Must-have benefits administration software RFP template for global companies in 2025

Global companies face unique challenges when it comes to benefits administration. Every country brings its own rules, carriers, currencies, and compliance obligations. Without the right system, HR and finance leaders end up juggling spreadsheets, brokers, and regional point solutions — creating risk, wasted time, and a poor experience for employees.

The right global benefits administration platform should unify benefits across entities, support multiple currencies and carriers, and enforce compliance automatically across jurisdictions. It should give employees a localized, mobile-first experience for enrollment, while providing leaders with consolidated dashboards that track costs and participation worldwide.

This guide outlines the critical areas global organizations should evaluate in a benefits administration RFP, what best-in-class looks like, and the RFP questions to ask vendors. Plus, we’ll share a downloadable RFP template so you can start evaluating benefits software ASAP.

1. Carrier connectivity and plan options

With operations in multiple countries, global organizations often work with dozens of carriers. A modern system should support direct integrations with carriers, automate enrollments via EDI or API, and consolidate benefits management across geographies. 

Rippling integrates with carriers worldwide, automating updates across plans and ensuring enrollments flow into payroll without manual intervention.

RFP questions to ask

• Which carriers and brokers do you support globally?

• Do you provide automated EDI/API integrations across geographies?

• Can you manage multiple plan types (health, dental, vision, voluntary) in different countries?

• How are carrier updates synced into payroll across currencies?

2. Payroll sync and multi-currency deductions

Payroll sync is especially complex for global organizations — with multi-currency deductions, varied contribution models, and multiple entities. A best-in-class platform should ensure payroll and benefits remain aligned in real time, regardless of geography. 

Rippling unifies payroll and benefits across currencies, automatically updating deductions and contributions when employees enroll, update coverage, or experience a life event.

RFP questions to ask

• Do elections and life events sync automatically to payroll across entities?

• How do you handle multi-currency deductions and contributions?

• Can employer contributions be configured differently by country or entity?

• Do you provide previews of deduction changes before payroll runs?

3. Compliance and eligibility management

Global companies face overlapping compliance frameworks: ACA, COBRA, HIPAA in the U.S., GDPR in Europe, and local labor/tax requirements worldwide. Benefits administration software should enforce these automatically, surface risks proactively, and generate audit-ready reports across entities and countries. 

Rippling automates compliance for ACA, COBRA, HIPAA, and GDPR, while tracking eligibility and surfacing compliance alerts in real time.

RFP questions to ask

• Do you automate ACA, COBRA, HIPAA, and GDPR compliance workflows?

• Can eligibility be tracked across entities, states, and countries?

• Do you support VAT/GST-compliant reporting for benefits?

• Do you provide immutable, exportable audit logs for local and global regulators?

4. Employee enrollment experience

Employees in different countries need localized, intuitive experiences. The platform should provide multi-language, mobile-friendly enrollment portals, guided plan comparisons, and life-event workflows tailored by geography. 

Rippling delivers a localized, mobile-first experience where employees compare plans, enroll digitally, and manage dependents and life events — in their local language and currency.

RFP questions to ask

• Is the employee enrollment experience localized by language and currency?

• Do you support multi-language, mobile-first enrollment across countries?

• How are global life events managed (marriage, birth, relocation)?

• Can employees manage dependents and elections in self-service across entities?

5. Global reporting and visibility

Finance and HR leaders need both consolidated global dashboards and the ability to drill into local detail. Reporting should support multi-currency normalization, variance analysis, and export to ERP/BI systems. Rippling provides global dashboards segmented by entity, country, and department, with FX normalization and export options into ERP and BI platforms.

RFP questions to ask

• Do you provide consolidated dashboards across countries, currencies, and entities?

• Can you normalize multi-currency reporting with FX transparency?

• Can reporting be segmented by entity, country, or department?

• Do you support variance reporting across geographies and open enrollment periods?

• Can data export into ERP and BI systems for consolidated global analysis?

How Rippling helps global companies

Rippling Global Benefits Administration is built to handle the complexity of global organizations. It integrates with carriers worldwide, syncs deductions across multiple currencies, and automates compliance with ACA, COBRA, HIPAA, GDPR, and local frameworks. Employees get a localized, mobile-first enrollment experience, while HR and finance leaders get consolidated dashboards and drill-downs into costs and participation.

With Rippling, global companies can:

• Connect with carriers across countries and entities via automated integrations

• Sync multi-currency deductions and contributions into payroll in real time

• Automate ACA, COBRA, HIPAA, GDPR, and local compliance

• Give employees a localized, mobile-first enrollment and life-event experience

• Provide consolidated dashboards with FX normalization and drill-down reporting

Rippling RFP for benefits administration software for global companies example

Ready to evaluate vendors?

This blog is based on information available to Rippling as of October 6, 2025.