Horizon Hobby Delivers Global Reporting, Masters Complex Time Management with Ultimate Software's Ul

Horizon Hobby Delivers Global Reporting, Masters Complex Time Management with Ultimate Software's UltiPro

WESTON, Fla.--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Ultimate Software (NAS: ULTI) , a leading cloud provider of people management solutions, announced today that Horizon Hobby, a global designer and distributor of radio control products, is using UltiPro to address business challenges related to accessing real-time global employee data, managing time and attendance to proactively control overtime, and ensuring business continuity in the event of an operational disruption.

Horizon Hobby, Inc. develops, markets, and distributes radio control hobby products; model trains; and educational, toy, and related products, books, and videos. This employee-owned company sells products in more than 50 countries around the world. While its corporate headquarters, main distribution facility, and product service center are located in Champaign, IL, its employees are dispersed across facilities in California, China, England, France, and Germany. Previously, Horizon Hobby had been using multiple processes to handle its HR and payroll operations, including a payroll service bureau, a mainframe system, spreadsheets, and more. The HR team faced a range of HCM challenges, such as limited visibility into it multinational employees as well as inconsistent customer support from the service bureau. After making the switch to UltiPro in October 2011, Horizon Hobby is now delivering real-time reporting on its global workforce, experiencing measureable savings with UltiPro Time Management, and benefiting from Ultimate's cloud delivery.

Global Real-Time Reporting

"One of the key drivers in moving to UltiPro was being able to access and report on information for our international employees. Previously, we weren't able to deliver real-time reporting, and we couldn't aggregate information from global locations. Now we have one system of record to track personal, job, salary, benefits, and other HR information of employees that live or work in our international locations," said Denise Dallmier Burger, director of human resources at Horizon Hobby. "We have instant access to business intelligence on these employees, which has given us better speed, accuracy, and support in our decision-making. UltiPro has been great for the HR team, especially because we have to deliver frequent reports to executives on our multinational workforce."

More Control over Manpower Costs

In addition to expanded visibility into its dispersed workforce, Horizon Hobby has leveraged UltiPro to make dramatic improvements to its time management by automating time and labor processes, increasing workforce productivity, reducing payroll errors, and controlling labor costs. "We like that UltiPro provides us with a full HCM package, and its time functionality was a critical factor in our evaluation process. In the past, we had used batch processing for our time-related methods, and there was no predictive data when someone could be approaching overtime. The process was very reactive," said Burger. "One of the best wins with UltiPro is that we are reducing costs by minimizing overtime."

"Plus, we are better able to monitor and analyze costs when our people may work in different departments. Our employees can complete various duties, and now we can track how much time and how much money are spent on each activity, run real-time reports, and evaluate how many labor hours were spent per job. It helps us tremendously when monitoring productivity, forecasting, and measuring spend when extra resources might be needed."

Cloud Redundancies and Access

Rich HCM functionality is just one business advantage that comes with Ultimate's cloud technology. Horizon Hobby is also experiencing enhanced convenience, flexibility, and control, including 24-7, anytime/anywhere access for its HR team. In addition to time and cost savings related to software maintenance and hardware, Horizon Hobby puts a premium value on having Ultimate's state-of-the-art capabilities for business continuity.

"In the past, we've had experiences when some of our locations were not fully operational due to bad weather. Now with UltiPro, if anything happens at our headquarters in Illinois, my HR manager in California can run a payroll and get our people paid," said Burger. "Our HR and payroll functions also operate with a pretty lean staff, and recently our payroll administrator had surgery that limited her mobility. Previously, her desk was the only place we could run payroll, but now she can keep things running from wherever she is—even while working from home during her recovery."

Single Point of Contact

With UltiPro, Horizon Hobby also benefits from Ultimate's single-source accountability from Ultimate's support services with fewer points of contact. When questions or concerns arise about hardware, software, networks, operating systems, security, or any other related issue, the HR and payroll team has a single point of contact available 24-7. Single-point-of-contact service from Ultimate's experts dramatically reduces phone calls and protects budgets from steep technical support fees. "With our previous payroll service, there was no consistency, and we would spend hours and hours trying to resolve issues," said Burger.

"The difference with Ultimate Software's customer service is phenomenal—the responsiveness, the willingness to help, and just the continuity with people who know our business and our unique complexities. Plus, we have many ideas of things we want to do, and we've always just had tremendous response from Ultimate's people. We've been a customer for just over a year, and we've already seen some of our ideas go live, which is pretty exciting. We know the people at Ultimate are listening to us. I've always felt like we really mattered, our voice mattered, and this level of trust and collaboration is so important."

"By using UltiPro to manage its human capital management, businesses like Horizon Hobby can benefit from a full suite of functionality, supported by cohesive business intelligence, best-in-class cloud technology, and high quality customer support," said Chris Phenicie, chief sales officer for UltiPro Workplace at Ultimate Software. "We're very pleased that Horizon Hobby's HR team is bringing significant value to its overall business."

About Ultimate Software

Ultimate is a leading cloud provider of people management solutions, with more than 10 million people records in the cloud. Built on the belief that people are the most important ingredient of any business, Ultimate's award-winning UltiPro delivers HR, payroll, time, and talent management solutions that seamlessly connect people with the information and resources they need to work more effectively. Founded in 1990, the company is headquartered in Weston, Florida, and has more than 1,700 professionals focused on developing the highest quality solutions and services. In 2013, Ultimate was ranked #9 on FORTUNE'S list of the "100 Best Companies to Work For," and Minyanville Media Inc. named Ultimate among the top 10 most ethical businesses in the U.S. In its Cloud Buyer's Bill of Rights Certification, Constellation Research awarded Ultimate its highest level of certification. Ultimate has more than 2,500 customers with employees in 144 countries, including Adobe Systems Incorporated, Culligan International, Major League Baseball, Pep Boys, Texas Rangers Baseball, and Texas Roadhouse. More information on Ultimate's products and services for people management can be found at www.ultimatesoftware.com.

UltiPro is a registered trademark of The Ultimate Software Group, Inc. All other trademarks referenced are the property of their respective owners.

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Ultimate Software, Weston
Public Relations Contact:
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