ADP Vantage (legacy) vs. Namely

[ADP Vantage HCM is] great for big organizations with complex processes and who need all the features/functionalities provided by the platform. May not be very suitable for smaller companies who aren't as elaborate in terms of their HR processes and the enterprise licensing costs can be slightly prohibitive. Great for companies looking for plug-and-play solutions which need minimal/no customization off the shelf.

Incentivized

Namely is nice because it has everything all in one place: performance, applicant tracking through Greenhouse, payroll, time off, hourly timesheets, and benefits. From the payroll side, Namely is especially helpful for remote employers who have employees in multiple states, especially Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Indiana. Namely will automatically update the payroll profile of the employee with the state and local tax for the work or home location, whichever the employer chooses. I have found a few mistakes with the local tax being assigned not matching the Ohio Tax Finder, but for the most part, it is accurate. It is also helpful that we can create multiple payrolls for multiple periods and they are included in the overall fee

Incentivized

• EPIP batch uploads are customizable. Each payroll processor was given their own upload template so they could input all of their changes on it, and then upload at payroll processing time.
• We had multiple pay groups. ADP Vantage makes the ability to submit and close multiple pay groups individually very easy. This was a big pain point for us and we were able to speed our timing up by opening and closing our pay groups individually.
• Report writing in ADP Vantage is a breeze. It has the ability to drag fields into the report writer, so you don't have to remember the exact fields you need. You can literally go to the screen you want to report off of, and drag the field into your report.

Incentivized

• Namely has helped with our COVID sick leave response. It has made a major difference both with the weekly payroll and the 941 tax filing
• Keeping track of our multiple PTO plans. Thank goodness for Namely, I have shredded my old PTO spreadsheets.
• Employees like the convenience of the cell phone app. As a payroll administrator, I like the Geo Tracking tool where I can see where some are when the clock is in or out.
• The flexibility inside of the payroll system both as you are finalizing an employee profile and when you are processing payroll is a major advantage.
• The reports I get out of Namely in Excel format work well for me.

Incentivized

• [The] tax setup section needs more work, it is unclear sometimes if we need to set up tax in Smart Compliances or somewhere else, and then the rode to make that tax active and add it to the employee.
• [The] payroll audit could be more clear and include more data from all adjustments, for example, if there is [a] salary rate change, there [are] not flags to check that in [the] audit section of the payroll.

Incentivized

• in my opinion, HORRIBLE performance review platform, we had a really hard time with it and would not recommend that you use this function
• In my experience, poor customer service, difficult to get ahold of them when you need support
• Capabilities are limited in comparison to other more robust HRIS systems

Incentivized

Because we have only been using the system for 5 years, we will continue using this service until our business outgrows the support we need or is unable to meet our needs. we need a system that will integrate with our carriers and well as our general ledger system. We are currently looking for another GL system to fit our needs that will need to integrate with ADPVantage

Incentivized

Administrators and employees love Namely. It is very easy to use and streamlined. Employees stay engaged with news feed updates and enjoy all the self service options. The time cards are very easy to access and clocking in and out for non-exempt employees is a breeze. Namely is part of our family.

It's a great product and the enhancements make it better all the time. I feel there are some areas that are severly lacking attention, such as Garnishments. This area of the product is not user friendly at all and ADP has not made an enhancement here since we went live 2012.

Incentivized

It is very simple to use for myself, the HR team, and our employees. I find the payroll process very user-friendly. Reporting is simple to navigate and produce the required information requested. I know our employees enjoy the self-service feature and use it on a regular basis, which saves me time.

Incentivized

The software just works. I can count on one hand the number of actual outages I have experienced in the last 10 years. We have had slowdowns, where response/processing time was slow, but those too are few and far between. The redundancies and backups they have in place at ADP mean my resources are available all the time. The only reason I say 9 of 10 is because there are times when an update or patch will cause an issue in another part of the system that usually isn't discovered prior to the patch/update's implementation. These have happened several times. The plus side is that these are almost always resolved immediately.

