Why Prudential Bet on Connectivity Over Rates to Win Business
Show notes
New Episode Coming August 25
Prudential's top sales executives say it isn't just rates that win group business anymore — it's whether you can connect.
In this episode of The Current, Finch co-founder Ansel Parikh sits down with Sherri Bycroft, Director of Benefit Technology Relationships at Prudential Financial, to trace how a 150-year-old carrier went from paper enrollment forms to 100+ platform connections powered by APIs.
Sherri explains that technology is now a critical consideration in finalist meetings, how embedding Evidence of Insurability forms in the member’s enrollment experience drove a 48% lift in completion rates, and where she believes excitement about plan-build APIs is running ahead of reality.
Listen to this episode to learn:
- How an Evidence of Insurability API lifted form completion rates by 48%
- How Prudential decides between building direct integrations and using middleware
- Who really pays the cost of new benefits technology
- Whether there’s too much hype behind plan-build APIs, and Sherri’s take on what could replace them
Meet the expert
Sherri Bycroft is part of the leadership team shaping Prudential's strategy for connecting with the benefits technology ecosystem. Sherri manages partnerships with BenAdmin and payroll platforms, drives API adoption for everything from enrollment to real-time Evidence of Insurability decisions, and ensures Prudential’s group insurance products are easily accessible to employers and employees.
About The Current
The Current is a bi-monthly podcast that explores the intersection of people, finance, and data, featuring conversations with the operators, builders, and leaders shaping the employment ecosystem.
About the host
Ansel Parikh is the co-founder and COO of Finch, the leading API platform for payroll, HR, and benefits connectivity. He’s spent the last six years building the infrastructure that enables secure, permissioned access to HR and payroll data for a broad ecosystem of software companies serving employers, employees, and service providers.
