How Delta Dental of Virginia Integrated 500 Companies on Employee Navigator in One Year

Delta Dental of Virginia (DDVA) wants to be the easiest carrier for brokers to work with. When brokers who manage their clients’ benefits in Employee Navigator began asking for a Delta Dental integration, DDVA built it. About a year after its launch, DDVA’s dental and vision plans flow from its Quote-to-Covered platform into Employee Navigator for roughly 30 broker agencies and 500 employer groups.

“Delta Dental wants to be the easiest carrier to work with for brokers, group administrators, and members. Integrating with Employee Navigator was another important way for us to make that true.” — Chris Pyle, Vice President of Marketing, Government Relations and CX, Delta Dental of Virginia

The challenge: brokers wanted fewer steps

More of the agencies selling DDVA plans were running their clients’ benefits administration in Employee Navigator, and they asked DDVA to make managing dental and vision enrollment easiewr and eliminate manual work.

For DDVA, the stakes went beyond convenience. “Not integrating with Employee Navigator creates an easy exit for groups,” Chris said.

Why Delta Dental of Virginia chose Employee Navigator

DDVA evaluates every partnership from the customer’s perspective first. “Will this partnership lead to a better experience and reduced friction, and is the cost structure fair and affordable?” Chris said. “If we can answer yes to these questions, it’s a partnership we are eager to pursue.” Employee Navigator cleared both bars, and broker demand made the decision straightforward.

How the Delta Dental integration works

DDVA’s Quote-to-Covered platform already let brokers quote, sell and enroll a group in minutes. The integration extends that path into Employee Navigator: a broker quotes in DDVA’s tool, completes the online application, and the group’s enrollment flows directly into Employee Navigator.

The payoff, Chris says, is peace of mind: member data passes accurately between the two systems, open enrollment runs smoothly, teams spend less time chasing errors, and data moves more securely than with manual files.

DDVA rolled the integration out in two phases. Pilot brokers went live on October 1, 2025, and the integration opened to new sales through all brokers on April 1, 2026.

Early results: new groups and stronger broker relationships

• New business they wouldn’t otherwise have won. Brokers are placing groups with DDVA because of the integration; one credited Employee Navigator as the reason he brought DDVA new groups. Employer groups are now asking their brokers about the integration directly.
• Happier brokers, closer partnerships. One broker told DDVA, “Your integration with Employee Navigator has been the highlight of my year so far.” Chris adds that DDVA and its brokers are “working together as a team to build something that will help them.”
• Cleaner member data. Bringing existing groups onto the integration surfaced incorrect records, such as dates of birth and Social Security numbers, that brokers and DDVA could then correct.

“While we are still early in our integration, evidence is showing that our underlying hypothesis for why we should integrate with Employee Navigator is proving to be true,” Chris said. “We will see more sales, more retention, and higher take-up rates among employees. Most importantly, our brokers are happy.”

Advice for Delta Dental companies considering integration

Chris offered three lessons for peers weighing the move:

1. Start with the people who use Employee Navigator every day. Meet with broker staff who run enrollment in the platform. They understand the process and will show you where friction lives.
2. Clean the data before you connect existing groups. DDVA sent data extracts to brokers before testing existing groups, which let brokers catch and fix errors before go-live.
3. Promote it on every broker channel. Direct outreach to known Employee Navigator users, broker email and in-person broker relations all played a part in adoption.

“Brokers choose the carriers that make their work easier. Delta Dental of Virginia understood that and moved quickly to integrate with Employee Navigator, giving brokers a direct path from quote to enrollment. Our door is open to every Delta Dental company ready to do the same.” — George Reese, CEO, Employee Navigator

Interested in integrating with Employee Navigator?

Employee Navigator connects carriers to thousands of brokers and the employer groups they serve. If your company is ready to become the easiest carrier for your brokers to work with, connect with us to get integrated: sales@employeenavigator.com.