks.

About Fortinet (www.fortinet.com)
Fortinet is the confirmed leader of the Unified Threat Management market. The company's award-winning FortiGate™ series of ASIC-accelerated antivirus firewalls, winner of the 2004 Security Product of the Year Award from Network Computing and the 2003 Networking Industry Awards Firewall Product of the Year, are the new generation of real-time network protection systems. They detect and eliminate the most damaging, content-based threats from e-mail and Web traffic such as viruses, worms, intrusions, inappropriate Web content and more in real time – without degrading network performance. FortiGate systems are the only security products that are quadruple-certified by the ICSA (antivirus, firewall, IPSec, NIDS), and deliver a full range of network-level and application-level services in integrated, easily managed platforms. Named to the Red Herring Top 100 Private Companies, Fortinet is privately held and based in Sunnyvale, California.

About our managed servers facility- Intelenet ( http://www.intelenet.net/company.php )
Servers are managed by Intelenet.net. InteleNet provides an extensive set of security services based on the latest state-of-the-art security technologies on the market. These security services are designed, deployed, maintained and monitored 24x7x365 to provide the highest level enterprise security to us on a contracted basis. In addition, InteleNet is staffed by a certified security team to ensure fast response to security incidents. 

Network Architecture
InteleNet prides itself on having engineered a reliable and redundant network which accommodates the high-availability demands of our customers' critical applications. We achieve this through a simple and scalable architecture designed to ensure maximum service availability for our customers. For performance and reliability, InteleNet employs state-of-the-art equipment from Cisco Systems for all core systems. This includes InteleNet's border and edge routers, the switching core, firewalls and load balancing gear.

InteleNet's carrier-neutral facility provides our customers with numerous secure connections to the Internet backbone through several selected Tier I network providers. InteleNet is connected to six different fiber carriers who supply the facility through independent access points. InteleNet then maintains various connections over divergent multi-gigabit paths to metropolitan peering points. Our multiple carrier network architecture creates real redundancy and ensures that customer traffic can reach its destination using the optimal upstream network. This offers significant advantages over the peering arrangements that a typical Tier 1 data center has. At InteleNet, if any provider experiences downtime or any other problem, traffic is re-routed through other network carriers until the problem is resolved. Our network engineers utilize sophisticated route determination technology from RouteScience® to constantly probe the Internet for packet loss and latency and then automatically re-route traffic around these areas. InteleNet is a SAS 70 Type II Certified Facility.

Q. How secure is the data?
A.  Internal Security System
We count on a well-designed management structure that provides the deepest and most intelligent security available for safeguarding our corporate network from damaging cyber attacks that are introduced inside the network.. Our information security and physical security are combined under a single management structure. The following is a list of best practices that are used to develop our Internal Security System:

• Use network-, System-, file-, and application-level access controls and restrict access to authorized times and tasks as required.

• Clearly defining and assigning information security roles and responsibilities and ensure adequate resources are allocated.

• Visible sponsorship and direction, written communications, and regular staff meeting time on this subject.

• Creating, enforcing, and regularly reviewing security policies.

• Information security is a normal part of their responsibility of each of our employees.

All users are validated against our MS SQL 2000 database. A login user & password are used to authenticate and verify their browser session. All users have specific access level authorization granted to their login by the client’s designated management. These access levels are utilized to generate the use of authorized content that is specific to that individual user.

Login key verification is performed against all sensitive information for that database every time that information is accessed. Whenever any user attempts to access any page, form, or content, the ASP code validates the user’s session. Authorization against security matrix, either grants or refuses delivery information to the client’s browser session.

Live Database Backups
When it comes to backing up critical live databases, traditional file system backup systems break. Our transparent, live database backup solution doesn’t affect applications or user access and is updated every 4 hours. Agents are available for Oracle, Lotus Notes, Informix, Sybase, Microsoft SQL Server, and Exchange Server.

Additional Off-Site Storage
InteleNet utilizes Iron Mountain®, the industry leader in Off-Site Data Protection to protect our customers’ vital data after it has been backed up to tape daily. 

Q. How dependable is EnLinc's System?
A. We construct and customize your company's system using technologies with Microsoft's Windows 2003 server, Internet Information Server IIS6, M.S. SQL Server 2000 Enterprise database, which has a proven track record (see below) combined with InteleNet Distributed Server Environment this guarantees 99.99% site uptime.

Highly Scalable and Reliable...Grow without limits with enhanced scalability and reliability features. 

