MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) — MNsure’s 2015 open enrollment will begin at 8 a.m. Saturday.

Its leaders are hoping for a much smoother enrollment period compared with last year.

On Friday, CEO Scott Leitz talked about the changes MNsure has made over the past eight months to improve the website.

He anticipates customers will have a much better experience this time around.

A lot of MNsure customers will tell you that any changes are good changes, compared with what they went through last year.

For many, website glitches made it difficult to submit an application and, by December, there were about 20,000 applications stuck in limbo.

“Last year there was minimal testing on the site and that’s why we saw some of the challenges we saw,” Leitz said.

But with enrollment just hours away, Leitz doesn’t expect the same challenges this year.

“We’ve learned a lot since last year about how people enroll in coverage through MNsure,” said Leitz. “We’ve been busy the past eight months putting that knowledge into action.”

Leitz said enhancements made to the website will allow it to load five times faster for customers.

Once the site loaded last year, it could take an hour or more to get through.

This year, depending on the plan selection, Leitz thinks it’ll only take about 20 to 30 minutes.

But MNsure leaders said the biggest change will be customer care.

There were only 22 customer care reps on hand when the site opened last year.

Starting Saturday morning, they’ll have more than 300 trained representatives ready to help.

“We’re confident that the improvements we’ve made will ensure Minnesotans have a smooth enrollment experience,” said Leitz.

But MNsure leaders acknowledge they really won’t know for sure how much they’ve improved the site until the system goes online in the morning.