WESTON, Fla., July 19 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Ultimate Software
(Nasdaq: ULTI), a leading provider of Web-based human resources, payroll, and workforce management solutions, announced today that Muzak is leveraging UltiPro Workforce Management for strategic business benefits and efficiencies. Headquartered in Fort Mill, SC, Muzak is the world's leading music, on hold messaging and sound systems provider for business. Some of the biggest brands in business work with Muzak to enhance their brand image.
With approximately 1,400 employees in more than 35 sales and service locations, Muzak relied on a payroll service bureau prior to UltiPro. Without adequate HR functionality, the music provider's human resources team was left to conduct transactions with spreadsheets and forms. Muzak went "live" on UltiPro in 2003 and immediately began using the solution's Web functionality and achieving business benefits. Once the company rolled out UltiPro's manager self-service, employee self-service, and eBenefits Enrollment, Muzak found that it could:
* empower managers with online access to information like salary or job
history for the employees they supervise,
* manage the open enrollment process online, providing for greater
control, improved accuracy, and a more strategic role for HR in benefits
management, and
* reduce administrative headcount from 5 full-time equivalents (FTEs) to 3
FTEs.
"From their PCs, supervisors can generate compensation or job changes over the Web, leveraging UltiPro without printing, completing, or mailing forms," said Nancy Farley, benefits supervisor for Muzak. "Managers like conducting these activities without paperwork because it helps them perform the administrative end of their responsibilities more quickly. This means they have more time to spend on value-added tasks, such as managing people, rather than managing paper."
Paper used to play a big part in the company's annual open enrollment before Muzak had UltiPro's eBenefits Enrollment tools. With UltiPro, Farley took a traditionally paper-intensive process and transformed it into a system that puts HR in a leadership position. Rather than disseminating handbooks, deciphering handwriting, and keying in data from open enrollment forms, Farley's department now e-mails the instructions, monitors employee progress online, and after the enrollment is completed, exports the files to benefit vendors.
"With UltiPro, my role is more high level," said Farley. "Since I have less hands-on involvement with the actual open enrollment process, I have more time to analyze our benefits programs and their impact on the company's bottom line."
Since there is less manual effort associated with many of Muzak's HR and payroll tasks as a result of UltiPro, the organization has cut the size of human resource and benefit staff by 60%, a marked savings in the company's manpower budget. Despite the department's reduction in size, the lean employee-focused group has handled several reorganizations within the last several years that required significant overhauls of systems and administration.
"UltiPro's Web self-service combined with its entire scope of functionality and business intelligence reporting has given my department the time and resources needed to undertake some large projects, including strategic planning, even though my department has fewer headcount. I don't think we could have done it with our previous solution," said Farley.
"The positives of Web self-service range from financial returns, to more productive and strategic HR personnel, to happier employees," said Greg Swick, Ultimate Software's senior vice president of sales. "By taking advantage of technology, companies like Muzak can help HR maximize their teams' contributions to the organization."
About Ultimate Software
A leading provider of end-to-end strategic human resources, payroll, and workforce management solutions, Ultimate Software markets award-winning UltiPro Workforce Management as licensed software, as a hosted application through Intersourcing, and as a co-branded offering to Business Service Providers (BSPs) under the "Powered by UltiPro" brand. Employing approximately 550 professionals who are focused on developing the highest quality products and services, Ultimate Software was named the 2005 Payroll Provider of the Year by the Human Resources Outsourcing Association and ranked #3 on the 2006 Top 25 Best Medium-Sized Companies to Work for in America list by the Great Place to Work Institute and the Society for Human Resource Management. Also in 2006, Ultimate Software won two customer service awards, one from American Business Awards as the Best Customer Service Organization and the other from Service & Support Professionals Association as a first-place SSPA STAR Award winner. 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 http://www.ultimatesoftware.com
UltiPro and Intersourcing are registered trademarks of The Ultimate Software Group, Inc. All other trademarks referenced are the property of their respective owners.
For Sales Information:
Ultimate Software
Phone: (800) 432-1729
Web site: http://www.ultimatesoftware.com