Record Benchmark SQL Server 2000 posted world-record benchmarks that eclipsed the competition on multiple platforms. For details on the benchmarks, visit http://www.microsoft.com/sql/worldrecord

Windows 2003 Server will enable organizations to readily pursue Internet-based solutions. With comprehensive Web, security and communication technologies built-in, and the scalability and performance to handle the demands of Internet traffic, Windows 2003 Server delivers a unique, Internet-enabled platform on which to take advantage of the Business Internet.

Reliable: Windows 2003 Server will enable organizations to minimize network interruptions to end-users. With system architecture improvements for higher server uptime, fault tolerant and redundant systems for increased availability, and online configuration and maintenance capabilities. 

Q. Why should I not just go out and buy software and make a one-time investment?
A. The short answer it is not cost effective. There is no such thing as a "one-time investment". There is an ongoing cost to housing and securing data, and to manage data and extract data. There is continuing cost to maintain hardware, from notebooks to servers. There would be a continuing cost to set up software over and over again as people came in and out of the organization and as hardware has to be swapped out. There is an ongoing cost to manipulate data as the organization changes along with it data must be changed in bulk. There is an ongoing cost to manage access to data. There is an ongoing cost to across-the-board maintenance of field structures and options. And if you wish, to keep on top of the latest versions. Even if there were some people in house dedicated to all this, you would have additional costs due to turnover. We have never heard of an organization that was able to avoid even one of these costs. The cost for our HRIMS systems is a small fraction of what it really costs an organization to do a "one time" purchase of software and own the associated responsibilities.

Q. Do you really think our employees have access to the Internet?
A. More of them than you might imagine! 

THE WHITE HOUSE, Office of the Press Secretary, January 21, 2000, INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT: INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY FOR THE 21ST CENTURY quotes these statistics, 

"During the past seven years, computers, high-speed communication systems, and computer software have become more powerful and more useful to people at home and work. Nearly half of all American households now use the Internet, with more than 700 new households being connected every hour. More than half of U.S. classrooms are connected to the Internet today, compared to less than three percent in 1993. It allows Americans to shop, do homework, and get health care advice online, and it has enabled businesses of all sizes to join the international economy." 

U.S. — There are 202.45 million Americans now online, according to InternetWorld Stats (July, 2004). 

The odds are very good that most of your employees have access to the Internet, if not at work then at home, a friend or family member's house, or even at public terminals.

Q. We use M.S. Access or M.S. Excel to track employee information now. Can that be integrated with the EnLinc system?
A. Yes, we can integrate from Access, Excel, 123, or even text files to your new EnLinc HR system. All online reports are in a user friendly print or Excel export format, so you can perform sorting and other functions with ease.

Q. How is the EnLinc online system different than my current desktop or network system?

A. As often as the government and the courts change the strategic management landscape, obsolescence is a critical issue with all network systems. Our HRIMS systems contain the latest advances in Employment Practice technology. With EnLinc, your IT staff can concentrate on your core business instead of dealing with strategic management related reports and system difficulties caused by the HR system. More importantly there are currently no competitor products or services that even approach the breadth and depth of the EnLinc solution!

Q. How long is the EnLinc implementation timeline?
A. Your new system can be online within a matter of days, depending upon your level of customization. Customization pieces like your benefits enrollment, payroll, and termination procedures, etcetera may require 20 - 120 working days, due to any coordination efforts required with your multiple offline providers (payroll, insurance carriers, brokers, etc).

Q. Is EnLinc's Online HR System easy to use?
A. Yes.  The system is intuitive and user friendly.  No IT experience is required.  The system was designed from the ground up specifically for ease-of-use while keeping day-to-day business operations at the forefront.  Our system offers simple menus, intuitive transaction screens, and point and click functionality. Our goal is to have your system up and running, and your employees using it, in a matter of days. If your employees can use an ATM at the bank, they can use EnLinc systems.

Q. Will the EnLinc system actually process HR Transactions or is it just a view only rolodex?
A. The EnLinc system will process HR transactions such as pre-employment, job postings, new hires, payroll time clock, time sheet notification, benefit enrollment, COBRA notices, performance reviews, and terminations. The system also provides consolidated billing, census for 401k or benefit bidding, COBRA and Cafeteria Plan administration, and employee full self-service modules.

Q. How much does the system cost?
A. System costs vary depending on a company's size and the level of service you choose. There is no extra software or hardware to buy, no additional upfront costs, no reallocating IT resources, and your ROI is usually achieved within as little as 6 months after implementing the system.