UKG Reviews

• Reporting

UltiPro has allowed me to provide management with meaningful and informative reporting.

Viewing deductions: We should be able to do so without having to act as if we are going to edit the deduction first in order to move forward.

I have used it for 10 years (three companies).

We encountered some minor deployment issues with tax balancing, but nothing that delayed the "go live".

Not enough for it to be an issue.

We have not encountered any scalability issues.

Customer service is hit or miss. Some of the growth has caused a decline in the level of customer service that I have previously enjoyed.

Tech support are very knowledgeable. I am satisfied with the level of support.

We did not previously use a different solution.

I have been through two implementations and I would have to say that initial setup has improved and is more straightforward now.

An in-house team implemented it.

In addition to the value level of reports, we have seen increased productivity, and thanks to the accuracy of timekeeping, we have also seen a reduction in the cost of labor.

Package as much together from the start. Determine licensing needs before going live.

Before choosing this product, we also evaluated ADP and Workday.

• Business intelligence
• Workflow
• Platform configuration

We have been able to eliminate many paper forms and have streamlined some of our processes.

• Customer Support model could use improvement.
• Offer immersion BI workshops (perhaps on-site in FL).
• Integrate Salary Management and Talent Management (most companies are promoting employees at the same time as the salary review process; doing them separately is inconvenient).
• Enhance "Mass Updates" to allow more functionality.

I have used it for just over a year (since January 2016).

We have encountered a few deployment issues, but that's to be expected.

We have not encountered any stability issues.

We have not encountered any scalability issues; not yet, at least. We expect to grow over the next few years and are confident that Ulti will help.

We don't love the Customer Support model. Filing a case is problematic because you are free to talk when you file the case, not always when someone returns the call. This regularly results in a long game of phone tag.

Support is usually good. I think the only area where we have problems is access issues (i.e., when remote employees have troubles logging in). When our IT team cannot solve the problem, we often don't get much additional help from Ulti tech support.

We did not have a "real" HRMS solution; we were using Deltek CostPoint which isn't a fully functioning HRMS.

I was not involved with the initial setup.

We worked with several people at Ulti for our implementation. They were very helpful.

ROI is unknown.

Before choosing this product, we also evaluated Workday, SilkRoad, ADP, and one other (can't remember the name).

We bought the whole package except for recruiting. We use it for performance, case management, file management, learning, payroll, reporting, etc.

It is a software-as-a-service.

It is very agile. There are some custom fields that we need, and we're able to add them ourselves. We have two people on our team, and if someone comes to us and says, "Hey, I need a new field on this particular page," we're able to do that without anybody else's assistance.

It is mobile-ready, and you can do everything on your phone. Everything that you can do on a desktop can be done on your phone. It helps with self-service because we're pushing people to utilize the system to their best ability.

It enables us to manage the system ourselves. We don't need an additional team to do a lot of maintenance and add the things that we want. 

It is very user-friendly, and the configuration is relatively easy to do. Its user interface is very easy to use. 

They also have surveys. They have a feature called Focus that has artificial intelligence that you can use for analysis or surveys for engagement. They're continuing to push the envelope for new advancements with features like AI. They keep on making leaps and bounds. They have rolled out additional features that help with all of the mandates. They did that quickly and provided that service for all of those different states that have different requirements for vaccine mandates. They continue to make different things to help us be more agile. They are constantly making things available to their users.

Reporting is always a hurdle for any user just because it is so extensive. They provide a lot of out-of-the-box reports, but it is something that you always need to work on because you need more advanced writing of reports. 

It went live in October 2020, and we are currently using it.

It is very stable. We've had some outages, but they're very responsive. Because the two systems merged, they had their own growing pains, but we've had great success with them so far.

It is very scalable. We have a thousand users at max who use the system today. We have all kinds of roles from general users to payroll administrators, etc. We have 18 different solutions in it for performance, case management, file management, learning, payroll, reporting, etc.

We have been trying to improve adaptability since we went live. Over 90% of our user base have walked in and used the system. So, it has been successful. We're trying to improve our customer base and keep exploring its capabilities.

They have always been very friendly and very resourceful. They have good SLAs and the ability to increase a ticket if there is something that you need assistance with. They have a 24/7 rapid response team that you can call on any issue. It could be a current or a new issue.

