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KNOWLEDGEPOINT’S Business Power Toolkit Helps Small To Medium-sized Businesses Capitalize On Their Workforces And Avoid Lawsuits

(PETALUMA, CALIF., March 26, 2002) — Managing employees and staying legally compliant are among the biggest problems facing small to mid-sized businesses today. KnowledgePoint’s Business Power Toolkit, which readily integrates into an organization’s Web portal, allows companies serving that market to furnish their clients with branded bundles of tools and expert content to help them manage their workforces.

Developed in concert with employment law attorneys at CCH INCORPORATED, the Business Power Toolkit comprises an assortment of online applications, legal reference tools, training, forms, checklists, Q&A and advice that enables businesses to easily institute — and benefit from — human resource "best practices." Licensed to administrative services organizations (ASOs), professional employer organizations (PEOs), human resource outsourcers, insurance companies and benefits management firms, the Business Power Toolkit makes client-oriented Web sites "stickier," thus strengthening client relationships, increasing close ratios, and demonstrably contributing to their clients’ and their own success.

"Small and mid-sized businesses seek the highest value for their dollar when they evaluate service providers like PEOs and insurance companies," says Ian Alexander, president, KnowledgePoint. "The Business Power Toolkit helps service providers become an integral part of their clients’ day-to-day business practices. Our licensees like that because it allows them to offer the highest value to their clients, making them more difficult to replace."

The Small Business Administration estimates that business owners spend up to 25 percent of their time on regulations and paperwork. It’s no wonder that more and more firms are outsourcing employment functions to ASOs and PEOs, making the outsourcing industry one of the fastest growing business sectors in recent years.

Steve Tessler was an early innovator in the PEO industry. Most recently, he was an officer with EPIX Holdings Corp., one of the five largest privately held PEOs in the country, and he is currently a business development partner at CheckPointHR, an ASO in New Jersey. He believes that his firm’s success depends on helping his clients grow and succeed by providing them with services, tools and applications they couldn’t afford on their own.

"CheckPointHR’s Web portal is the technology backbone of our service delivery system and is one of our primary points of contact with our clients," says Tessler. "Adding the Business Power Toolkit to our portal makes it possible for our clients to do business without incurring additional costs, and branding it as our own solution enhances our status as an authoritative service provider."

Tessler believes that the shortage of skilled labor is here to stay and that it is also his responsibility to help clients recruit and retain solid performers. "Recruiting the right people and keeping them is more vital than ever because the talent pool is — and will remain — thin," he says. "With the Business Power Toolkit, I’m giving employers tools for hiring, performance management and career development, so their employees will be better satisfied and more likely to stay with them."

Fully hosted and branded, KnowledgePoint’s Business Power Toolkit is a simple "plug and play" solution for licensees. It includes an abundance of proven online applications and expert HR content to assist managers in remaining legally compliant and accomplishing the following essential workforce management functions:

• Define jobs and hire right;
• Write effective employee performance reviews;
• Build tailored employee development plans;
• Create customized and state-specific employee handbooks;
• Access easy-to-understand answers to thousands of HR questions;
• Receive automatic updates to state and federal employment law changes;
• Acquire hundreds of HR forms and checklists;
• Research summaries of federal and state HR law;
• Participate in e-learning courses;
• And much more.

"The Business Power Toolkit is a cost-effective way for business service providers to maintain their own profitability while helping clients improve their HR practices, maximize their employee talent base and avoid potentially ruinous lawsuits," says Alexander.

For more information about the Business Power Toolkit, contact Tom Lombardo, KnowledgePoint business development manager, at (800) 727-1133 ext. 1392 or tlombardo@knowledgepoint.com.

Since 1987, KnowledgePoint (a division of CCH INCORPORATED) has been a developer of knowledge-based human resource management software and Internet services. CCH INCORPORATED is a provider of employment law information, software and e-learning for human resource professionals. For more information, visit http://www.knowledgepoint.com and hr.cch.com.