Ventana Research Analyst Perspectives

Ultimate Software is a Value Index Leader in Payroll Software

Written by Ventana Research | Apr 1, 2020 10:00:00 AM

Here are some insights on Ultimate Software drawn from our latest Value Index research, which provides an analytic assessment of how well payroll software vendor offerings address buyers’ requirements. The Ventana Research Value Index on Payroll Software 2020 is the distillation of a year of market and product research efforts by Ventana Research. We evaluated Ultimate Software Group and seven other vendors in seven categories, five product-related (adaptability, capability, manageability, reliability and usability) and two concerning the vendor (TCO/ROI and vendor validation). To arrive at the Value Index rating for a given vendor, we weighted each of the seven categories to reflect its relative importance in an RFP process, with the weightings based on data derived from our benchmark research on payroll software.

Ultimate Software Group offers a strong payroll product in UltiPro Payroll, placing third in this Value Index and earning Value Index Leader status overall and in Customer Assurance, TCO/ROI, Validation and Adaptability.

UltiPro handles even complex payroll processing with reliability and ease. The dashboard-based platform is easy to configure to suit specific business needs and dashboard features related to tax and year-end activities minimize errors and help ensure compliance. The vendor also provides a strong link between performance management and pay and can support multiple jurisdictions and pay types on a single check. Ultimate Software’s highest ratings are in Validation and TCO/ROI due to strong customer references and case studies and robust business case support.

The vendor has an opportunity to improve UltiPro’s user experience by not only minimizing clicks and traversing of web pages but providing text- and voice-based conversational experiences via a digital assistant and integrating better with communication and collaboration tools. Ultimate does not yet offer on-demand pay and has partnered with only one pay card provider. And the vendor could offer more detail about product plans around its path to add more digital technology improvement in areas such as AI and machine learning.

Ultimate Software Group offers a solid, highly configurable and versatile platform for managing payroll and has earned its loyal customer base.

This research-based index is the most comprehensive assessment of the value of payroll 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.