Ventana Research Analyst Perspectives

I am happy to share some insights on Kronos drawn from our latest Value Index research, which provides an analytic representation of our assessment of how well vendors’ offerings meet buyers’ requirements. The Ventana Research Value Index: Workforce Management 2019 is the distillation of a year of market and product research efforts by Ventana Research. We utilized a structured research methodology that includes evaluation categories designed to reflect the breadth of the real-world criteria incorporated in a request for proposal (RFP) and vendor selection process for workforce management. We evaluated Kronos and 12 other vendors in seven categories, five relevant to the product (adaptability, capability, manageability, reliability and usability) and two related to the vendor (TCO/ROI and vendor validation). To arrive at the Value Index rating for a given vendor, we weighted each category to reflect its relative importance in an RFP process, with the weightings based on our experience and data derived from our benchmark research on workforce management.

Kronos placed first in the overall Value Index for Workforce Management and also tops the Capability category due to its robust, AI-powered, native-mobile and native-cloud Workforce Dimensions product, released in 2018. Kronos also ranked second in Usability and third in Reliability. It’s one of only three vendors with no scores below 80 percent, which demonstrates consistency of focus and results across all seven categories we evaluated. It also ranked second in the product area that looks at all five of the underlying categories.

Impressive capabilities include real-time employee notifications of time card issues, which can be reviewed and resolved immediately. Employees can set preferences for where they’d like to work and what they’d like to do using an intuitive user interface that simplifies scheduling and fosters engagement. The product uses AI to develop best-fit schedules, accommodating factors such as employee skills and overtime risk. Notifications remind workers of required breaks, ensure the proper ending of a shift and confirm that a worker has accrued enough time off and that it does not compromise shift coverage, safety requirements or blackout periods.

Kronos ranked ninth in TCO/ROI and could have rated higher it had provided depth in information about the costs, tools and services in this category. It also ranked sixth in Adaptability where it did not have as much depth in the application and data integration areas.

This research-based index is the most comprehensive assessment of the value of workforce management software in the industry. You can learn more about our Value Index as an effective vendor selection and RFI/RFP tool here. Participating vendors can learn more about how to use the Value Index here.