Ascentis HR uses web-based management programs to help automate complex HR processes. Ascentis’ other services included customizable payroll, time and attendance and recruiting modules. Ascentis was acquired by UKG in March of 2022, and will be discontinued.
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UKG Pro
Score 7.5 out of 10
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UKG delivers cloud-based HCM solutions including UKG Pro that help businesses simplify payroll computations, accelerate talent acquisition, manage time and attendance, and support proactive, strategic talent management on a global level.
In working with Ascentis in payroll, the program makes my job so much easier. I am new to this position and the learning process has been so much easier with this product than those in the past. I appreciate the patience I am given when I call in for assistance as well.
I would say, well, I don't want to focus on less appropriate. I want to be well suited. I really feel like if the transparency with our count rep and then just diving in onto how to problem solve and how to troubleshoot, I think that's most important with that.
Easy to use software. I have had several new HR employees comment on how easy the system is to learn!
Problem Solving- Ascentis is always problem solving! When we were in the process of selecting a new payroll company, we needed unemployment claims management assistance for our locations, something Ascentis did not currently offer. The sales rep went out of his way to find a unemployment claims management company that would work with Ascentis and us. That company has helped us keep an 80% win rate for our claims!
User conference- Engage is an awesome way to learn more about the products Ascentis has available as well and meet up with the staff you work with every day!
UKG has an amazing support team to reach out to if assistance is needed
All add-ons of UKG Pro integrate seamlessly making it a powerful software program
UKG Pro is very configurable to meet the specific needs of companies
It is easy to use and navigate
The mobile app is loved by all employees and provides on-demand access
The Ultimate Community is amazing!! On-demand information on all products and how they are used. Connect with other companies that use UKG Pro and learn from each other.
The Learning Centre is also amazing!! Learning right at your fingertips anytime, anywhere.
Updating the system so it is one platform and not two.
Create changes to the benefit enrollment process and upgrade the system so hire dates do not need to be changed to trigger benefits for status changes.
Focus updates on HR Admin, mobile application, ATS and transitioning to one platform. Larger areas of focus have been on the payroll portion of the system with a few updates to other areas.
When something is broken, quicker turn time on fixing the issue.
Offer a fully integrated reporting solution that pulls from all modules versus a separate analytics tool in each module.
Ability to use the ideas UKG Pro presents without being forced into specific modules. Ex Provide a Learning space where ANY learning platform the customer chooses plugs in, a Recruiting/Onboarding Space where ANY platform will plug in, EE Engagement, Performance, ... then the data connects to the data points within the architecture. With this model, anyone would be able to use the Career Designer versus limited to only those who have the perfect combination of products. This is just an example. Many times the products are created by UKG Pro that are amazing, then comes the "You must have A, B, C, D modules to use it" which excludes many customers and limits UKG Pro's selling potential.
At my last organization, we had what was formerly referred to as a "Global" account rep. This person had very limited amount of clients, we met on every case. They delegated our cases immediately in products outside of core to the same team member from that product. Our response time was usually less than one day. It was the best customer service I have had in 10 years as a client. Why is this model not looked at for everyone versus 3 different reps. This one person handled everything except sales. IT was beautiful. We met weekly. We never had cases go beyond a few days unless a JIRA was in play. Customer Service matters so much where many companies sell similar technology.
Org Chart - Executives would like the ability to stage movement and budget to see what the org would look like in a reorg planning. There is no ability to move, rearrange, export to different applications like PowerPoint.
If I were given the opportunity to select a new system, Ascentis would definitely be a strong contender. It links together the functions much more seamlessly than other systems I have used. By far the best part though is the customer support after implementation, this is where many companies fail. It was very appreciated that even after every module went live the service level was still high.
The only reason that I give a 9 rather than a 10 is because, while I am an influencer in the decision making process, the final decision to renew vendor relationships is by committee. If the final decision is up to me, Independent Bank would be a partner with Ultimate Software for the rest of my career.
Employees and Management all love this product, as the ease of use is great! The app makes it very user friendly, as things can be done from cell phones anywhere at any time! Our Field Service Technicians love that they can clock in and out, etc., from any location, and that their time can be approved accordingly.
It gets the job done, but not with a few deep sighs. Once you know where stuff lives, it's manageable, but the first learning curve is steep, some menus feel buried. However, it's consistent, reliable and doesn't crash on me, which counts for a lot. With a little UI glow up it could push into a 9 zone.
They normally give you notice when an update will affect the use of the system. Otherwise, when we have an error , we send a message to the support team. Sometimes someone will get right back with you and sometimes it takes a while.
