Ultimate Software (Nasdaq: ULTI), the leading provider of unified, end-to-end human capital management (HCM) SaaS solutions in North America, announced today that Covenant Retirement Communities, one of the largest not-for-profit retirement communities in the U.S., has streamlined the organization's HCM processes with UltiPro.

Before UltiPro, Covenant Retirement Communities was using more than a dozen databases and separate payroll service bureau accounts, creating a host of challenges that extended beyond HR and payroll ? impacting other departments and employees. When activating UltiPro in 2004, Jerry Davis, payroll manager for Covenant Retirement Communities, worked closely with IT, HR, and the company's financial leaders to set short- and long-term goals for UltiPro, including:

  • Driving operational efficiencies and HCM effectiveness
  • Improving the employee experience
  • Becoming a more valuable business partner to other departments

Today, Covenant Retirement Communities manages the HR and payroll activities for 12 campuses in addition to four home healthcare and private-duty care agencies and the corporate headquarters. The organization previously relied on a third-party vendor to manage the organization's complex benefits administration for more than 3,000 employees.

Managing different types of healthcare professionals who have varying benefits and different accrual plans, Covenant Retirement Communities has complicated benefits processes. To hold down costs and gain more control, Covenant Retirement Communities used UltiPro to bring the process in-house, which has greatly improved benefits reporting, created efficiencies, and provided employees with online access to complete benefits changes and view details.

?Before we began using UltiPro for benefits management, our process was 100% reliant on forms, manual data entry, and spreadsheets. With such a sizeable volume of changes every year, we faced discrepancies, audit issues, and reporting problems,? said Davis. ?Today, we pass data to our vendors electronically, manage information ourselves with configurable reporting, and handle open enrollment online. With UltiPro, we don't have to pay a benefits outsourcer, our benefits data is finally accurate, and our employees appreciate convenient Web access to their information.?

Covenant Retirement Communities has also leveraged UltiPro to ?go green? by moving to a paperless payroll using kiosks in its 12 locations. Many employees have chosen to receive their W-2s electronically, and everyone in the organization used UltiPro for open enrollment last year ? resulting in significant reductions in paper, data entry, and mailing costs.

Beyond its Web features for managers and employees, UltiPro has allowed Davis to build analytics that have helped the company review the HR procedures of its campuses to ensure that employees are being compensated fairly and correctly and that salary changes are applied in a timely manner.

?When performance appraisals and salary increases are late, it sends a message to employees that we don't want to send,? said Davis. ?With UltiPro, we're able to monitor retroactive salary increases, keep everyone on the same page, and make sure the right offices and individuals are accountable.?

Covenant Retirement Communities' HR/payroll team is also using UltiPro's reporting tools to play a strategic role in the budgeting and planning process. With information collected from UltiPro, the HR/payroll team assigns weighted average rates-of-pay to job codes to make sure annual wages, overtime, bonuses, and other elements of compensation are on par with the industry and geographical location. Because of these metrics, the finance team consults closely with HR to prepare its budgetary plans ? a collaboration that may not have happened before UltiPro.

?With UltiPro, HR is becoming stronger and other departments are turning to us first when they have an issue that impacts our workforce,? said Davis. ?Covenant Retirement Communities' executives now know I can quickly deliver the reports they need, which is crucial. UltiPro is helping us accomplish our HR objectives and has definitely been a great choice for us.?

?Healthcare organizations have some of the most complex HCM processes,? said Greg Swick, chief sales officer for Ultimate. ?We are pleased that the depth of UltiPro's HCM functionality and business intelligence tools has helped Covenant Retirement Communities achieve its goals.?

About Ultimate

The leading provider of unified, end-to-end human capital management (HCM) SaaS solutions in North America, Ultimate markets its award-winning UltiPro solution as an on-demand service through Software-as-a-Service (SaaS). Based in Weston, FL, Ultimate employs approximately 1,000 professionals who are focused on developing the highest quality products and services. In 2009, Ultimate was awarded first place in the People's Choice Stevie® competition for Favorite New SaaS Product and was ranked the #1 best medium-sized company to work for in America by the Great Place to Work® Institute for the second consecutive year. In 2008, Ultimate was the first HR/payroll SaaS provider to be audited and awarded the ISO/IEC 27001:2005 Certification for security management and was recognized for having the #1 ?Best Product Development Team? in the nation by the American Business Awards. Ultimate has more than 1,900 customers representing diverse industries, including such organizations as Adobe Systems Incorporated, The Container Store, Culligan International, Elizabeth Arden, Major League Baseball, The New York Yankees Baseball Team, and Ruth's Chris Steak House. More information on Ultimate's products and services can be found at www.ultimatesoftware.com.

UltiPro is a registered trademark of The Ultimate Software Group, Inc. All other trademarks referenced are the property of their respective owners.

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Ultimate Software
Darlene Marcroft, 954-331-7444
darlene_marcroft@ultimatesoftware.com
or
For Sales Information:
Ultimate Software, 800-432-1729
www.ultimatesoftware.com