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Sequoia Solutions

Open Enrollment Services

The work that makes open enrollment go smoothly starts well before it opens.

Open enrollment brings together changes across Benefits on a fixed calendar, often with effects that reach payroll and integrations. We help Workday Benefits teams identify what changed, understand what it affects, and work through the configuration and testing before employees begin enrolling.

How we approach open enrollment

Scope & planning

Understand the work before configuration begins

We identify what is changing this year, what those changes affect, and what the work will require.

Configuration

Configure what this year requires

We configure the changes identified in planning across plans and rates, eligibility, open enrollment setup, and provider integrations where applicable.

Testing

Test the changes and what they affect

We test eligibility, elections, rates, deductions, and other affected configuration, along with integrations where applicable.

Launch & follow-through

Launch, monitor, and follow through

We monitor enrollment status, work through issues as they arise, and support the steps that follow through close and finalization.

Not sure what this year will require? Let’s talk →

Experience on the team

250+

Open enrollment cycles delivered across our team’s careers

10+

Average years of Workday experience across the people supporting this work

20

Combined years of client-side benefits administration experience

What we help prevent

Problems that are easier to prevent than unwind

Open enrollment issues often come from the dependencies around a change, not the change itself. We identify those dependencies early so they can be tested and addressed before enrollment opens.

Late configuration changes that disrupt an active open enrollment
Missed cross-plan dependencies and eligibility conflicts
Payroll deduction problems when new elections take effect
Issues that are not identified before open enrollment closes
Plan or provider changes that are not carried through to benefit integrations
Late planning that leaves too little time for the work
Testing that does not cover everything affected by the change
Gaps between the enrollment setup and what employees are told

How we approach open enrollment

The work starts early and continues past launch

We plan backward from launch. Six to eight weeks is a useful rule of thumb, with the exact timeline shaped by the changes in scope and the dependencies around them.

01

Scope & Planning

We define the changes in scope, the dependencies around them, and the work they create before configuration begins.

02

Configuration

We carry the changes identified in planning into the relevant Benefits configuration, including plans and rates, eligibility, open enrollment setup, and provider integrations where applicable.

03

Testing

We test the configuration affected by the year’s changes, including eligibility, elections, rates, deductions, and provider integrations where applicable, then address what testing finds before launch.

04

Launch & Follow-Through

We stay with the work after launch, monitoring active enrollment and supporting the steps through close, finalization, and downstream follow-up where needed.

Every engagement plan includes

Scope and planning milestones
Testing windows in the appropriate nonproduction tenants
Timing for Production changes
Planned checkpoints for work that crosses teams or systems
Recommended lead times based on the work required
Reporting and status monitoring through close and finalization

The same sequence on every engagement, planned before open enrollment is underway rather than improvised after it starts.

Why Sequoia

Built by people who know open enrollment from both sides.

We understand both the configuration work and what it takes to own open enrollment inside an organization. That perspective shapes how we plan, test, coordinate, and stay with the work after enrollment opens.

Structured Scope & Planning

We define the scope, timeline, effort, and dependencies before configuration begins, so the work is sized and sequenced around what this year’s changes actually require.

Consulting and Client-Side Experience

Our Open Enrollment work draws on people who have owned benefits administration from the client side as well as delivered it as consultants.

Documentation & Knowledge Transfer

We document the work and the reasoning behind it so your team is better prepared for the next enrollment cycle.

Readiness checklist

The checklist we use to prepare for open enrollment, yours to keep

Open enrollment gets harder when small dependencies are missed or when last year’s reasoning has to be rediscovered. This checklist captures the areas we work through when preparing for open enrollment so your team has a practical structure for the work. Download it and use it whether or not we ever work together.

What’s inside

Plan and rate readiness
Eligibility and benefit group reviews
Payroll and integration coordination
Reporting and monitoring preparation
Testing strategy and defect tracking
Employee communications and enrollment experience
Timeline and project planning

Send me the checklist

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Want our perspective on your open enrollment plan?

Whether you are planning a major redesign or a smaller set of updates, we can help you understand what the changes will affect and what the work will require.

Book a 30-minute conversation