Our up time has been 100% in the 2 and half years as I recall. We have had between 5 to 10 situations where Ultimate proactively advised us that there were global system issues and provide us with updates status until the issue has been resolved. I do not recall any internal incidents from our employees about an inability to access the system of UltiPro
Normally UKG Pro loads quickly. We had been having major issues with reports running in a timely manner but recently they broke out our virtual server to another instance where is wasn't sharing resources and that seems to have helped reporting run more efficiently.
Support is attentive and quick to answer the call and get the answer for you. If they for any reason cannot answer right then, they are back to you within a day and always seem to have a sense of urgency. You truly get the impression that they are aiming to make you happy.
The quality of UKG Support is related directly to the UKG rep. who handles the issue. In some cases you get someone who really is good at supporting the product and others may not have as much experience and it shows
First, to clarify our "in-person" training was done mainly through Web-X meetings and conference calls. It was the closest thing we got to as far as an "in-person" training for this software. However, for the large majority of it, this type of training worked out well. We were able to share our screens and the trainer was able to share his/her screen. We could follow along with what we were doing in our database in real time and see how different functions worked and how manipulating our information could produce different results. It was also nice in that it provided for real-time results if something hadn't been coded correctly or we were having issues as to why something wasn't working the way we thought it should be. However, it did have some downsides in that we often had to rely on a conference phone and that made it difficult to hear people on both sides. Also, sometimes the trainers had internet difficulties when working from home and that caused issues with the WebX meetings.
I've been to a few in-person (hands on) training sessions and it is very similar to the online classes. You have the same reference material to look back on after the training. So regardless of in person training or online you really get the same thing.
Ascentis HR has a number of online training videos to watch on a number of different topics. I gave it a lower rating because there is not much interactivity with the videos and it seems to cater to really only one or two learning styles. Plus, one has to be pretty motivated to go to a separate area to access the videos and then pull up a specific one to watch it and then learn. From my experience, people know that they are there, many just don't take the time and effort to go find them and actually watch them - especially since the username and password are different from their normal username and password.
Most of the online training was very generic (to be expected) but we had specific requirements for configuration that could have been better addressed with more individual sessions earlier on from our project team. However, we did finally begin booking training sessions with our implementation team which were recorded, and so provided additional information for how to correctly configure and test the system.
It was very easy to implement, but the customization pieces should really be fleshed out in order to determine the full need of an organization at the time of implementation. I believe if a little more time was spent on the requirements, the recruiting module would not have to be customized again at a cost at a later date.
UltiPro made it very easy to implement. I implemented UltiPro on my own (as we were short-handed), in addition to my other duties, and was able to stay on track with our original implementation timeline. The process is laid out in a very detailed method. This was by far the most thorough and easiest implementation that I have been through
Ascentis has far better customer service and the implementation experience was also better. The ability to do a lot of customization is also easier with Ascentis as it's smaller organization. The payroll has positive and negatives compared to ADP but the accuracy is the same in both. Ascentis just started their community site which doesn't have a lot of traffic but hopefully can become more like ADP's community site, which was extremely helpful to me as an administrator.
We used ADP WFN prior to switching to UKG. We interviewed three different payroll companies to see what our options were. UKG stood out and aligned with our company values. The sales team was very helpful and asked questions about what we were currently doing and how they could assist with simplifying things. I personally had a side meeting with them to see if there were options for a process that we manually process and if UKG could actually eliminate the process. We came to the conclusion that we weren't able to get it 100%, but we could pull 80% of what we needed from UKG, and then we would only need to manipulate 20% of the information. It was also determined from that meeting that we wouldn't need to pay extra to have a special report built. The customer service is what we were sold on. The other companies that we looked at didn't give us the confidence that their customer service would be any better than what we previously had.
It has been great to have all of our employee information in one central location, easy access and that the modules communicate/link together. If I change something here, it gets "pushed" to all other modules.
I do not maximize ESS, particularly posting information on the home page because it is so TEDIOUS.
LOVE the app, would love for it to be easier for employees to reset their password to whatever they want vs. the system generated password.
My company acquired another company, and with a UKG partner, we were able to bring them online in UKG within two months of the acquisition date.
When COVID sent us remote, we could configure custom fields to track vaccination status.
The C-suite can get custom reports done in minutes, or ours, where our previous HRIS would have taken days to accomplish, as data would have had to have been exported to Excel and then manipulated inside Excel.
UKG has allowed to go virtual paper free as both a candidate and employee.
