Nikon Precision Improves Talent Management Processes

Ultimate Software, a leading provider of end-to-end strategic human resources, payroll, and talent management solutions, announced today that Nikon Precision Incorporated has improved its talent management processes since implementing Ultimate Software's UltiPro through the hosted service model, Intersourcing.

Nikon Precision is a wholly owned subsidiary of Nikon Corporation, one of the world's leading optical companies, and a sister company of Nikon, Inc. Providing sales, service, and customer support for Nikon photolithography systems, Nikon Precision has approximately 700 U.S.-based employees working in 20 locations. Prior to implementing UltiPro in 2003, Nikon had been using a service bureau for its payroll processes and was conducting many of its HR procedures manually on spreadsheets. Since the company went "live" on Intersourcing, Nikon Precision has experienced:

- payback in just over 12 months,

- significant service improvements to internal customers, and

- across-the-board efficiencies in HR, payroll, and benefits processes.

Having migrated from a service bureau environment, Nikon Precision's HR/payroll department had neither dedicated IT support nor hands-on experience managing an HRMS, so the team selected Intersourcing. For its hosted customers, Ultimate Software manages the hardware, system maintenance, and upgrades associated with UltiPro.

Susan Levitt, HR director for Nikon Precision, has found Intersourcing to be a cost-effective way for the company to gain in-house control of its processes with comprehensive talent management functionality to help streamline compensation and benefits administration, performance management, training, and workforce analytics. By considering both hard and soft cost savings, Levitt estimates that Intersourcing paid for the company's initial investment in just over a year.

"UltiPro made good financial sense for us and there is no question that the investment began providing a return rather rapidly," said Levitt. "Plus, with Intersourcing, Ultimate Software is responsible for the IT side of UltiPro so that we can focus on providing excellent service to employees, including executives. With UltiPro, strategic HR reports are available from anywhere at anytime because we access Intersourcing over the Web. Overall, UltiPro is allowing us to shift our workload from task-oriented to more strategic projects, making our role within the company more valuable."

By giving both employees and managers the ability to collect relevant HR/payroll information by logging on to the solution, the HR/payroll team no longer has to spend as much time responding to questions and requests. Employees can view their individual information and update their address or phone number when necessary without e-mails to HR or paper forms. Nikon Precision's more than 100 managers can see employee compensation, job, and performance appraisal history when they need it, regardless of time zone or day of the week.

"Our workforce is on duty 24 hours a day, and Intersourcing has given us a 24-hour HR/payroll department," said Laura Neimann, business systems manager for Nikon Precision. "Our managers, in particular, have reacted very positively to self-service because it eliminates the middleman they'd have to go through for information. We don't want to be a gatekeeper and don't need to be with UltiPro because everyone can be given the security rights to the information that's appropriate for them."

Just as UltiPro's self-service is benefiting employees and managers, the solution is also enhancing HR's day-to-day operations by reducing the paper transactions and manual data entry that the team used to tackle before UltiPro. For instance, with UltiPro, the workforce management staff has automated across-the-board wage increases, paying bonuses, and importing performance appraisal data twice a year, shaving off days of work and increasing the accuracy of information.

"Intersourcing provides the same functionality as our licensed offering and gives organizations the opportunity to benefit from the convenience, predictable pricing, and reliability of software as a service," said Greg Swick, senior vice president of sales for Ultimate Software. "As Nikon Precision is experiencing, Ultimate Software's Intersourcing delivers cross-organizational workforce management advantages."

By Ultimate Software