Vista® is a human resource, benefits, payroll, recruiting, and self-service software. Functional elements include recruitment, staffing, position and training management, compliance, and performance and compensation.
N/A
Pricing
PDS Vista
Editions & Modules
No answers on this topic
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
PDS Vista
Free Trial
No
Free/Freemium Version
No
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
Yes
Entry-level Setup Fee
No setup fee
Additional Details
License pricing is based on the number of full and part-time active employees within bands (e.g. 751-1,000). SaaS pricing is based on PEPM.
More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
PDS Vista
Considered Both Products
Personnel Data Systems (PDS)
Verified User
Chose PDS Vista
I've used Peoplesoft HCM in the past. The products have some similarities, but they are marketed to different sized companies, so it's a bit of apples to oranges. Peoplesoft was very complex and challenging to manage and support. Vista HRMS should require fewer technical …
A de minimis incentive was given to thank the reviewer for their time. The incentive was not used to bias or drive a particular response, nor was the incentive contingent on a positive endorsement. More Info
Systems Analyst in Information Technology at Lincoln Industries (Automotive, 501-1000 employees)
Chose PDS Vista
ADP and Paylocity. Vista may not be as flashy as those user sites, but it is much more effective and easy to use for multiple roles in the system. Admins, managers, and users are much easier to manage and their experience is better having the single sign-on for them to use.
A de minimis incentive was given to thank the reviewer for their time. The incentive was not used to bias or drive a particular response, nor was the incentive contingent on a positive endorsement. More Info
A de minimis incentive was given to thank the reviewer for their time. The incentive was not used to bias or drive a particular response, nor was the incentive contingent on a positive endorsement. More Info
A de minimis incentive was given to thank the reviewer for their time. The incentive was not used to bias or drive a particular response, nor was the incentive contingent on a positive endorsement. More Info
Verified User
Chose PDS Vista
Vista has modules built in the system with maintenance fees that are feasible. The functionality and capabilities of the system are robust - not sure what the system cannot do. The system is reliant on your skills to modify the modules but the customer support team will partner …
A de minimis incentive was given to thank the reviewer for their time. The incentive was not used to bias or drive a particular response, nor was the incentive contingent on a positive endorsement. More Info
A de minimis incentive was given to thank the reviewer for their time. The incentive was not used to bias or drive a particular response, nor was the incentive contingent on a positive endorsement. More Info
Human Resource Manager in Human Resources at Penn United Technologies, Inc. (Mining & Metals, 501-1000 employees)
Chose PDS Vista
The other two I have used in the past were a pay as you go type of a thing where you had to request and pay for every report that you wanted, I like the on demand and licensing concept better.
A de minimis incentive was given to thank the reviewer for their time. The incentive was not used to bias or drive a particular response, nor was the incentive contingent on a positive endorsement. More Info
Senior Application Administrator in Information Technology at Lee County Clerk of Courts (Government Administration, 201-500 employees)
Chose PDS Vista
We’ve looked at other HRMS applications over the years and PDS’ product is a great fit for us. Many of the other applications are much more expensive and difficult to install and support.
A de minimis incentive was given to thank the reviewer for their time. The incentive was not used to bias or drive a particular response, nor was the incentive contingent on a positive endorsement. More Info
Verified User
Chose PDS Vista
Vista HRMS offered the same or similar options for their product, but Vista's customer service is top notch and can't be beat! When we first selected Vista we were a much smaller company. The people behind Vista HRMS were very forthcoming with answers to our questions and …
Verified User
Chose PDS Vista
We converted from Lawson/Infor's HRMS solution. This was becoming increasing difficult to maintain and the annual maintenance costs were many times higher than PDS. We evaluated Workday, Ultimate, ADP and several other software solutions during our evaluation phase. Workday was …
Director of Human Resources in Human Resources at Tender Touch Rehab Services (Hospital & Health Care, 1001-5000 employees)
Chose PDS Vista
We had multiple vendors come and demo their products/systems for us. Each one had great features but at the end of the day, based on what the Vista HRMS system had to offer and how we were able to personalize the system to meet our needs we felt the choice was simple and we …
Verified User
Chose PDS Vista
We selected Vista HRMS because of the cost, and the ability to modify base code when needed.
