Ascentis (discontinued) vs. Deltek Talent Management

In working with Ascentis in payroll, the program makes my job so much easier. I am new to this position and the learning process has been so much easier with this product than those in the past. I appreciate the patience I am given when I call in for assistance as well.

Incentivized

Once you know how to utilize the filters, it is very handy when looking for something specific. However, it requires a bit of handholding to get to that point. Also, adjusting hours for artists is pretty quick which is useful when needing to do something right away, especially on a meeting call.

Incentivized

• Easy to use software. I have had several new HR employees comment on how easy the system is to learn!
• Problem Solving- Ascentis is always problem solving! When we were in the process of selecting a new payroll company, we needed unemployment claims management assistance for our locations, something Ascentis did not currently offer. The sales rep went out of his way to find a unemployment claims management company that would work with Ascentis and us. That company has helped us keep an 80% win rate for our claims!
• User conference- Engage is an awesome way to learn more about the products Ascentis has available as well and meet up with the staff you work with every day!

Incentivized

• It is very easy to know which employees have a detachment in the activities they carry out. What I like the most about Deltek is that it allows me to visualize in real time, the performance that each employee has had depending on the assignments fulfilled in the labor sector. The real-time reports are very detailed, it offers information on work time, the activities carried out, assignments fulfilled and not fulfilled, and it also performs an automated process to know how effective each of the assignments fulfilled has brought to the company.
• It has excellent integration with our workforce management software. This integration is what has allowed us to obtain these great results, since it allows us to transfer all the data collected about the work of each employee, and automates the analysis of the data collected, providing us with a detailed report on the performance and prominence of the various employees.
• The support and technical assistance Deltek provides is second to none. When I started using this software in my Marketing sector, I had several questions about the compensation system and how I could apply it to my employees. The doubts were answered in a live chat, with precise answers.

Incentivized

• Updating the system so it is one platform and not two.
• Create changes to the benefit enrollment process and upgrade the system so hire dates do not need to be changed to trigger benefits for status changes.
• Focus updates on HR Admin, mobile application, ATS and transitioning to one platform. Larger areas of focus have been on the payroll portion of the system with a few updates to other areas.
• When something is broken, quicker turn time on fixing the issue.
• System needs updates to support AAP reporting.

Incentivized

• The user interface is crammed with stuff and it's sometimes hard to find where you need to be at any given time. For example, you can't just use the search bar to find all people in the system named "Maria". You need to know whether she is a "resume", a "candidate" or an "employee", or use one of the menus to search in a different window.
• It's not very Canadian-friendly. The options for cross posting are mostly American or Spanish.
• The onboarding isn't the greatest. They have lots of options for creating e-signable documents, but some of the most necessary information (like tax forms) are not able to be e-signed, so candidates were having to do some forms online and print some off and they were getting very confused and we had to scrap the whole endeavour.

Incentivized

This rating would be a 10 if it were not for some issues we have been having recently with the benefit carrier connections. The carrier connections are critical for us so how these issues are resolved will be key in our renewal decision.

Incentivized

Their support and assistance was timely, the system wasn't overly complicated and it simplified the sourcing process stem to stern

I'd give it a 7.5. If the modules were easier to access and not so buried (or placed in left field to find), I would give it a higher rating. As I said, as the potential to be great if ACCESS to other modules was easier.

Incentivized

HRSmart is a basic, antiquated ATS that does not meet current challenges organizations face. Reporting and analytics is basic.

Incentivized

They normally give you notice when an update will affect the use of the system. Otherwise, when we have an error , we send a message to the support team. Sometimes someone will get right back with you and sometimes it takes a while.

Yes, this pages do load pretty good but there are times when things are slow and I believe that's because they are sometimes trying to do updates.

Support is attentive and quick to answer the call and get the answer for you. If they for any reason cannot answer right then, they are back to you within a day and always seem to have a sense of urgency. You truly get the impression that they are aiming to make you happy.

Incentivized

Deltek provides adequate support for their products and I have had no complaints at all with their customer support and time to help fix the problems.

Incentivized

First, to clarify our "in-person" training was done mainly through Web-X meetings and conference calls. It was the closest thing we got to as far as an "in-person" training for this software. However, for the large majority of it, this type of training worked out well. We were able to share our screens and the trainer was able to share his/her screen. We could follow along with what we were doing in our database in real time and see how different functions worked and how manipulating our information could produce different results. It was also nice in that it provided for real-time results if something hadn't been coded correctly or we were having issues as to why something wasn't working the way we thought it should be. However, it did have some downsides in that we often had to rely on a conference phone and that made it difficult to hear people on both sides. Also, sometimes the trainers had internet difficulties when working from home and that caused issues with the WebX meetings.

Incentivized

Ascentis HR has a number of online training videos to watch on a number of different topics. I gave it a lower rating because there is not much interactivity with the videos and it seems to cater to really only one or two learning styles. Plus, one has to be pretty motivated to go to a separate area to access the videos and then pull up a specific one to watch it and then learn. From my experience, people know that they are there, many just don't take the time and effort to go find them and actually watch them - especially since the username and password are different from their normal username and password.

Incentivized

It was very easy to implement, but the customization pieces should really be fleshed out in order to determine the full need of an organization at the time of implementation. I believe if a little more time was spent on the requirements, the recruiting module would not have to be customized again at a cost at a later date.

Incentivized

Ascentis has far better customer service and the implementation experience was also better. The ability to do a lot of customization is also easier with Ascentis as it's smaller organization. The payroll has positive and negatives compared to ADP but the accuracy is the same in both. Ascentis just started their community site which doesn't have a lot of traffic but hopefully can become more like ADP's community site, which was extremely helpful to me as an administrator.

Incentivized

HRSmart would actually be my last choice of these (lynda.com isn't an ATS so it would come in ahead, but the training on lynda.com is excellent). We are actually switching over to BirdDogHR based on functionality, price, usage and ease of use. HRSmart is an ok system, but there are better and more affordable options out there.

Incentivized

Large acquisition would be very complicated, seems more appropriate for companies under 100

Incentivized

• HR DPT. is much more effective, as we can assess any employee information no matter where we are, etc. This helps to provide information immediately when requested!
• Employees have access to Ascentis, and therefore to their timecard, open enrollment, etc., from anywhere at any time!
• Time, PTO requests, employee goals, and evaluations can be approved from anywhere at any time!
• Recruiting can be accessed any where at any time, and this helps with hiring, internal communication, etc.

Incentivized

• Absolutely improved our candidate managemenr capability. Before we simply had three piles of resumes on our desk for each position (yes, no, and not yet reviewed). HRSmart changed all of that.
• Our cost per hire was positively affected. We were hiring at a high volume and this soltion facilitated us doing that very efficiently.
• Our ability to share candidates across open positions turned out to be a huge plus.
• Not having to copy or scan resumes and send them via interoffice mail was HUGE in terms of efficiency gain.
• HRSmart made it easier for candidates to apply for openings and that increased our applicant flow for open/posted positions. This translates into better hires in the end.