BenefitsXML announces availability of the BriXML schema for HR, Benefits and Payroll Administration. Glastonbury, CT (July 11, 2001) BenefitsXML, Inc., an e-benefits infrastructure software company, today announced the general availability of its Benefits real-time information eXchange Markup Language (BriXML™). BriXML defines a common vocabulary and data model for human resource, employee benefit and payroll administration services. BriXML also includes an associated metadata dictionary that is used to generate a consolidated customer information repository. BriXML was developed using Extensible Markup Language (XML), the Internet standard for describing and exchanging data.

“The winners in the next generation of on-line employer services will be those offering their customers seamless multi-channel access to an integrated view of their entire product and service relationship” states David W. Donahue, founder and president of BenefitsXML, Inc. “Progressive employee benefit service providers are looking to XML-based technologies to reduce the engineering costs of integrating multiple, disparate systems and to enable distributed access to enterprise information services. BriXML provides an industry-specific XML vocabulary to support enterprise application integration and to expose application components as Web-services.”

BriXML is designed specifically to provide a migration path for future industry-specific XML vocabularies authored by independent, non-profit organization as a means to promote frictionless B2B Internet transactions. By incorporating BriXML today as a domain vocabulary, employee benefit service providers will be positioned to take advantage of emerging Web-service initiatives such as Microsoft’s .Net, Sun Microsystems’ Sun ONE, IBM’s Dynamic e-business, or Oracle’s 9i Dynamic Services.

The BriXML data object model contains sufficient granular data elements to support information transfer for:

• Security – messaging for authentication and authorization, including support for single sign-on.
  
• Customer and Product Data – contains standing information regarding employer, employee, dependents, broker, vendors, eligibility rules, and health, life, disability, defined contribution and FSA plan setup information.
  
• Benefits – current, future, and historical data on participant / member benefit elections.
  
• Human Resource – information on job history, performance reviews, education, skills, training, company assets, emergency contacts, OSHA incidents, workers compensation codes, and paid-time-off.
  
• Payroll – payroll cycle information including earnings, deductions, memo items, garnishments, tax, paid time off, and direct deposit information.



• Premium Billing – supports summary and detail invoice presentment and remittance submission including premium adjustments.