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Ascentis (discontinued) vs. Halogen TalentSpace (discontinued)

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    Overview
    ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price

    Ascentis (discontinued)

    Score7.5 out of 10
    N/AAscentis HR uses web-based management programs to help automate complex HR processes. Ascentis’ other services included customizable payroll, time and attendance and recruiting modules. Ascentis was acquired by UKG in March of 2022, and will be discontinued.N/A

    Halogen TalentSpace (discontinued)

    Score7.2 out of 10
    Mid-Size Companies (51-1,000 employees)
    Halogen Software offered the TalentSpace talent management solution which was acquired by Saba in 2017 and that is no longer for sale.N/A
    Pricing
    Ascentis (discontinued)Halogen TalentSpace (discontinued)
    Editions & Modules
    No answers on this topic
    No answers on this topic
    Offerings
    Pricing Offerings
    Ascentis (discontinued)Halogen TalentSpace (discontinued)
    Free Trial
    NoNo
    Free/Freemium Version
    NoNo
    Premium Consulting/Integration Services
    NoYes
    Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeRequired
    Additional Details
    More Pricing Information
    Community Pulse
    Ascentis (discontinued)Halogen TalentSpace (discontinued)
    Considered Both Products
    Discontinued Products
    Chose Ascentis (discontinued)
    We have all modules.
    Incentivized
    Chose Ascentis (discontinued)
    I've seen other systems that are more compatible with other systems. Ones that send information to other systems that need to have updated Employee records,and that receive fully created profiles from the Applicant Tracking System used to find and select candidates, so all the …
    Incentivized
    Discontinued Products
    No answer on this topic
    Key User Insights
    Would buy again
    78%
    Would buy again
    40 Answers
    71%
    Would buy again
    5 Answers
    Delivers good value for the price
    90%
    Delivers good value for the price
    35 Answers
    60%
    Delivers good value for the price
    3 Answers
    Happy with the feature set
    86%
    Happy with the feature set
    44 Answers
    86%
    Happy with the feature set
    6 Answers
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    65%
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    22 Answers
    No answers on this topic
    Implementation went as expected
    65%
    Implementation went as expected
    24 Answers
    No answers on this topic
    Features
    Ascentis (discontinued)Halogen TalentSpace (discontinued)
    Human Resource Management
    Comparison of Human Resource Management features of Ascentis (discontinued) and Halogen TalentSpace (discontinued)
    Feature
    Ascentis (discontinued)
    7.1
    150 Ratings
    14% below category average
    Halogen TalentSpace (discontinued)
    -
    Ratings
    Employee demographic data6.7137 Ratings00 Ratings
    Employment history7.3140 Ratings00 Ratings
    Job profiles and administration6.9128 Ratings00 Ratings
    Workflow for transfers, promotions, pay raises, etc.6.7126 Ratings00 Ratings
    Organizational charting5.290 Ratings00 Ratings
    Organization and location management8.0109 Ratings00 Ratings
    Compliance data (COBRA, OSHA, etc.)8.8102 Ratings00 Ratings
    Payroll Management
    Comparison of Payroll Management features of Ascentis (discontinued) and Halogen TalentSpace (discontinued)
    Feature
    Ascentis (discontinued)
    7.8
    125 Ratings
    5% below category average
    Halogen TalentSpace (discontinued)
    -
    Ratings
    Pay calculation7.1115 Ratings00 Ratings
    Support for external payroll vendors6.162 Ratings00 Ratings
    Off-cycle/On-Demand payment8.328 Ratings00 Ratings
    Benefit plan administration6.7108 Ratings00 Ratings
    Direct deposit files9.2100 Ratings00 Ratings
    Salary revision and increment management8.692 Ratings00 Ratings
    Reimbursement management8.851 Ratings00 Ratings
    Leave and Attendance Management
    Comparison of Leave and Attendance Management features of Ascentis (discontinued) and Halogen TalentSpace (discontinued)
    Feature
    Ascentis (discontinued)
    7.8
    105 Ratings
    5% below category average
    Halogen TalentSpace (discontinued)
    -
    Ratings
    Approval workflow7.999 Ratings00 Ratings
    Balance details7.099 Ratings00 Ratings
    Annual carry-forward and encashment8.484 Ratings00 Ratings
    Employee Self Service
    Comparison of Employee Self Service features of Ascentis (discontinued) and Halogen TalentSpace (discontinued)
    Feature
    Ascentis (discontinued)
    7.0
    153 Ratings
    16% below category average
    Halogen TalentSpace (discontinued)
    -
    Ratings
    View and generate pay and benefit information7.8138 Ratings00 Ratings
    Update personal information8.6151 Ratings00 Ratings
    View company policy documentation5.4110 Ratings00 Ratings
    Employee recognition6.061 Ratings00 Ratings
    View job history7.3108 Ratings00 Ratings
    Asset Management
    Comparison of Asset Management features of Ascentis (discontinued) and Halogen TalentSpace (discontinued)
    Feature
    Ascentis (discontinued)
    5.8
    33 Ratings
    33% below category average
    Halogen TalentSpace (discontinued)
    -
    Ratings
    Tracking of all physical assets5.833 Ratings00 Ratings
    HR Reporting
    Comparison of HR Reporting features of Ascentis (discontinued) and Halogen TalentSpace (discontinued)
    Feature
    Ascentis (discontinued)
    6.3
    147 Ratings
    19% below category average
    Halogen TalentSpace (discontinued)
    -
    Ratings
    Report builder7.0144 Ratings00 Ratings
    Pre-built reports7.5142 Ratings00 Ratings