We had Oracle for payroll and Taleo was our performance and learning solution. It was mostly on-premise setup, and we had a ginormous team that was offshore. They did all of the maintenance. We were looking for a system that we could manage ourselves. We needed to upgrade or implement a new solution. We decided to do our RFP. We narrowed down our scope of solutions, and we went with UKG. It is more agile.

We started our implementation process in May and went live in October of 2020. We had overlapping modules. There were 18 different solutions that we were able to put in UKG. 

We did have a delay on the time entry tool. It was because Ultimate and Kronos merged in October last year, so we didn't go live with the payroll functionality system, which was Kronos, until May of 2021. These two companies were merging, so they had to align their systems. They worked hand-in-hand with us with their hurdles because we were one of the first clients to go live with both systems. It was very successful.

UKG provided an implementation team that helped us. For its deployment and maintenance, there are two core people. There are also different teams, and the two of us help support anything that they are working on. Each subject matter expert is also able to manage things on his or her own, and we are always a resource. We are a very small team, and it seems like more people are trying to go to this model.

It definitely saves cost because there is no overhead of having the offshore maintenance team. We have been able to reduce costs there. The cost of Oracle was quite a bit more than UKG's ongoing cost. We no longer have on-premise servers, so we've been able to save a bunch with this new system.

I wasn't involved in the pricing part. I'm a user, and I believe it is based on the user count. One thing that is nice about Ultimate is that you can learn how to use the system without additional fees. The learning aspect is the life of a product, and the training was a huge reason why we went with Ultimate.

We did have some integration costs. They were a part of the implementation because of the integrations to other systems that we included in our implementation. 

We did a request for a proposal, and we did our own analysis. We looked at places like Software Advice and a couple of other websites to help us identify our wishlist and things that were requirements for the solution. After we narrowed down our top five, we had demos. Workday was one of them, and we also looked at Oracle's cloud solution for HRMS. After our demos, we decided to go with UKG. 

Workday was a little too rigid for what our user base was used to. UKG was more agile for what we were looking for. We liked the Oracle solution, but we had been with Oracle for a long time. Based on our needs, we went with Ultimate Software.

It is a huge time investment. All of these systems are very extensive. While implementing, a lot of other groups have had additional resources to help with the day-to-day things. We were fortunate to be able to do the implementation during COVID. Everyone was working from home, and that was the best time to do an implementation. We were able to see all hands on deck and put in the required hours for its implementation. My boss was amazing, and she had put in a lot of hours scrubbing the data to make sure we have good, clean data in our new system. I can't thank her enough for all of the time that our team put in on this implementation. There were just three of us who were helping everyone else with their pieces. There is a learning curve depending on what you're trying to do, but that's with any of such solutions. 

I would rate it a 10 out of 10. It has the ability to be very agile, and it is robust. 

We use it for employee maintenance, and we run the payroll on the same software. We also use it for time and attendance.

We got it in 2019, and it is a SaaS solution, so we do get the upgrades. We should be on the same version as everybody else.

The employee self-service (ESS) feature tops the list, and it has enabled us to process payroll much faster. We used to have two different groups every week. We could consolidate everything, so it has enabled faster payroll processing.

The employee self-service feature is most valuable. This is the restaurant industry, and they have a mobile app that allows employees to go in and manage their data. So, employees can manage direct deposit accounts, emergency contacts, and other things in the app. That's definitely the biggest benefit.

Certainly, the time and attendance and the payroll integration need a lot of work. They are disjointed pieces, and they don't work smoothly together. That's the main drawback.

I have been using this solution for two years.

I would rate it a seven out of 10 in terms of stability. Sometimes, there are hiccups.

Its scalability is good. I don't see any issue with that at all.

The employee self-service feature is used by all 50,000 employees we have. The HR and payroll administrative users are limited. We have about 100 users for that.

I don't know about the plans to expand its usage. If we expand, the user base will expand too, but, as of now, I don't see it changing.

Their technical support is above average. I would rate them a seven out of 10.

We used Lawson and custom home-built solutions. It was an easy decision to replace our homegrown product, which was difficult to maintain, with an off-the-shelf product. 

