Our Valued Partners: Growing and Succeeding Together
We’re proud to collaborate with an incredible network of clients. Your trust and partnership drive our innovation, and we’re grateful for the opportunity to support your success.
Delta Dental of Colorado
Delta Dental of Illinois
Delta Dental of Kansas TruAssure
Delta Dental of Virginia
Delta Dental of Wisconsin Wyssta Services
Thank you for being part of our journey!
In 2024, we successfully completed a large-scale reorganization, marking a critical step in our transformation into an enterprise-scale technology product and services organization.
This shift was designed to streamline processes, enhance efficiencies, and deliver more innovative solutions tailored to your needs. With a stronger operational structure, we are better positioned to provide you with superior services and improved outcomes—reinforcing our commitment to excellence.
As part of this evolution, we transitioned the governance from our Owner companies from the Strategic Alignment Committee (STAC) to a new model built around Strategists, Builders, Savers, and Connectors. This dynamic framework ensures more agile decision-making and execution, ultimately benefiting the solutions and services we provide to you.
Additionally, we successfully registered our NorthWinds trademark, securing our brand identity and strengthening our market position. This milestone protects the quality and innovation you expect from us while laying the groundwork for long-term growth and continued success.
With these advancements, we remain focused on delivering the best possible outcomes for you—now and in the future.
We’re making things better, faster, and more cost-effective for you! By streamlining systems and removing outdated tools like Vlocity, we’ve saved more than $1 million collectively for Wyssta Services and Delta Dental of Wisconsin (DDWI)—savings that translate to more efficient and effective services for you.
With the completion of DDWI’s Marketing Cloud Phase Two, expect enhanced email, SMS, and portal interactions. And our updated Identify Management API strengthens login security, ensuring safer engagements and improved sync functionality.
We’ve optimized reporting and Qlik performance to ensure timely insights, with data loads now finishing before 8 a.m. EST- making data access and analysis faster and more reliable for you.
Looking ahead, our partnership with Delta Dental Plans Association (DDPA) as the lead development partner on the new DDPA National Data Warehouse means more advanced data solutions tailored to your needs. This collaboration keeps us ahead of the curve while reinforcing our position as a technology leader across Delta Dental Member Companies (DDMCs).
We’ve also taken data management to the next level by implementing Data Integrity Checks and Intelligent Scheduling, along with automated processes like the data ingestion framework for loading HealthEdge data tables into Snowflake for all tenants.
Additionally, the launch of the DDWA Digital Platform Sales Portal and Wyssta Service Cloud AP, ensures you enjoy a smoother and more seamless experience across platforms.
We’re committed to keeping your systems secure and reliable. This year, we successfully passed all audits, reinforcing our dedication to compliance and security best practices.
To better support you, we launched our System Reliability Team who efficiently manages our Keyspring clients’ daily support needs, ensuring timely and effective service. One significant success of the team is the 33.66% reduction in Keyspring’s production backlog, improving operational efficiency and streamlining your experience.
Thanks to our strong partnership and shared efforts, we successfully minimized the impact of the Change HealthCare ecosystem outage on your customers. We’re proud to have worked alongside you to ensure continuity and support.
Your satisfaction remains our top priority. We continue to receive high ratings for day-to-day technology support, proving our unwavering dedication to exceptional service.
And, with a strong 98.9% SLA achievement, you can count on us for reliability and success!
In 2024 and early 2025, we transformed our product development approach by redesigning our Engineering Teams to an optimal size and skill mix, ultimately improving throughput and productivity. Our new Product Management Team and additional Product Owners now work more closely with you to develop plans and deliver enhancements. By incorporating your feedback, we ensure new features provide real value to benefit everyone.
To make enhancements more efficient, we introduced a simpler, more streamlined prioritization and preparation process at the end of 2024, with implementation in early 2025. Initial feedback and data confirm this approach is running smoothly, improving efficiency for you.
We’ve also worked with HealthEdge to aggressively reduce the backlog of bugs and lower the rate of new bug creation. With these improvements, you can expect a more seamless experience when the 25.1 release goes live soon.
Looking ahead, we’re excited about what’s coming in 2025—including a new Optum-strategic partnership, working closely with DDCO as the Epic Sponsor. This effort includes more options for paperless Provider Payments and significant costsaving opportunities.
The Delta Dental of Kansas (DDKS) team achieved a major milestone in early September, thanks to the collaborative efforts of multiple teams across the organization. The Data Migration team set the project ahead of schedule by more than 36 hours, successfully transferring more than three million pieces of data. With support from an onsite NorthWinds team, we cleared claims and eligibility backlogs, completed configuration updates, and ensured all eligibility and claims files were up to date just two days after Go-Live.
This dedication positioned us to reach pre-Go-Live levels for call volume and claims by the end of 2024.
At the same time, the Multi-Year Transition (MYT) Lockstep plan made critical progress for Delta Dental of Illinois (DDIL), Delta Dental of Wisconsin (DDWI), and Wyssta Services. This effort covered key implementation steps, including Discovery, Training for subject matter experts, Configuration, and Data Migration, achieving more than 95% of our set goals. All three clients successfully loaded broker/broker agent data, provider data, and account data, marking a significant achievement.
Meanwhile, our new Technical Implementation Teams made progress by setting up the stage environment for DDIL, bringing them closer to User Acceptance Testing (UAT) and Mock Production.
Let’s keep cheering on the DDIL team as they continue to push forward!
In 2024, as part of a corporate wide reorg, we formed the Enterprise Services Division to streamline key business functions.
This division now oversees essential operations spanning the entire organization, including finance and human resources, as well as activities that represent the organization, like marketing and communications.
By adopting a shared services approach, we’ve unified finance, HR, legal, and compliance/audit functions with Delta Dental Owners, reducing complexity and improving collaboration.
To further optimize work processes, we introduced a new role to the organization: the Work Systems Manager (WSM). These managers are dedicated to refining processes, driving efficiency, and ensuring seamless operations across NorthWinds.
Our goal is simple: to strengthen NorthWinds’ overall operations so we can serve you more effectively while also creating a better workplace for our employees.
1. Deliver Legendary Service
Assume Positive Intent
Get Clear on Expectations
Embrace Diverse Perspectives
Be a Lifelong Learner
Listen to Understand
Be Curious 7. Own Your Work-Life Balance
Debate, then Commit.
Look Ahead and Anticipate
Make Quality Personal
When in Doubt, Communicate Personally
Speak Straight
Collaborate
Honor Commitments
Have A Bias For Action
Do the Right Thing Always
Walk In Your Customers’ Shoes
Be Easy to Work With
Take Intelligent Risks 22. Lead By Example
Invest In Relationships
Make A Difference
Show Meaningful Appreciation
Practice Blameless Problem-Solving
Fix Problems At The Source
Be Vigilant About Confidentiality
Pitch In Wherever Necessary
Reduce or Eliminate Waste
In 2024, NorthWinders united to make a meaningful difference through the United Way Campaign, donating more than $47,000 to support essential programs and services that promote education, financial stability, and health for individuals and families in need.
Their commitment extended beyond financial contributions, as they dedicated 708 volunteer hours—a remarkable 39.6% increase from 2023—to community projects, mentorship programs, and outreach activities.
Through their generosity and passion, NorthWinders continue to demonstrate the power of collective action in creating lasting, positive change.
We’re excited for what’s to come as we continue to grow, innovate and serve you each day.