Ascentis (discontinued) vs. Workday Human Capital Management

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
Ascentis (discontinued)
Score 7.5 out of 10
N/A
Ascentis 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
Workday HCM
Score 8.2 out of 10
N/A
Workday Human Capital Management is a cloud-native system offering a globally consistent user experience. Workday HCM is part of an intelligent, unified system with other Workday products.N/A
Pricing
Ascentis (discontinued)Workday Human Capital Management
Editions & Modules
No answers on this topic
No answers on this topic
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
Ascentis (discontinued)Workday HCM
Free Trial
NoNo
Free/Freemium Version
NoNo
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
NoNo
Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup fee
Additional Details
More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
Ascentis (discontinued)Workday Human Capital Management
Considered Both Products
Ascentis (discontinued)
Chose Ascentis (discontinued)
It doesn't stack up. The biggest differences are customer service and ease of implementing the system.
Chose Ascentis (discontinued)
From all the other companies mentioned above, I have found that Ascentis is the easiest product to use. I was only introduced to this program a few months ago, and it has been easy to figure out and not too complicated. I really like the fact that I can make changes easily.
Chose Ascentis (discontinued)
I wasn't involved in the selection process for Ascentis HR.
Chose Ascentis (discontinued)
Ascentis doesn't compare. We chose Ascentis because it was the right price-point for our small business.
Chose Ascentis (discontinued)
Features are balanced with pricing, but usability and scalability aren't as good as we had hoped.
Workday HCM

