Sungard/Relius Govenment Forms

[Lou S.]

Form reading a few other threads it sounds like others are having the same problem we are with Sundgard - not timely returning any calls for government forms support.

It is very irritating to say the least. We had several plans fail yesterday when e-filing, kind of stressful being the 13th and all and still haven't gotten a call back from Relius. Fortunately it was the 13th and not the 15th and the problem seems to have cleard today and we were able to file our last 3 remaining plans.

We once switched from then Corbel to Hyperprep over a similar issue one year but Sungard just went out and bought up Hyperprep a few years later and we got sucked back in. I'm wondering if we should change again next year?

Question for people using other government forms software, what has been your experience with them for ease of filing, helpfulness of support and timeliness of return calls, when software is initially available, ease of using program, etc.?

Any thoughts (possibly after the 15th I understand) would be appreciated. Thanks in advance.

[PensionPro]

Our experience with the Datair Pension Reporter software and support has been top-notch. No complaints. All our 5500s were e-filed by 10/11/10.

[WDIK]

We were initially frustrated at the dealy in the release of Datair's software, but have no complaints about the filing process. It has gone smoothly. We would be completely done with our filings if a few clients were more proactive.

[dmb]

We only prepare the Schedule SB and use Relius and we also had a hard time getting a return call or response to filing and "incident". Also, when we finally were able to speak with someone at Relius we were told that some of the "error" messages we received are not necessarily errors that would prevent the Schedule SB from being filed and there was not really a way to determine the difference between a "warning" and an "error".

A former employer of mine who used to use Relius and now uses FT Williams says that FT is pretty good. And i think i read a post on another 5500 topic here that said FT Williams was pretty good. We may be looking elsewhere next year.

[BeanCounterBlues]

I've heard good things about Datair as well (I use their DC system but not their PR system, thinking about switching). I used Creative Solutions. Their tech support response time was very good, although they seemed somewhat poorly trained in the new e file rules, and the software was buggy (have been resolved) such as what you see on your screen is not what posts at DOL, thus had to amend - you really have to look at the DOL Public Disc website to make sure your filing posted as you think it should. Have heard (but not used) FT William is very good also.

[A Shot in the Dark]

I can not say enough nice things about the FT William 5500 Software (as well as their other software packages).

We have had very few problems and I think the longest that I have had to wait regarding a response for assistance is an hour or so.

The fact that FT William was recently purchased by CCH and/or its parent company has not been an issue.

[Beemer]

Does anyone use Fort William for participant recordkeeping as well as 5500's and do you like Fort William for both?

[A Shot in the Dark]

We may consider the FT William Recordkeeping and Administration System once it is enhanced with the share accounting module.

We provide a services to many ESOP's and share accounting is vital to us.

We currently use the document services, the 5500 Package and the 1099R Package.

I/we are very happy with all of it.

[Guest Betsy Oakey]

I know the IRS threw this out late, but ...

As someone else said a couple of months back, no support is not acceptable. I am on my last filing, but it is no thanks to Relius - way too much time was spent figuring things out for myself. They did not have a good product to begin with and we all were reworking their broken wheel. You better believe we will be looking at someone else to give our business to.

[austin3515]

Good news is they just sent out an email saying that broiugh on a new server and things are moving a LOT quicker out there.

Just want to make sure they get props for trying to do the right thing...

[Guest Ken Simons]

In an effort to improve performance and better distribute the user demand, we have brought additional high performance servers online for SunGard's Relius Government Forms 5500 Web Client. The additional servers were added to alleviate the backlog and connection issues that users have been experiencing, due to the increased volume of plans being submitted through Web Client. We will continue to automatically submit failed jobs on your behalf every few hours.

Please refer to the e-mail that was sent directly to all Relius Web Client customers for suggestions about the submission problems and links to the FAQs on our web site.

We monitoring the web clients servers every minute and will continue working until midnight PT to ensure that your filings are completed today.

Ken Simons

[My 2 cents]

Comment on comment from Relius: Are we supposed to be satisfied by a notice at 3pm on October 15th that high speed servers have now been brought on board? Classic example of too little too late!!!

[austin3515]

I submitted a form at 4:00 and it was filing received by 6:30. It was an audited plan with attachments and we had no problems at all.

For waht it's worth.

Ken, I would be curious to know if you are planning on making the login process easier. For example, I am very attracted to FT Williams method, which is they are sent an email on publishing with a confirmation which they simply enter into the web-site, thus avoiding a second set of login information. Is there a reason you opted for the higher security? It just occured to me now that perhaps it is because you are storing their signer credentials for them? Does FT Williams save the DOL credentials?

[PAL]

Comment on comment from Relius: Are we supposed to be satisfied by a notice at 3pm on October 15th that high speed servers have now been brought on board? Classic example of too little too late!!!

I am in total agreement. Back on July 30th, I had a 5500 that took 12 hours to get processed. Right then I knew there was a problem - how could they not know and why weren't the additional servers brought in then? When I finally got a call back from customer service on that, they indicated that it was transmission issues at the DOL which we now know was totally untrue. By Wednesday of this week, Relius Web Client had almost come to a complete halt. Nothng loaded correctly, attachments got dropped, at one point it was taking up to an hour to get one plan with attachments loaded validated and sent to client for signature. So great! Thanks for the additional servers but by 3pm on Friday, we had already spent more time trying to get some of these 5500s loaded onto Web Client then we did in preparing the form and our client were totally frustrated, pissed and iritated.

[Guest MS TPA]

This issue could have & should have been avoided. A presenter at a 10/2009 Sungard conference spoke about the volume of mail coming into the Service Center during the last week prior to the 10/15 due date and wondered how the DOL was going to handle the equivalent volume of electronic submissions. The DOL was prepared and obviously, Sungard was not. It was a very frustrating & disappointing experience to say the least.