Ultimate Software
Company: Ultimate Software
Company Description: A leading provider of end-to-end strategic human resources, payroll, and talent management solutions, Ultimate Software markets its award- winning UltiPro products as licensed software and as on-demand services through Intersourcing. More information on Ultimate Software can be found at www.ultimatesoftware.com or by calling 800-432-1729.
Nomination Category: Team Awards Categories
Nomination Sub Category: Best MIS & IT Team
Nomination Title: From Bits to Bucks - IT Team Evolves into Profit-Driving Service Provider
1. Tell the story about what this nominated team achieved in the past year (up to 500 words). Focus on specific accomplishments, and relate these accomplishments to past performance or industry norms. Be sure to mention obstacles overcome, innovations or discoveries made, and outcomes:
When Ultimate Software’s upper management decided to redesign the company’s business model from licensing on-site software to providing software-as-a service in 2002, they knew the key was to re-architect the company’s UltiPro human resources product suite through Web Services technologies and deliver it economically over the Internet. At the heart of this important decision was Ultimate Software’s IT organization. They would have to mastermind, implement and maintain the infrastructure for managing thousands of companies’ employee data, without relying on a third-party application service provider, and they would need to deliver the solution efficiently so that it could be offered to businesses at an appealing price.
The project was branded “Intersourcing,” and was designed to provide business
customers “In-House Access, Outsourced Convenience” to strategic human
resources, payroll, and talent management feature-sets. Priced on a per-
employee-per-month basis, the services are typically delivered in a multi-
tenancy environment over the Internet.
Ultimate has realized immense financial gain from the success its IT
organization has experienced in redefining itself as a driver of business
revenues rather than a narrowly focused support group. Today, Ultimate’s
Intersourcing team is the business arm of its IT organization and services
more than 700,000 employees in the Intersourcing environment.
The following are proof of the financial and business impact of the
Intersourcing project in 2006:
• Ultimate increased its recurring revenues by 27%, and Intersourcing
accounted for more than 85% of recurring revenues.
• Ultimate’s success with Intersourcing and the related rise in
recurring revenues fueled the interest of Wall Street. In 2000, Ultimate had
no financial analysts covering the company and its stock price hit a low of $2
in December. Today, 16 financial firms are tracking Ultimate, and the stock
price has been as high as $29 so far this year. All of the analysts focus on
Intersourcing results.
• Ultimate surpassed its goal of $100 million in total revenues,
delivering $114.8M in total revenues and non-GAAP net income of $10.4M, or
$0.39 per diluted share (excluding stock-based compensation and amortization
of acquired intangible assets).
• The Intersourcing team opened a second data center to accommodate the
number of new customers purchasing this solution.
• The Intersourcing team had its largest annual workload increase -
managing data, such as compensation, social security numbers, and insurance
information, from 150,000+ new employees.
• The Intersourcing team added, configured, and maintained more than 125
new servers in its data centers.
• As of December 31, 2006, Ultimate continued its rolling-twelve-month-
retention rate of 99+% for Intersourcing customers who’ve gone “live.”
• System availability for 2006 was 99.82%.
Developing the infrastructure and a set of services for hundreds, even
thousands, of companies versus servicing one company’s internal needs, like
most IT teams, required a seismic shift in thinking, behaviors, and processes.
Ultimate’s Intersourcing team had no roadmap to follow. Everyone had to step
out of their comfort zones and change focus from internal service to servicing
external customers. Their success has been a win for customers and Ultimate.
2. List hyperlinks to any online news stories, press releases, or other documents that support the claims made in the section above. IMPORTANT: Begin each link with http://, and enclose each link in square brackets; for example, [http://www.youraddress.com]:
http://www.ultimatesoftware.com/stevies-2007/index-intersourcing.htm
3. Provide a brief (up to 100 words) biography about the leader(s) of the nominated team:
Bill Hicks CIO, Ultimate Software is responsible for internal technologies at
Ultimate Software including its hosted service model, Intersourcing. Because
of the success of Intersourcing, Ultimate Software was ranked as one of the
top six worldwide software on-demand vendors by IDC, the premier global
provider of market intelligence, advisory services, and events. Ultimate
Software was the only HRMS provider to be named in the rankings.
Prior to Ultimate Software, Hicks was the CIO for Precision Response
Corporation (PRC). Hicks was honored as the South Florida CIO Council’s 2003
Member of the Year. He was also a founding steering committee member for the
South Florida CIO Council and founding member of the Academic Advisory Board
for Florida International University’s MIS Master of Science program.