These implementations are always complex. There is just no other way. So, it was definitely complex. It took us two years.

We used consultants. Our experience with them was definitely positive.

Among the solutions that we evaluated, UKG was the only product that kind of satisfied both HR and payroll needs.

I would advise giving yourself a lot of time to do the foundational work. That's what we did, and that's why it took two years. It is very hard to change anything going forward if you get the foundation wrong.

I would rate UKG a six out of 10. It does have vast room for improvement, mainly because it is not one system built on the same foundation. It has multiple disjointed pieces, and they do not work together smoothly.

The integrated business intelligence tool (IBM Cognos) is by far the absolute best reporting tool I have ever used in my 15 years of being in HR. The tasks that can be accomplished in Report Studio, plus the delivered reports that Ultimate has already put together, can allow any user, HR or otherwise, to make an instant impact.

Ultimate Software also provides organizations with the ability to make a positive impact from the very beginning of the employee life cycle. From recruiting and onboarding, employee self-service and benefits enrollment, performance management and career development, organizations can create a meaningful employee experience that will last throughout their career.

The UltiPro application will also work to create efficiencies that will make any-size HR department the hero of the organization.

The UltiPro application's configurability allowed us to create a more impactful and meaningful performance review process, allowing us to align competencies with the company's core values, as well as each individual position.

The built-in alerts, plus the alerts that we have put together, have worked to help us achieve a completion rate for our performance reviews that we've never seen previously.

The Time Management module currently lacks the same look and feel of the UltiPro application and the other modules that Ultimate provides its clients. While the functionality is there, and it gets the job done, it is the only area that I feel needs to be improved.

We have been live on the UltiPro application since 10/1/2015.

We have not encountered any deployment issues. In fact, we had possibly one of the most successful activations that I have ever been through putting an HR/payroll system in place. Our activation consultant went above and beyond to ensure our activation went as smooth as possible. She shared reports with us that assisted immensely with running dual payrolls and comparing one payroll to the other.

No issues with stability or reliability.

No issues with scalability. In fact, we've grown by approximately 100+ employees since we first went live on the application and we've not run into any issues with the growth or expansion.

Customer service is excellent! Outstanding! Exceptional!

The support channels that every client has access to are probably the most powerful assets that clients have when partnering with Ultimate. First, after activation, every client is assigned an Account Manager (AM). This person is intimately knowledgeable about your application and all cases get routed through this person. In addition to your AM, clients have consultants related to the other modules they may have, including Time Management, Talent Management, Business Intelligence, ACA tracking, payment services (taxes & garnishments) and also accounts payable. Clients also have a Customer Success Manager, who will work as your advocate from the support side of the business, as well as an Executive Relationship Manager, that will work as your advocate from the strategic side of the business. For the times that creating a case is just not timely enough, clients have access to the Rapid Response line. For those situations when you need a resolution quickly and need assistance with something, Rapid Response is available to you as well.

The entire support group works as your partner, not as your vendor. You are a name to them, not a company ID, not a PSID or whatever the other HCMs classify you as. To Ultimate Software, I am Jack Klott, from Independent Bank.

Technical support is excellent! Outstanding! Exceptional!

Whenever I do have to call the Rapid Response line, I don't have to worry that the person on the other line may not know my version, or may not know my setup or may not know about the module that I am asking about. When I create a case, either with my AM or through Rapid Response, I am confident that the case will be reviewed and a solution will be presented in a timely manner.

The previous solution we were using did not fit with the goals and values that we felt would be necessary for us to grow as an organization. We wanted to align with a company that matched with our beliefs and would allow for us to configure a system that worked for us, not a system that we had to work around.

Ultimate has the activation process down to a science. From the time we had our first call with the activation team, they said we should expect about a 90 day (+/-) time frame. We went live in 93 days. And we not only activated the Core HR, payroll and time management, we also activated the recruiting module, benefits admin and performance management modules all within roughly that same time frame.

We activated in-house. Additionally, we experienced turnover within our staff during activation. We never missed a beat thanks to the process that Ultimate has in place for activation.