    Ability to combine HR data with external data4.673 Ratings00 Ratings
    Onboarding
    Comparison of Onboarding features of Ascentis (discontinued) and Halogen TalentSpace (discontinued)
    Feature
    Ascentis (discontinued)
    5.1
    98 Ratings
    45% below category average
    Halogen TalentSpace (discontinued)
    7.8
    8 Ratings
    7% above category average
    New hire portal5.398 Ratings7.76 Ratings
    Manager tracking tools4.976 Ratings7.68 Ratings
    Compliance tracking and reporting00 Ratings8.01 Ratings
    Performance and Goals
    Comparison of Performance and Goals features of Ascentis (discontinued) and Halogen TalentSpace (discontinued)
    Feature
    Ascentis (discontinued)
    7.2
    57 Ratings
    12% below category average
    Halogen TalentSpace (discontinued)
    5.1
    33 Ratings
    36% below category average
    Corporate goal setting6.743 Ratings3.528 Ratings
    Individual goal setting7.653 Ratings7.232 Ratings
    Line-of sight-visibility7.138 Ratings4.929 Ratings
    Performance tracking7.250 Ratings6.432 Ratings
    Subordinate goal setting00 Ratings3.628 Ratings
    Performance Management
    Comparison of Performance Management features of Ascentis (discontinued) and Halogen TalentSpace (discontinued)
    Feature
    Ascentis (discontinued)
    6.0
    63 Ratings
    29% below category average
    Halogen TalentSpace (discontinued)
    6.1
    32 Ratings
    12% below category average
    Performance plans5.659 Ratings4.628 Ratings
    Performance improvement plans5.650 Ratings3.625 Ratings
    Review status tracking5.857 Ratings5.430 Ratings
    Review reminders6.555 Ratings6.332 Ratings
    Multiple review frequency6.650 Ratings7.024 Ratings
    Plan weighting00 Ratings8.75 Ratings
    Manager note taking00 Ratings6.012 Ratings
    Rater nomination workflow00 Ratings7.85 Ratings
    Workflow restrictions00 Ratings8.15 Ratings
    Reporting00 Ratings3.130 Ratings
    Succession Planning
    Comparison of Succession Planning features of Ascentis (discontinued) and Halogen TalentSpace (discontinued)
    Feature
    Ascentis (discontinued)
    5.9
    27 Ratings
    29% below category average
    Halogen TalentSpace (discontinued)
    7.8
    5 Ratings
    14% above category average
    Create succession plans/pools6.421 Ratings7.63 Ratings
    Candidate ranking6.421 Ratings7.63 Ratings
    Candidate search5.027 Ratings8.04 Ratings
    Candidate development5.823 Ratings8.04 Ratings
    Recruiting / ATS
    Comparison of Recruiting / ATS features of Ascentis (discontinued) and Halogen TalentSpace (discontinued)
    Feature
    Ascentis (discontinued)
    5.5
    89 Ratings
    36% below category average
    Halogen TalentSpace (discontinued)
    -
    Ratings
    Job Requisition Management5.485 Ratings00 Ratings
    Company Website Posting5.279 Ratings00 Ratings
    Publish to Social Media5.659 Ratings00 Ratings
    Job Search Site Posting5.871 Ratings00 Ratings
    Duplicate Candidate Prevention5.657 Ratings00 Ratings
    Applicant Tracking5.783 Ratings00 Ratings
    Notifications and Alerts5.369 Ratings00 Ratings
    Best Alternatives
    Ascentis (discontinued)Halogen TalentSpace (discontinued)
    Small Businesses
    UZIO
    Score9.4 out of 10
    No answers on this topic
    Medium-sized Companies
    Zoho People
    Score8.6 out of 10
    SumTotal (legacy)
    Score7.9 out of 10
    Enterprises
    PeopleStrong
    Score10 out of 10
    Cornerstone Galaxy
    Score8.1 out of 10
    All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
    User Ratings
    Ascentis (discontinued)Halogen TalentSpace (discontinued)
    Likelihood to Recommend
    7.2
    (164 ratings)
    4.4
    (58 ratings)
    Likelihood to Renew
    6.3
    (12 ratings)
    8.0
    (11 ratings)
    Usability
    7.6
    (44 ratings)
    9.1
    (4 ratings)
    Availability
    6.7
    (5 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Performance
    7.1
    (4 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Support Rating
    8.2
    (150 ratings)
    4.4
    (12 ratings)
    In-Person Training
    8.0
    (1 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Online Training
    8.3
    (4 ratings)
    10.0
    (1 ratings)
    Implementation Rating
    8.3
    (5 ratings)
    8.1
    (3 ratings)
    Configurability
    9.0
    (1 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Ease of integration
    3.0
    (1 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Product Scalability
    6.7
    (4 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Vendor post-sale
    9.6
    (3 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Vendor pre-sale
    9.6
    (3 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    User Testimonials
    Ascentis (discontinued)Halogen TalentSpace (discontinued)
    Likelihood to Recommend
    Discontinued Products
    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
    Read full review
    Discontinued Products
    I think it's a good platform for tracking and monitoring goals, feedback, and development. We don't use the 1:1 meeting feature, however, I can see how that would be valuable for many organizations. I do like that it is very customizable, however, that also presents problems in that sometimes forms and/or processes can be a bit challenging to create easily and quickly.
    Read full review
    Pros
    Discontinued Products
    • 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
    Read full review
    Discontinued Products
    • 1:1 agendas are easy to create, add comments to and prompt excellent conversation flow on the topics that truly matter to the manager and the employee.
