What is our primary use case?
We use Ramco HCM to help clients manage their employee data, manage time and attendance, performance, learning portal, expenses, payroll, and more.
How has it helped my organization?
The most recent client I brought in was a leading telecommunications company in India. They weren't capturing all the data. We replaced their existing Oracle HCM, but they were still using the Oracle ERP. We had to move everything into Ramco, including the ERP, the Rewards Management System, and more.
They also had a learning portal that provided content online, and it was pretty easy to integrate with the other system because they have the APIs. Their fully functional mobile app with notifications works well. Their previous system was very basic and just stored information on their portal.
What is most valuable?
Ramco HCM's performance management system is really good and supports assessments, appraisals, and more. You can set your objectives and have multiple levels of authorizations while you have submitted your objectives. Your manager approves them, or you can skip the manager.
It was pretty smooth and did all that out of the box. The best part is that you don't need any customization and the interface is very good. It's user friendly, and it looks good. Their dashboard is one of the best dashboards that I have seen in my eight-year career.
Ramco HCM has a pretty functional mobile app, and it is also very good at integrating with other systems.
What needs improvement?
I would say that there is a lot of room for improvement. They should improve their consistency. The product itself sometimes feels inconsistent because it comes with bugs.
The company has a lot of features listed on their roadmap, and they're still developing them. Putting them on there as phase presentations somehow set the wrong expectations and created many misunderstandings regarding business expectations.
Performance can be better. It could be smoother like Microsoft. Technical support can also be better.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using Ramco HCM for 18 months.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
If I remember correctly, Ramco HCM is reliable.
There are things like bugs and client expectations, which result from a gap between the sales team and the client, where the initial expectations are set.
For example, if I'm looking for SMS integration, every time I want to apply thoroughly, I should be able to do that from my mobile phone without the internet. But you have to build that, and it won't be as compatible as they would have expected. You'll need an SMS gateway, and you need expertise on that. It would help if you had someone who is a product expert.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
They have yearly updates with new features and addons, so in that sense, the product is scalable.
How are customer service and technical support?
Technical support is good, but there's room for improvement. You have to rely heavily on the support team during the implementation. It would also be better if the Ramco support team were based closer to us.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
Before Ramco HCM, I used quite a few systems like Microsoft 365 for talent and an Oracle HCM. I compared Microsoft 365 for talent and Ramco, and Ramco is a fully-fledged HR dynamic. Microsoft still needs time to get to that level because they're quite simple.
Ramco does offer a lot of customization, and even if you don't do any coding, you can still customize it a lot, including rules and more. Microsoft 365 for talent still needs that. Ramco HCM is a very mature system because with a proper HR dynamic, and the dashboard is excellent.
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup is pretty straightforward. They have a user-friendly tool. You just need to answer a few questions to set it up. It just asks you simple questions like how many departments are there, and you just name the department. Once you fill in the information, the product is ready and can be used. It doesn't require a lot of technical knowledge. You just have to attend a few training sessions on how they set it up.
It's an out of the box system that has some things that are easy to set up at first. But I haven't met any client that's satisfied with the out of the box system. Usually, there are different payroll rules, and you need to do some customizations and do some back-end coding. You have set it up, and you have to write logical rules with a title that leans accordingly.
Similarly, there are time rules, time management attendants, and capturing systems you have to integrate with. If you want to use an out of the box system and don't have a problem with it, I think it should be ready within a week. If it needs to be configured as per your organization's unique requirements, it will take a month or two.
What about the implementation team?
Ramco HCM requires a team to implement it. The solution is best for those who follow waterfall methodologies. Ramco follows LDLC, and they send their business analysts to the customer to gather information on requirements. Once that is done, the technical team comes in and starts implementing it.
If it's a non-cloud version, the technical team will move their office on-premise and work within the client's offices. They'll do all the customization and implementation from there. If there are integrations involved, they will do the system integration testing and user acceptance testing. Once that is done, they will have a soft launch and go live for a few people. Once that is running okay, and everything is good, then they go fully live.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
Ramco's customized solution is pretty expensive but much cheaper than its competitors.
With proper planning, documentation of requirements, you can avoid delays and keep costs down. The more you customize, the higher the costs as you'll need a team to build it.
What other advice do I have?
I recommend Ramco HCM to the other users because I think it's a good system. But make sure to choose the right partner with the necessary experience.
Once Ramco HCM is live and integrated with many other systems, you have to have someone there taking care of integrations and more. But if you go with a vanilla system and it's on the cloud, I don't think you need to worry about maintenance because everything will be taken care of by them.
On a scale from one to ten, I would give Ramco HCM an eight.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
Public Cloud
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.