Benefitfocus Kicks Off Innovation Week April 18-21

CHARLESTON, S.C., April 18, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Benefitfocus, Inc. BNFT, a leading provider of cloud-based benefits management software, today kicks off its Innovation Week with a celebration of design and engineering. More than 700 software engineers and UX designers from around the world will participate by live stream and in person on the company's 40-acre Charleston, S.C. campus for sessions focused on personal, professional and community development. The week includes more than 30 sessions focused on driving technological advancements in benefits management technology.

"Our aim for benefits management technology is to deliver innovation that improves the lives of millions of individuals at scale," said Benefitfocus CEO Shawn Jenkins. "We provide employers with the tools they need to personalize benefits and each employee with the information they need to make better decisions related to healthcare."

Implementing new and emerging technologies

More than 30 sessions will focus on current and emerging technologies, with an emphasis on those that drive innovation, scale and personalization. Topics to be covered include artificial intelligence, chatbots and invisible design in creating more personalized, intuitive user experiences. The sessions will also discuss technologies that allow for innovative and efficient scaling such as database segmentation, microservices and containerization. Also on the agenda will be a look into how the power of massive data clouds combined with behavioral science can deliver more tailored benefits shopping experiences, enabling the user to easily find the best plan to fit their needs and the needs of their family.

"Innovation is core to the Benefitfocus culture and our investment in Innovation Week arms our entire engineering team to continue to shape the future of enterprise benefits management and accelerate the growth of our platform," said Benefitfocus Chief Technology Officer, Jim Restivo.

Advancing user experience and engineering collaboration

This year Innovation Week will include UX and UI sessions complemented by sessions on infrastructure and architecture. "These two disciplines maintain a symbiotic relationship," said Chief Interaction Designer Matt Brown. "The customer experience is at the heart of our platform, and that includes the user experience on the front end as well as back-end platform performance."

Additional industry topics around STEM education and advocating for women in the tech industry will be discussed, including a presentation by guest speaker Carolyn Finch, executive director of Charleston Women in Tech. "Growing the technology talent pool to include differing perspectives is essential in leading technological advancement," said Senior Vice President of Engineering Jessica Brewer. The company has partnerships with several universities to provide continuing education and career opportunities for current and future Benefitfocus design and engineering talent.

Visit Benefitfocus or its Design + Engineering Blog to learn more about the company and its culture.

About Benefitfocus
Benefitfocus BNFT provides a leading cloud-based benefits management platform that simplifies how organizations and individuals shop for, enroll in, manage and exchange benefits.  Every day leading employers, insurance companies and millions of consumers rely on our platform to manage, scale and exchange benefits data seamlessly.  In an increasingly complex benefits landscape, we bring order to chaos so our clients and their employees have access to better information, make better decisions and lead better lives. Learn more at www.benefitfocus.com, LinkedIn and Twitter.

Except for historical information, all of the statements, expectations, and assumptions contained in this press release are forward-looking statements. Actual results might differ materially from those explicit or implicit in the forward-looking statements. Important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially include: the need to innovate and provide useful products and services; changes in government regulations; the immature and volatile nature of the market for our products and services and other factors that could impact our anticipated growth; management of growth; fluctuations in our financial results; general economic risks; reliance on key personnel; our ability to compete effectively; our ability to maintain our culture and recruit and retain qualified personnel; privacy, security and other risks associated with our business; and the other risk factors set forth from time to time in our SEC filings, copies of which are available free of charge within the Investor Relations section of the Benefitfocus website at http://investor.benefitfocus.com/sec.cfm or upon request from our investor relations department. Benefitfocus assumes no obligation and does not intend to update these forward-looking statements, except as required by law.

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SOURCE Benefitfocus, Inc.