Ultimate Software - UltiPro Launch

Company: Ultimate Software
Company Description: Ultimate is a leading provider of cloud-based HCM solutions with more than 35 million people records in the cloud. Ultimate’s award-winning UltiPro delivers HR, payroll, talent, and time and labor management solutions that connect people with the information they need to work more effectively. Founded in 1990, Ultimate is headquartered in Weston, Florida, and employs more than 4,000 professionals.
Nomination Category: New Product & Service Categories - Business Technology
Nomination Sub Category: Migration as a Service

Nomination Title: Ultimate Software's UltiPro Launch

Success in cloud data migration is determined by how efficient, accurate, and expeditious the onboarding process can be in getting the system up and running, on time and under budget.

Aptitude Research Partners found that those organizations utilizing implementation services directly from their solution provider were 61% more likely to have achieved on-time delivery of their solution, and 48% more likely to have come in at or under budget than those using a third-party provider for implementation.

Ultimate Software is the leader in HCM customer satisfaction and strives to always deliver an exceptional customer experience. We are continuously innovating to expand our services offerings. To address migration as a service, Ultimate Software developed UltiPro Launch, a modern, easy-to-navigate platform for all product launch activities associated with going live with the UltiPro HCM solution.

UltiPro Launch provides customers with complete visibility, from one central location, into the entire go-live process. This comprehensive visibility results in a more efficient and accurate onboarding experience. UltiPro Launch leverages technology to improve collaboration and data integrity, accelerating time to live. As a result, customers can spend more personalized time partnering with their UltiPro team to make the most of its comprehensive HCM solution and less time on tedious manual data conversion.

UltiPro Launch was developed by listening to our Voice of the Customer. Our development team conducted customer journey mapping exercises to analyze the pain points in existing activation life-cycles. That experience was the catalyst for our design and development stage. We arrived at several guiding principles of cloud data migration that informed our work:
-We needed to anticipate all experience levels from our customers
-We needed to be transparent in explaining the migration timeline so that customers could understand what was coming and would trust that it’s part of the process
-Our migration dashboard needed to provide a user-friendly visual experience for customers to engage them, remove anxiety, and accelerate their level of understanding

From this, we arrived at UltiPro Launch’s intuitive, seamless go-live experience for customers that enhanced the onboarding experience and reduced time to live through:

-Improved data conversion process
-Automated data validation, ensuring high-quality and accurate data sets
-Immediate visibility into imported data
-Leveraging customer operational reports instead of vendor exit files
-Thorough risk management
-Project is monitored in phases, making it easier to manage complex customers
-Automated validation and balancing of complex W2 data
-Early detection of data issues that could affect go live—such as complex local and multi-jurisdictional taxes
-Comprehensive project oversight
-The entire product launch process is managed and tracked from one place
-The Ultimate project manager oversees entire project on behalf of the customer
-Customer challenges and questions are quickly identified and addressed
-A smooth, enjoyable transition to UltiPro
-Intuitive, guided setup
-UltiPro consultants can focus on conducting strategic, personalized discussions with customers to help ensure optimal setup of UltiPro

Results for the first 7 months of UltiPro Launch include:
-212 customers have gone live on UltiPro using UltiPro Launch
-14,674 files have been uploaded and parsed in UltiPro Launch
-1,436,267 people profile records have been parsed through UltiPro Launch

The responses from customers has been overwhelmingly positive, including:
-“Senior management was surprised that we could deploy an HCM solution so quickly, and the transition was seamless for our employees. A casual observer wouldn’t even know we had made the switch. Ultimate Software’s resources were great, and its support teams were very dedicated.”
-Chuck Keck, Payroll Director, SONY MUSIC ENTERTAINMENT – A leading provider of music and entertainment
-“Our deployment of UltiPro Launch was unbelievable. The Ultimate team made sure we understood everything that was happening, provided 24-7 availability, offered solutions for best practices, and even recommended ways that we could save money.”
-Tracy Bargielski, General Manager, Human Resources, YAMAHA CORPORATION OF AMERICA – A leading provider of musical instruments and audio/visual products

In bullet-list form, briefly summarize up to ten (10) of the chief features and benefits of the nominated product or service (up to 150 words):

-Seamless Launch Experience: UltiPro Launch delivers an intuitive, guided setup from an easy-to-navigate platform so customers are up and running quickly on UltiPro with a reduced level of effort.
-Centralized Hub: The entire launch process is managed from one, central location with a dashboard that provides complete visibility into the deployment process, giving customers an interactive experience.
-Rapid, High-Quality Data Conversions: The data extraction and conversion process is simplified, giving customers immediate access to their data. The data import format is flexible and leverages their operational reports instead of relying on vendor exit files, so discrepancies are identified early and quickly resolved, making the data conversion process hassle-free.
-Ease of Use & ROI: Ultimate Software adds substantive value for our customers by improving the overall customer launch experience, reducing the level of effort and resources required by the customer, and helping them realize their return on investment in UltiPro faster