Item: Ascentis (discontinued)
Rating: 9
Author: Kathi Groth

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

Ascentis HR is being used by our entire company. We use HRIS, Recruiting, Payroll, ESS, ACA Reporting and have recently started implementation of Performance Management and Compensation. Additionally, we will roll-out Training and Succession Planning. One key feature for us is the ESS platform. We have employees in 23 states and ESS allows for a succinct on-boarding and open enrollment experience.

Pros and Cons

HRIS
Benefits Administration
ACA 1095 processing
ESS (excluding the widget tool - that is difficult)

ESS Widgets - the widgets are a great tool but are so cumbersome to build I find we use them less and less
In our past we used the time system and it wasn't really robust enough for our needs

Return on Investment

Positive impact is a single system to house a valuable set of systems

Alternatives Considered

We previously used SAP which while much less intuitive to use, it was a far more robust system. Before selecting Ascentis we look at ADP and Paychex. Ascentis is all in one and the support and account managers are genuine people. The ESS portal and ease of use were big selling features.

Support Rating

It is frustrating to call in and not be able to connect to a person. More and more we are being directed to "communities" but that does not take the place of support. For the money we pay each month we should be able to speak to a person with ease.

Exceptional Examples of Ascentis (discontinued) Support

There have been many times when we have had good support - one example is when we added domestic partner benefits to our health plans and figuring out how to set up those plans with the pre and post-tax pieces.

Likelihood to Recommend

I feel in our size range (up to 500) the system works well. Again, I feel that time isn't a core competency of Ascentis so it's better to look elsewhere if you have complexity. I wish more fields housed data history, for example, if a person moves then the prior address information is lost. This is especially difficult when an employee moves between states. Having a delimited record where history is visible would be fantastic.

Ascentis HR Review

Overall Satisfaction with Ascentis HR