Ultimate Software (Nasdaq:ULTI), a leading provider of end-to-end strategic human resources, payroll, and talent management solutions, announced today that its customer Sorenson Communications, the leading provider of Video Relay Services (VRS) for deaf and hard-of-hearing individuals who use American Sign Language to communicate, has made significant improvements in its human resource practices with core UltiPro for human resources, benefits, and payroll processing and UltiPro Time and Attendance. They use Ultimate Software’s software as a service model, Intersourcing.
Prior to UltiPro, Sorenson Communications was relying on an in-house solution provided by its former parent company. Because the application did not offer time and attendance functionality, Sorenson’s HR team managed attendance for approximately 2,000 employees manually using paper forms, fax machines, email, and data entry. Sorenson went ‘live’ on core UltiPro in 2006 and added UltiPro Time and Attendance in 2007. Resulting efficiencies have since given Sorenson’s HR team the equivalent of nearly two weeks a month to devote to other, more strategic activities.
“UltiPro has taken an activity that used to require 30 to 40 man hours and reduced it to only a few steps that take minutes. We previously had to assign two or three temporary workers and several HR staff members to processing time and attendance every other week,” said Reed Steiner, controller for Sorenson Communications. “Now, we don’t need to hire temporary help for payroll, and the army of human resources and payroll associates who were involved in the manual time-keeping process are freed for other projects. It’s been great.”
Using UltiPro Time and Attendance, Sorenson’s salaried employees can use a default time sheet so they do not need to enter the same information each week as they did before UltiPro. If hours need to be assigned to a different profit center to accommodate unique situations, the time sheets can be modified on the spot. Most hourly employees use UltiPro’s biometric clocks for time entry, and all associates can use the solution to apply for vacation, sick time, and floating holidays, for additional benefits.
“We are light years ahead of where we were before UltiPro,” said Steiner. “UltiPro is turning out to be a perfect fit for us. Because we are a nationwide company with 61 locations, UltiPro’s Web features are a great advantage for us. UltiPro’s employee self-service empowers associates, regardless of state or country, with information available at their fingertips, while creating efficiencies for our HR team. Many of our processes have not been electronic, and employees appreciate that we are trying to cut back on our use of paper and ‘go green.’ We plan to make even more processes paperless when we introduce UltiPro Performance Management to our workforce.”
Accessing UltiPro’s functionality over the Internet, Intersourcing customers can pay on a convenient per-employee, per-month basis. Businesses rely on Ultimate Software, rather than internal IT resources, to handle system maintenance, including upgrades.
“With Intersourcing, we don’t have to worry about the timing of tax upgrades before yearend or depend on internal IT resources. Comparing it to our former provider when we were initially comparing vendors, we found Intersourcing was also more affordable,” said Steiner. “Ultimate Software’s software-as-a-service alternative was a perfect choice for us with the right blend of functionality, technology, and service.”
“We’re very pleased to see Sorenson Communications taking advantage of our UltiPro solutions through Intersourcing for such significant business process improvement. The combination of UltiPro’s integrated feature-sets, exceptional reporting tools, and high-performance technology have helped the communications company, like many other Ultimate Software customers, make a productive transition from paper to people,” Greg Swick, senior vice president of sales for Ultimate Software.
About Sorenson Communications
Sorenson Communications (www.sorenson.com) is a provider of industry-leading communications services and products. The company's offerings include Sorenson Video Relay Service (Sorenson VRS), the highest-quality video interpreting service; the Sorenson (VP-100® and VP-200®) videophones; Sorenson IP Relay (SIPRelay), enabling text-to-speech relay communication; and Sorenson Video Remote Interpreting (VRI), a fee-based remote interpreting service.
About Ultimate Software
A leading provider of end-to-end strategic human resources, payroll, and talent management solutions, Ultimate Software markets its award-winning UltiPro products as on-demand services through its software-as-a-service offering, Intersourcing, and as licensed software. Based in Weston, FL, Ultimate Software employs more than 700 professionals who are focused on developing the highest quality products and services. Ultimate Software’s IT team won a first-place award for its management of Intersourcing, from the American Business Awards in 2007, and its customer service team won two first-place awards for service excellence in 2006, one from the Service & Support Professionals Association and another from the American Business Awards. Ultimate Software was named a “Leader” in Forrester Research Inc.’s 2006 U.S. Midmarket HR solutions Wave ranking and ranked #3 on the 2006 and 2007 lists of the Best Medium-Sized Companies to Work For in America by the Great Place to Work Institute. Ultimate Software customers represent diverse industries and include such organizations as The Container Store, Elizabeth Arden, The Florida Marlins Baseball Team, The New York Yankees Baseball Team, Nintendo of America, Ruth’s Chris Steak House, and SkyWest Airlines. More information on Ultimate Software’s products and services can be found at www.ultimatesoftware.com.