Verified User
Chose PDS Vista
The open environment of our hosted system allows us to develop modules and customizations as if the system were developed in-house. With the IT staff we have, this provides great opportunities for extending PDS' capabilities. Additionally, I have never worked with a better …
Lead Applications Analyst Developer in Information Technology at Clark Public Utilities (Utilities, 201-500 employees)
Chose PDS Vista
I wasn't around when other products were being evaluated. But I've been working with the system for almost 5 years now and I'm pretty happy with it (and I'm picky!) I think the biggest reason we picked it was because of how configurable it is as well as having the ability to …
Verified User
Chose PDS Vista
I have used only Vista HRMS and do not have an accurate comparison.
Verified User
Chose PDS Vista
I wasn't part of the implementation team for selection of Vista HRMS, but the feedback that I received was that this was the most robust, configurable product on the market for the price range we were looking to spend. No software is perfect, but Vista HRMS does suit our needs …
Verified User
Chose PDS Vista
They switched to save money.
Key User Insights
Would buy again
No answers on this topic
Delivers good value for the price
No answers on this topic
Happy with the feature set
No answers on this topic
Lived up to sales and marketing promises
No answers on this topic
Implementation went as expected
No answers on this topic
Features
PDS Vista
Human Resource Management
Comparison of Human Resource Management features of PDS Vista
Feature
PDS Vista
1.9
19 Ratings
122% below category average
Employee demographic data
1.018 Ratings
Employment history
1.019 Ratings
Job profiles and administration
1.015 Ratings
Workflow for transfers, promotions, pay raises, etc.
1.013 Ratings
Organizational charting
3.014 Ratings
Organization and location management
3.017 Ratings
Compliance data (COBRA, OSHA, etc.)
3.012 Ratings
Payroll Management
Comparison of Payroll Management features of PDS Vista
Feature
PDS Vista
3.2
19 Ratings
85% below category average
Pay calculation
3.017 Ratings
Support for external payroll vendors
1.010 Ratings
Off-cycle/On-Demand payment
4.01 Ratings
Benefit plan administration
1.017 Ratings
Direct deposit files
4.018 Ratings
Salary revision and increment management
1.014 Ratings
Reimbursement management
8.25 Ratings
Leave and Attendance Management
Comparison of Leave and Attendance Management features of PDS Vista
Feature
PDS Vista
1.0
14 Ratings
156% below category average
Approval workflow
1.08 Ratings
Balance details
1.014 Ratings
Annual carry-forward and encashment
1.013 Ratings
Employee Self Service
Comparison of Employee Self Service features of PDS Vista
Feature
PDS Vista
2.0
18 Ratings
121% below category average
View and generate pay and benefit information
4.017 Ratings
Update personal information
1.015 Ratings
View company policy documentation
3.09 Ratings
Employee recognition
1.06 Ratings
View job history
1.05 Ratings
Asset Management
Comparison of Asset Management features of PDS Vista
Feature
PDS Vista
7.3
7 Ratings
10% below category average
Tracking of all physical assets
7.37 Ratings
HR Reporting
Comparison of HR Reporting features of PDS Vista
Feature
PDS Vista
2.0
17 Ratings
116% below category average
Report builder
2.015 Ratings
Pre-built reports
2.017 Ratings
Ability to combine HR data with external data
2.014 Ratings
Onboarding
Comparison of Onboarding features of PDS Vista
Feature
PDS Vista
1.0
2 Ratings
155% below category average
New hire portal
1.02 Ratings
Manager tracking tools
1.01 Ratings
Performance and Goals
Comparison of Performance and Goals features of PDS Vista
Feature
PDS Vista
2.8
3 Ratings
95% below category average
Corporate goal setting
1.03 Ratings
Individual goal setting
1.03 Ratings
Performance tracking
6.42 Ratings
Performance Management
Comparison of Performance Management features of PDS Vista
Feature
PDS Vista
1.0
5 Ratings
155% below category average
Performance plans
1.03 Ratings
Performance improvement plans
1.02 Ratings
Review status tracking
1.03 Ratings
Review reminders
1.04 Ratings
Multiple review frequency
1.03 Ratings
Succession Planning
Comparison of Succession Planning features of PDS Vista
Feature
PDS Vista
2.3
2 Ratings
109% below category average
Create succession plans/pools
3.61 Ratings
Candidate ranking
1.02 Ratings
Candidate search
1.02 Ratings
Candidate development
3.61 Ratings
Recruiting / ATS
Comparison of Recruiting / ATS features of PDS Vista
As Vista HRMS is fully customizable to suit your needs, a company should determine if they have a current employee who can do the work themselves otherwise they will need to consider the additional cost of asking PDS to do the customizations for them. There are additional modules that we aren't currently making use of, but each company should learn about the functionality of each of them as some may be more beneficial than others. When gathering your questions, ask all potential users of the system what they would want to see in an HRMS. We did so before selecting Vista HRMS and we got pages and pages of questions and comments and made sure that each item was addressed beforehand and was something that we would be able to incorporate into the system. You have the option of taking the system in house or being a hosted client. Make sure you figure out what resources your IT department has available. If you have a dedicated administrator who will do all the upgrades and enhancements great, otherwise you may need PDS to help out and having PDS host may be a better option
Vista HRMS is very flexible, it does everything we need for HR, benefits and payroll. It’s user-friendly and intuitive to use, when we roll out new self-service items our employees have no problems and require minimal training or documentation.