We've not had a true measure of ROI; however, we have measured the time savings between our previous payroll provider and Ultimate. Through our go live date of 10/2015 and 12/31/2016, we have seen a savings of approximately 16 hours in payroll processing time. For a payroll staff of 1 full-time payroll specialist, this is huge for us because it allows for her to complete other tasks that were otherwise needing to be completed by other HR staff that already had little to no capacity.

At the end of the day, most HR/payroll applications are pretty much the same. Each system is going to have its quirks and each system is going to have it's strong points. However, no HCM you partner with is going to match the support you receive from Ultimate. If pricing is the only thing standing between you and partnering with Ultimate, work with your Sales partner. Tell them that the pricing is a concern. They will work with you as much as possible. But again, the value added from the Ultimate Software support model will always pay dividends.

During our evaluation, we looked at Workday, Ceridian Dayforce, Paycor, ADP Workforce Now and Paycom.

Stop waiting on hold and partner with a company that values you as a client and as an organization.

The most valuable features of Ultipro for our organization are onboarding, salary planning, and reporting.

We have been able to move to a paperless onboarding process for new employees. We have also been able to automate our compensation increase process, moving away from sending Excel spreadsheets back and forth between HR and managers. Now, managers are able to enter the data once via Ultipro's salary planning, and workflow the review and completion process through to HR for final approval and acceptance into payroll; no more double-, sometimes, triple-keying of the same data.

We have used Ultipro for 18 months.

Our activation went extremely well, especially considering we were on a very tight timeline.

We have experienced no issues with stability.

We have not encountered any issues with scalability at this point in time.

On a scale of 1-10, I would give customer service a 7. Ultimate has an 800 number, but prefer customers use their case system. The resources are knowledgeable; however, historically responsiveness to created cases has been a challenge. We have seen improvement since year end, and are hopeful for continued improvement in time to response.

Technical resources are very knowledgeable.

We switched from our previous solution due to scalability, lack of reporting, and end-user ease of use and experience.

Our initial setup was straightforward. We had a project plan, with detailed deliverables; each member of the team knew what was expected and when. Any issues that occurred along the way were addressed and resolved in a timely manner.

Implemented with our in-house team.

We evaluated ADP and Paycom.

We are very pleased with the Ultimate partnership! While no solution can do everything, Ultimate works very hard to help us find solutions to our business requirements and needs.

• Recruiting
• BI
• Talent management

• Rolled all of payroll and HR into one

• Implementation

I have used it for seven months.

We encountered deployment issues.

We encountered stability issues.

We have not encountered any scalability issues.

Customer service is 8/10.

We previously used ADP. We switched because they had hidden costs and their reporting system was not user-friendly.

An in-house implemented it.

Not much ROI yet.

Ensure you know what is considered extra charges.

Before choosing this product, we also evaluated ADP, Kronos, and Oracle.

The payroll functionality allows for immediate correcting of pay stubs. Business Intelligence reporting is extensive and easy to use.

If there was an error on an employee's pay during the payroll auditing process, we would have to correct the error and send it off for validation, which could take another 20-30 minutes to verify. If it was wrong, you do it all over again. With UltiPro, I fix the error and can see immediately if everything is correct.

A chat feature for customer support would be great. Some questions are simple that we shouldn't have to create a case just to get an answer for (emails do not get answered for several days, if at all). I’ve found that often times I have a quick question that I need answered, and when I send an email, I don’t get a reply back or the reply takes several days. For example, what time would I need to have payroll submitted by in order to make sure I have checks by a certain date. I’m not a phone person (or it could be that I’m on the phone with someone else and I don’t want to disrupt that call) so I thought it would be nice if they had a chat feature so I could ask my question, then move on. I only want to have to create a case if something needs fixing or if I need help performing a task or getting something set up. Many companies nowadays have a chat feature when you go to their websites if you need help or just have questions when trying to find something.

Go live was Oct 2015.

We have not encountered any deployment issues.

We have not encountered any stability issues.

We have not encountered any scalability issues.

Customer service is 7.5/10.

Technical support is 9.5/10.

We did previously used a different solution. The other system was slow and outdated. Customer service was poor.

Initial setup was straightforward.

An in-house implemented it.

I'm not sure about ROI.

Before choosing this product, we also evaluated ADP and Workday.