Vista Reviews

We like having the control of processing payroll on site, this is new for us. The system is efficient and user-friendly. We did not have an HRIS system before and did everything manually through spreadsheets. This system has brought our department to a new level of professionalism.

Vista has been great for our business as we expand and have to add in other company information but yet still be able to provide the tailored experience for the new company. I previously worked in ADP and Paylocity, having the ability to get in on the back end and make changes is a big plus.

I think it is well suited for most any HR or PR application. The trick is to get the right orientation and training up front and then after implementation. We failed to set up several things properly and we are still playing catch up but that is most likely our own fault. Making sure companies have a realistic understanding of the resource commitment is critical. A comprehensive HRIS package is every bit as complicated as most MRP packages, but most IT managers and C-Suite executives will not agree that the resources dedicated to the success of the HRIS package may rival that of a good MRP package.

It is well suited for any size organization. It has employee self-service capabilities that will allow an employee to view payroll details, W2s, change their individual addresses, change direct deposit information and make W-4 elections.

As Vista HRMS is fully customizable to suit your needs, a company should determine if they have a current employee who can do the work themselves otherwise they will need to consider the additional cost of asking PDS to do the customizations for them.
There are additional modules that we aren't currently making use of, but each company should learn about the functionality of each of them as some may be more beneficial than others.
When gathering your questions, ask all potential users of the system what they would want to see in an HRMS. We did so before selecting Vista HRMS and we got pages and pages of questions and comments and made sure that each item was addressed beforehand and was something that we would be able to incorporate into the system.
You have the option of taking the system in house or being a hosted client. Make sure you figure out what resources your IT department has available. If you have a dedicated administrator who will do all the upgrades and enhancements great, otherwise you may need PDS to help out and having PDS host may be a better option.

For our size of a company (1000), Vista is the perfect tool and provides excellent customer service.

How complicated is your payroll?
How much flexibility do you need?

I wasn't here when the company chose the product

For the most part, the Hosted version has all of the same benefits as the on-premise version. As a hosted client, we have direct VPN access to the database. Although access is read only, this is a huge benefit over most other SAAS or hosted applications. Bulk inserts and updates to the database are allowed, as are changes to the web front-end, you'll just need to submit your code to the hosting dept and have them review and execute it for you. The support team and hosting department are great and will help you do what you need to do.

Make sure that you truly understand the undertaking of setting up your new VISTA HRMS system. Often people forget all the painstaking processes that their company has in place which can become troublesome when developing the processes for the new system. You will need all hands on deck, to include HR, Payroll, Accounting and IT departments along with the executives that make the financial decisions.

Vista HRMS is very flexible and also very customizable, The question to ask is how far are you willing to customize the application to fit a particular set of requirements. Most of the time no customization is required except for some custom report. But at the of the day, many PDS customers have and continue to customize the application to fit niche requirements.

Having options for on-site, hosted or SaaS implementations, the VistaHRMS system can meet the needs of most organizations whether the organization has IT staff or not. There will be situations where unique requirements may require customizations to the system to accommodate the needs. However, with the open architecture and the consulting of PDS, most anything can be developed to suit your needs.

It is well suited for providing a dashboard for your employees where analytics are presented and you can drill down into particular details; when you require workflow to occur (i.e. to manage leave accrual) for recruitment and succession planning; goal setting and performance reviews; etc. If you need a tool that looks "cool" and is not so dependent on your skills to develop the system, you may not feel this system is right for you.

I would ensure that the company you choose is a good cultural fit for your environment. We spent a lot of time ensuring that our culture was compatible with Vista's. It's important to build a partnership.

You have the option of taking the system in house or being a hosted client. Figure out what resources your IT department has to spare, if you will have a dedicated administrator who will do all the upgrades and enhancements or if you will be job sharing those responsibilities. Like all software, Vista HRMS has multiple upgrades a year. You will need someone or a team of a few individuals to test these upgrades out and be able to take on a role of administrator, technology consultant or front end user and make sure these upgrades are working from all angles.
Vista HRMS really is a good product for keeping all HR and Payroll related records in one system, I just stress the fact that you have to have someone on hand who wants to own the product and be willing to learn as much as possible. The more you put into this product, the more you will get out of it.

All in all we have been happy with the product as a whole. As with any software nothing is perfect, but our belief that the company really does strive to listen to their users in making improvements to the system is great.

The best feature of Vista HRMS, in my opinion, is the integration of data into a single database. You can easily generate reports and create metrics to compare or analyze anything that we chose to track within the system. We track everything from certification/education, drug tests, I-9 information, to position history and salary increase history.

As with any system/company the salesman make everything sound easy and like there will be no issues. This is not true with PDS or any system that you implement. I have been involved with implementing many different systems (including several HRMS systems) and this was a typical implementation. There is a lot of work to install the software, configure it, test it and convert all of your data. Do not underestimate the amount of work involved. The one thing that was unique with the PDS implementation is that we had one dedicated resource to assist us with our system setup and testing. It is very difficult for one person to be a subject matter expert in HR, payroll, benefits and technical aspects of the system. She did a good job of managing all parts of the implementation but was stronger in certain areas than others. We looked at in-house implementation vs. a hosted solution. I am very glad we went with the in-house solution. It may be a little more work initially to setup servers but the ability to access data and maintain control of your application is well worth it.

If you are looking for a system to help you with less paper-trail and something that is all encompassing, Vista is a great system to use. Overall it is probably one of the best HR systems I have used. It is easy to access all areas (HR, Safety, Payroll) in one system. It makes working with other departments easy because everyone has the same information in front of them. It is also easy to grant different levels of access for all employees. If you are wanting to find a way to have your HR system speak with your online website in the form of recruiting, this is a great tool to use. I would ask yourself what do you need from a current HRIS system? Do you need departments to have access to similar information? If you have a large company and need your employees to be cross-trained in other areas, this system does a great job of that.

We are a mid-sized company so the functionality and costs are suitable. I suggest asking if you are smaller or larger.

Also, I would ask about in-house technical resources needed. There are options to have the data hosted in-house or hosted centrally by PDS. I would explore both options.

If you are not going to do taxes or checking printing in house, I am not sure this product would be best. It causes lots of issues when you have a 3rd party doing those things for you.