PDS has excellent customer service and support. We get answers to the majority of our questions and problems quickly, within the day that we call. More complex issues that may require PDS’ technical support are usually addressed within a few days. We were upgrading our production servers to Windows 2012 over a weekend and a key person in our organization was on leave. When we checked with PDS to see what cost would be involved if we needed their help, they said it was included in our regular maintenance, no extra cost.
The PDS User’s Conference is an excellent learning opportunity for training on everything Vista does, including using Crystal Reports for custom reporting. You also get to meet and talk to the executive and development staff and have direct input into the future product development.
Typical of any system built for the unknown requirements of hundreds or thousands of customers with varying needs, PDS sometimes doesn't fit our processes precisely out of the box. However, this con is far outweighed by the ability to configure and customize the system.
The most significant pet peeve of our users is the necessity for so many clicks to navigate between different areas or the system or to review applicants. These items are being addressed based on feedback from the user community in an upcoming release.
I feel so invested in Vista HRMS that I don't really want to try other options. I know we as an organization are not using this product to it's full potential and that is just due to us lacking the resources to be able to invest the time into breaking it apart and making it work to the best ability for us. The system works great as is, but there are a lot of implementations we can put into place to help us out even more. For example, we would love to start using Workflow to create more efficiencies. I personally have a very good relationship with our hosted vendor who supports Vista HRMS and can help me with any issues and concerns, this is a big part of the reason that I would renew with this product and continue to be an advocate for Vista HRMS.
In my line of work, PDS Vista doesn't fit. I recruit and manager talent pipelines, as well as all onboarding aspects of 11 companies. I spend more hours getting data configured and searching for information within this software than I spend with my candidates. Theres an abundance duplication, and there isn't a single stream of information shared across screens. I have to input the SAME details into several screens for them to match up. Nothing is intuitive, and its certainly not end user friendly
A de minimis incentive was given to thank the reviewer for their time. The incentive was not used to bias or drive a particular response, nor was the incentive contingent on a positive endorsement. More Info
PDS has excellent customer service and support. We get answers to the majority of our questions and problems quickly, within the day that we call. More complex issues that may require PDS’ technical support are usually addressed within a few days
Ask lots of questions, ensure you fully understand the functionality (particularly history records) and train, train, train the users for correct and complete utilization of the system.
I've used Peoplesoft HCM in the past. The products have some similarities, but they are marketed to different sized companies, so it's a bit of apples to oranges. Peoplesoft was very complex and challenging to manage and support. Vista HRMS should require fewer technical resources and still provide robust features for HR and Payroll. We selected Vista HRMS because it met the majority of our requirements and was priced to enable us to purchase and implement it within our budget. Also, it's an integrated system (although not truly one system when you count Vista Time) which is an improvement over our current state.
A de minimis incentive was given to thank the reviewer for their time. The incentive was not used to bias or drive a particular response, nor was the incentive contingent on a positive endorsement. More Info
Positive impact would definitely be self-service for both employees and managers to view and update selected data.
Through some analytics our managers are able to track turnover for their site/department by many criteria (length of service, reason, etc) and can view a number of other analytical reports such as headcount and demographics which help them to make informed decisions about their department.