    • The system can be easily customized to reflect your company's language and culture. We did this in several areas of the platform (goals, development, learning), and it made a world of difference in the understanding and adaptation of our users. One example is that in each learning module, we added 3 questions in the course description so that managers would be automatically prompted to ask to follow up / learning transfer questions when their employees enroll and take a learning course.
    • Halogen support is outstanding. Any question I have had has been answered upon the first contact or within 24 hours.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Cons
    Discontinued Products
    • 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
    Read full review
    Discontinued Products
    • My organization does not use all of the functions/modules that Halogen offers, but I find that those modules still appear on the Halogen main page. I think a great area for improvement is to hide these functions so as not to confuse employees.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Likelihood to Renew
    Discontinued Products
    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
    Read full review
    Discontinued Products
    Implementing a new system and process company wide is never an easy task. We moved so quickly in such a short period of time that we were able to learn quickly but also have the opportunity to improve the Halogen experience. We will more than likely will renew our use of Halogen as we already are seeing a small impact which hopefully in the long run will lead to a greater impact
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Usability
    Discontinued Products
    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
    Read full review
    Discontinued Products
    Halogen is very intuitive and provides very clean work-space ... lots of white space and modern layouts. There is more than one way to accomplish your action, too!
    Read full review
    Reliability and Availability
    Discontinued Products
    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.
    Read full review
    Discontinued Products
    No answers on this topic
    Performance
    Discontinued Products
    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.
    Read full review
    Discontinued Products
    No answers on this topic
    Support Rating
    Discontinued Products
    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
    Read full review
    Discontinued Products
    We only purchased the appraisal module and without the other modules offered, you are really limited in what you can do and the process becomes much more involved with needing to maintain information across multiple platforms. We found that they charge for everything and call it "consulting." We poured so much money and time into a system that was just overkill for what we really needed.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    In-Person Training
    Discontinued Products
    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
    Read full review
    Discontinued Products
    No answers on this topic
    Online Training
    Discontinued Products
    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
    Read full review
    Discontinued Products
    It is very easy to use and I can do my own programming instead of paying a technician and waiting sometimes days for them to program the changes.
    Read full review
    Implementation Rating
    Discontinued Products
    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
    Read full review
    Discontinued Products
    Get to know your CAM - Customer Account Manager! They are a lifesaver! (Thanks Jorie Basque!)
    Read full review
    Alternatives Considered
    Discontinued Products
    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
    Read full review
    Discontinued Products
    I have used other systems in the past and I like that Halogen provides everything in one space. I would like to see a more developed way to report training, not in the LMS, but I think that for the most part that Halogen is a robust system that is superior to its competition.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Scalability
    Discontinued Products
    Large acquisition would be very complicated, seems more appropriate for companies under 100
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Discontinued Products
    No answers on this topic
    Return on Investment
    Discontinued Products
    • 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
    Read full review
    Discontinued Products
    • We are able to get our reviews done in a quicker amount of time. Instead of 4-8 weeks we were able to get it done under a month.
    • Halogen has gotten better at given us a heads up when the system will be down. Most patches are done overnight so we can at least verify it was done, but their success rate of a patch not breaking something is not at 99%. So we do lose productivity when the system is down.
    • The tool is easier to do so there are fewer questions from users outside the core team.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    ScreenShots

    Ascentis (discontinued) Screenshots

    Screenshot of Access all of your details including, paychecks, personal file, timeclock, etc via our mobile app.Screenshot of Punch-in and punch-out on the go.Screenshot of Centralized location for everything related to a user or admin.Screenshot of Every employee has access to their personal information in one location.Screenshot of Pre-built reporting along with Ad Hoc reporting gives you the ability to understand your business as a whole.Screenshot of Benefit enrollment made easy for your employees.

    Halogen TalentSpace (discontinued) Screenshots

    Screenshot of ReportsScreenshot of TalentviewScreenshot of 1-1 CoachingScreenshot of Create performance appraisalsScreenshot of Giving FeedbackScreenshot of Score report