Scott Scherr is the founder and current CEO/president of Ultimate Software, which he started back in 1990. The company went public in 1998 and today boasts more than 2,700 customers and 2,200 employees in 150 countries. Headquartered in Weston, Florida, the singular mission of Ultimate Software is “…to deliver unified, end-to-end HCM cloud solutions…to improve the personal work experience for you and your people — the power behind your business.”

Its extremely comprehensive HCM solution, UltiPro, is comprised of the following main features:

• Human Resources. Basic HR functionality for tracking human capital information.
  Payroll Administration, Tax Management and Compliance. Flexible payroll functions for comlex requirements in US and Canada.
• Benefits Administration, Open Enrollment and Life Events. For administration and enrollment.
• Talent Management. Functionality for all aspects from acquisition to performance to succession.
• Reporting, Workforce Analytics, and Business Intelligence Tools. Ability to pull data from all areas and capture metrics instantly.
• Business/Employee Portal. A central gateway that keeps everyone connected.
• Time Management. Automates and simplifies time tracking, integrates with HR and payroll.
• Recruiting. Expand recruiting and support candidate engagement.
• Personal and impactful support for new employees.
• Performance Management. Highly configurable ways to assess performance.
• Succession Management. Create proactive growth plans for all employees.
• Career Development. A suite of tools for charting professional growth and managing development opportunities across your entire workforce.
• Global HCM. Multinational organizations can engage employees locally, ensure targeted compliance, achieve one view of their global workforce, and deliver a consistent and culturally relevant experience for all employees, regardless of location.
• UltiPro Compensation Management. Efficient and configurable processes for allocating rewards to employees.
• This delivers important workforce information in an instant—enabling your mobile workforce to make effective decisions and conduct business regardless of location or time of day.
• Position Management. Manage your resource budget, measure trends, and better forecast the future (geared towards large organizations).

On the G2 Crowd website, UltiPro averages 4.2 out of 5 stars, which puts it in a tie with previous front-runner Halogen TalentSpace. There are a total of 61 reviews of UltiPro, with 32 at the five-star level, 21 at the four-star level, 5 at the three-star level, 3 at the two-star level, and none below that.

What people like best about UltiPro

People consistently describe the user interface as “easy,” “intuitive,” and user-friendly, not just for HR staff, but also for employees navigating and using the system, and this is one piece of the puzzle that rarely gets consistent praise with other talent management solutions. Many reviewers also praised how adeptly UltiPro handles wage compliance and tax issues by location. A large number of reviewers also highlighted excellent customer service and technical support, with several mentioning that they have never had a case go more than 24 hours without a response. For the most part, users also are highly satisfied with the reporting capabilities.

What people like least about UltiPro

Several reviewers noted that cross-module integration and reporting is poor, but was presented as more robust than it turns out to be, and that there is also little support for cross-module issues and desires. For reporting, each module has its own way to access its data, as opposed to being able to query data across multiple modules from a single reporting interface.

There is also some inconsistency in the customer/technical support. While most have praised UltiPro for quickly resolving issues, others have noted that this can take longer than desired, and that sometimes cases are closed without any warning, explanation, or results. With the rapid growth the company has experienced, customers who expect to have greater contact with their account manager are disappointed to find out how thinly stretched that person is over too many different accounts. This rapid growth also means that the company hasn’t added enough knowledgeable support people quickly enough, with some reviewers admitting they felt like they were training the UltiPro support people on basic HR issues.

In spite of those drawbacks, UltiPro makes a very strong showing among the talent management software solutions I’ve reviewed to date as follows:

• Halogen TalentSpace              4.2
• UltiPro                                                4.2
• Cornerstone OnDemand         3.9
• Workday                                 3.8
• SuccessFactors                        3.5
• Saba Software                         3.4
• Kenexa                                    3.2
• Oracle Taleo                            3.0

Which talent management solution does your company use? How do you feel it compares with the above rankings? Feel free to post your comments below, or request me to review a particular software solution you’re interested in learning more about.

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