No answer on this topic

Features
Ascentis (discontinued)Workday Human Capital Management
Human Resource Management
Comparison of Human Resource Management features of Product A and Product B
Ascentis (discontinued)
7.1
150 Ratings
13% below category average
Workday Human Capital Management
8.5
98 Ratings
5% above category average
Employee demographic data6.7137 Ratings8.383 Ratings
Employment history7.3140 Ratings8.793 Ratings
Job profiles and administration6.9128 Ratings8.595 Ratings
Workflow for transfers, promotions, pay raises, etc.6.7126 Ratings9.190 Ratings
Organizational charting5.290 Ratings9.289 Ratings
Organization and location management8.0109 Ratings8.986 Ratings
Compliance data (COBRA, OSHA, etc.)8.8102 Ratings6.761 Ratings
Payroll Management
Comparison of Payroll Management features of Product A and Product B
Ascentis (discontinued)
7.8
125 Ratings
4% below category average
Workday Human Capital Management
8.9
81 Ratings
9% above category average
Pay calculation7.1115 Ratings8.469 Ratings
Support for external payroll vendors6.162 Ratings8.757 Ratings
Off-cycle/On-Demand payment8.328 Ratings9.819 Ratings
Benefit plan administration6.7108 Ratings8.464 Ratings
Direct deposit files9.2100 Ratings8.770 Ratings
Salary revision and increment management8.692 Ratings9.167 Ratings
Reimbursement management8.851 Ratings9.244 Ratings
Leave and Attendance Management
Comparison of Leave and Attendance Management features of Product A and Product B
Ascentis (discontinued)
7.8
105 Ratings
4% below category average
Workday Human Capital Management
8.6
76 Ratings
5% above category average
Approval workflow7.999 Ratings8.575 Ratings
Balance details7.099 Ratings8.475 Ratings
Annual carry-forward and encashment8.484 Ratings8.861 Ratings
Employee Self Service
Comparison of Employee Self Service features of Product A and Product B
Ascentis (discontinued)
7.0
153 Ratings
16% below category average
Workday Human Capital Management
8.4
96 Ratings
2% above category average
View and generate pay and benefit information7.8138 Ratings8.885 Ratings
Update personal information8.6151 Ratings8.694 Ratings
View company policy documentation5.4110 Ratings7.674 Ratings
Employee recognition6.061 Ratings8.057 Ratings
View job history7.3108 Ratings8.885 Ratings
Asset Management
Comparison of Asset Management features of Product A and Product B
Ascentis (discontinued)
5.8
33 Ratings
31% below category average
Workday Human Capital Management
8.3
25 Ratings
4% above category average
Tracking of all physical assets5.833 Ratings8.325 Ratings
HR Reporting
Comparison of HR Reporting features of Product A and Product B
Ascentis (discontinued)
6.3
147 Ratings
18% below category average
Workday Human Capital Management
8.4
80 Ratings
11% above category average
Report builder7.0144 Ratings8.876 Ratings
Pre-built reports7.5142 Ratings8.578 Ratings
Ability to combine HR data with external data4.673 Ratings7.866 Ratings
Onboarding
Comparison of Onboarding features of Product A and Product B
Ascentis (discontinued)
5.1
98 Ratings
44% below category average
Workday Human Capital Management
8.5
58 Ratings
6% above category average
New hire portal5.398 Ratings8.453 Ratings
Manager tracking tools4.976 Ratings8.754 Ratings
Performance and Goals
Comparison of Performance and Goals features of Product A and Product B
Ascentis (discontinued)
7.2
57 Ratings
11% below category average
Workday Human Capital Management
8.4
62 Ratings
4% above category average
Corporate goal setting6.743 Ratings8.652 Ratings
Individual goal setting7.653 Ratings8.661 Ratings
Line-of sight-visibility7.138 Ratings7.852 Ratings
Performance tracking7.250 Ratings8.660 Ratings
Performance Management
Comparison of Performance Management features of Product A and Product B
Ascentis (discontinued)
6.0
63 Ratings
27% below category average
Workday Human Capital Management
8.8
65 Ratings
11% above category average
Performance plans5.659 Ratings8.964 Ratings
Performance improvement plans5.650 Ratings8.856 Ratings
Review status tracking5.857 Ratings8.760 Ratings
Review reminders6.555 Ratings9.059 Ratings
Multiple review frequency6.650 Ratings8.852 Ratings
Succession Planning
Comparison of Succession Planning features of Product A and Product B
Ascentis (discontinued)
5.9
27 Ratings
28% below category average
Workday Human Capital Management
7.8
42 Ratings
0% above category average
Create succession plans/pools6.421 Ratings9.236 Ratings
Candidate ranking6.421 Ratings7.636 Ratings
Candidate search5.027 Ratings7.940 Ratings
Candidate development5.823 Ratings6.838 Ratings
Recruiting / ATS
Comparison of Recruiting / ATS features of Product A and Product B
Ascentis (discontinued)
5.5
89 Ratings
33% below category average
Workday Human Capital Management
8.2
50 Ratings
7% above category average
Job Requisition Management5.485 Ratings8.047 Ratings
Company Website Posting5.279 Ratings8.340 Ratings
Publish to Social Media5.659 Ratings8.635 Ratings
Job Search Site Posting5.871 Ratings8.541 Ratings
Duplicate Candidate Prevention5.657 Ratings7.741 Ratings
Applicant Tracking5.783 Ratings8.141 Ratings
Notifications and Alerts5.369 Ratings8.445 Ratings
Best Alternatives
Ascentis (discontinued)Workday Human Capital Management
Small Businesses
Dayforce Powerpay
Dayforce Powerpay
Score 9.4 out of 10
Dayforce Powerpay
Dayforce Powerpay
Score 9.4 out of 10
Medium-sized Companies
Paypro Workforce Management
Paypro Workforce Management
Score 9.2 out of 10
Paypro Workforce Management
Paypro Workforce Management
Score 9.2 out of 10
Enterprises
PeopleStrong
PeopleStrong
Score 9.9 out of 10
PeopleStrong
PeopleStrong
Score 9.9 out of 10
All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
User Ratings
Ascentis (discontinued)Workday Human Capital Management
Likelihood to Recommend
7.2
(164 ratings)
9.0
(130 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
6.3
(12 ratings)
9.0
(18 ratings)
Usability
7.6
(44 ratings)
7.8
(15 ratings)
Availability
6.7
(5 ratings)
6.6
(8 ratings)
Performance
7.1
(4 ratings)
7.3
(7 ratings)
Support Rating
8.2
(150 ratings)
8.0
(27 ratings)
In-Person Training
8.0
(1 ratings)
9.6
(6 ratings)
Online Training
8.3
(4 ratings)
7.0
(7 ratings)
Implementation Rating
8.3
(5 ratings)
8.0
(11 ratings)
Configurability
9.0
(1 ratings)
7.5
(2 ratings)
Ease of integration
3.0
(1 ratings)
8.2
(1 ratings)
Product Scalability
6.7
(4 ratings)
7.3
(1 ratings)
Vendor post-sale
9.6
(3 ratings)
7.0
(1 ratings)
Vendor pre-sale
9.6
(3 ratings)
5.0
(1 ratings)
User Testimonials
Ascentis (discontinued)Workday Human Capital Management
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.
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Workday
I would say it's well suited in every environment because I think it does so much. It's like the holy grail of HRIS systems is what I like to call it because thinking about all parts of the employee lifecycle, it lives here in Workday Human Capital Management. So I love the fact that you can do the people data analytics, you can store employee records, the talent acquisition pieces there. I'm thinking I can't think of anything negative right now except for the fact that I can't drill down into the data for the people analytics side. Other than that, I think it's literally, yeah, the holy grail of HRIS systems, I love it and I would highly recommend it.
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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!
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Workday
  • Groups employees in management hierarchies and creates Org Charts that are easy to navigate and allow for visualizing management chains regardless of employee locations
  • Intuitive and easy to use. The Workday search functionality works very much like Google; one can search for anything that they have access to in the database and drill down into the various details. All information is connected through hyperlinks and users can easily keep digging into the details for as far as their security access would take them.
  • Tasks such as to do, review or approve items are sent to the user's Workday Inbox, very much resembling email. Notifications about outstanding "to do" items are also sent to each the user's work email address on a daily basis.
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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.
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Workday
  • Should have more option in time sheet like choose project code or something.
  • On The pay page, it should have options to view past salaries; it may be there already but not in the version that I use.
  • The employee information page does not have a back button to navigate to the previous page.
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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.
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Workday
It is work to make one system the source of truth for our data, but now that it is done, there is less work involved in staying on this path. This means for us that maintaining and/or implementing new modules like performance, finance, talent, etc. is simple. It's a no-brainer
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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.
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Workday
Workday's on a great path in terms of user experience. Their goals is to deliver a use experience that doesn't require training or instruction, like Amazon on the consumer side for example. That's hard to do when you're talking about complex business processes and important and sensitive employee information, but they're doing it well
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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.
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Workday
In 2014, Workday has changed the update process. There will be two updates a year; the updates will be delivered to customers typically in a 24 hour window during these two weekends a year. They also keep the Community up-to-date about any planned outages, etc. There is weekly scheduled downtime on Friday night.
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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.
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Workday
From my perspective, the system runs like a well oiled machine and I have not had any issues with customers complaining about speed. If a report is taking long to run, the report can run in the background and you can go about your business. For larger enterprises, there is additional space and machines to process the application in what Workday refers to it as Extended Configuration Tenant
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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.
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Workday
Workday is still learning about the needs of higher education. I have seen rapid improvement in support and knowledge over the last year so am confident this will continue to improve. Overall however, I have found the Support Team to be extremely responsive and Workday offers the advantage of having support across several timezones so that we never wait more than a few hours for a response.
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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.
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Workday
Some training is offered online. Cost is per-person. This also gets quite expensive. Training doesn’t follow a logical path A to B. Starts in middle. When you try to do it afterwards at your desk, difficult.
• Training scenarios are not very real
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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.
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Workday
I have done for report writing and mass imports (EIBs). They give materials and you run through examples, i.e. you don’t just watch them do tasks, so that is helpful. Training is expensive – a single reporting writing class is $600 per person for virtual training
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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.
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Workday
It was implemented before my joining the company. At my last company, we used Workday professional services.