Incentivized

Pages do load pretty swiftly, and reports do not take too long. However, I have noticed that most reports become available sooner than some. Which if you are trying to process payroll, it may slow you down and tends to be time consuming when you're in a crunch

I think it's important for other companies to do their research and to make sure to not be oversold like we were. We needed to have an implementation expert with the sales person who could have explained some of what we wanted was not doable without costing extra. It's for this reason that I'm giving ADP Vantage HCM this rating. Everything is a project and comes with an additional cost.

Incentivized

Unfortunately, in more recent years we've had a lot of difficulty with Namely as they've undergone a lot of internal changes. It took 4 returned emails saying the person no longer worked at Namely to find someone to help me (I finally called payroll) and it took a while to get connected with a direct source of help. Namely now has set up their "pod" feature of communication which works well for the most part, but is different. I felt spoiled when we first started with Namely, but now it feels very much like working with most large companies' help centers. There is a system to go through and you do have the option to click "urgent". In general the help is efficient, but it still takes a few days and it's hard to speak with someone directly. It is all done via online communications and is difficult to actually speak to someone on the phone. This works well for most cases, but I do feel frustrated more often than I'd like to with this type of communication. (2019/2020)

Incentivized

I personally did not receive in-person training. I do know that person to person interaction is more efficient versus self taught and online training. The instructor can work at your pace, and you will be able to ask more questions to better understand the system and how it works. I also prefer in person training overall.

super easy to follow along. I loved that I was able to move along with the instructions without feeling overwhelmed and lost. Being able to go back as many times as I needed really helped when I was helping my co-workers stay on task with the training.I love that ADP

It was a great implementation, ADP went above and beyond to ensure it was successful. ADP hosted modeling sessions that included the subject matter experts from all areas. It was helpful that the implementation was all inclusive as we received indepth detail of how each area affects another.

Incentivized

There were so many specialists in the implementation process; it would have been nice to have fewer people who had a more holistic understanding of the platform. Also, the onboarding meetings covered so much technical information that there was relatively little time for questions (though questions were invited). Eventually, everything worked out.

Incentivized

I inherited this system when I came on board. Most recently I had been using ADP Enterprise, along with eTime and Virtual Edge. I have also used home-grown systems. I know there are some limitations between Vantage vs Enterprise, but I really haven't noticed them working in Vantage. It gives me a very similar experience to what I was used to, so it was simple for me to adapt. I am always aware of other systems that are being developed, but I am pleased with what I have right now with Vantage.

Incentivized

We had used Namely in conjunction with Wurk for payroll and Ease for benefits enrollment. Unfortunately the "fraken-system" was very cumbersome to manage. The fraken-system was used due to the limited options in the cannabis industry for providers who were willing to work with us. We eventually transitioned to OnePoint to have an all-in-one system but also left it because it was not able to scale with the organization.

ADP Vantage is able to scale to our needs. As your organization's payroll and time and attendance needs grow, ADP has optional modules (scheduler, HR, ect.) that can be purchased. The basic reporting and metrics are nice add-ons.

Incentivized

• Positive - saving the admins time by allowing EE's to access their own information.
• Positive - Managers being able to use Vantage easily to manage their employees.
• Negative - would probably be when the system gives you errors randomly that are not true errors. Once you refresh the page or log out and back in then the error does not come up. Not sure if this has to do with connection as well.

Incentivized

• When we were over 100, it provided a huge benefit to us due to the accuracy of payroll, benefits integration and management, and org chart and performance tracking. Having all of that in one place was a huge improvement from the former disjointed user experience.
• When we dropped below 100 due to covid, our insurance rates went up 93% to offer comparable plans, and we had to move over to a PEO for benefits which meant we also had to move payroll. It was hugely disruptive, and now our employees have a bad experience when trying to manage their HR lives in multiple places. It is confusing and, again, disjointed.

Incentivized