Based upon my experience at my last company, I would rate the implementation experience an 8/10. There are different ways to set things up and we had different people telling us different things. It set us back a couple of times.

Regarding configuration advice, we could set things up where every manager has supervisory organizations, or have it financially based i.e. aligned to cost center/department. We chose the individual manager path and I think we should have chosen a department route. Going down the individual manager path, to maintain the information, we have to inactivate a supervisory org whenever a manager changes/leaves.
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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.
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Workday
Workday is an incomplete product, by this I mean it must work alongside other products and does not work by itself. Trying to make several different products work smoothly together becomes very challenging. As compared to ADP products, when purchased all together work very well all together. Also, ADP has extensive Training programs and extensive Customer Support. So ADP's products are far superior to Workday's products in my opinion.
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Scalability
Discontinued Products
Large acquisition would be very complicated, seems more appropriate for companies under 100
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Workday
Workday has released Financials and is continuing to develop it's Human Capital Management footprint with the addition of Workday Recruiting. I think customers will find that is easy to add on additional functionality in the system. Workday does make it easy for customers to make changes without relying on IT resources. The Business Process framework is a visual tool that allows functional resources to make changes and see the flow of the transaction
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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.
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Workday
  • Positive ROI, we were one of the first organizations that went with Workday HCM, and we received numerous discounts. Cloud systems are the way to go and we feel the system is stable for our growing work force.
  • The user conferences have been helpful to network and learn more deepness in the modules and functionality.
  • Right off the bat, our implementation costs were lower than budgeted and we had less 'billing' surprises.
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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.

Workday HCM Screenshots

Screenshot of Workday Human Capital Management HomepageScreenshot of Workday Human Capital Management Manager Insights HubScreenshot of Workday Human Capital Management HR Partners HubScreenshot of Workday Human Capital Management Expense AnalysisScreenshot of Workday Human Capital Management Skills DashboardScreenshot of Workday Human Capital Management HR Operations and Compliance Dashboard