Date: March 30, 2017 10:00 AM EDT
Ultimate Software (Nasdaq: ULTI), a leading provider of human capital management (HCM) solutions in the cloud, announced today that more than 3,000 HR and business professionals, partners, and industry analysts from across North America attended this year’s Connections, Ultimate’s annual customer and partner conference, held March 21-24 at the Bellagio hotel in Las Vegas.
The theme of Connections was “Elevate” and the four-day conference offered more than 60 breakout sessions and workshops that showed attendees how to “elevate” the employee experience and accelerate business growth with Ultimate’s newest HCM solutions. At the conference’s opening session on Tuesday, March 21, Chief Technology Officer Adam Rogers and Vice President of Products Martin Hartshorne highlighted three of Ultimate’s latest innovations:
• UltiPro Perception: Beyond traditional employee survey tools, UltiPro Perception is a modern way to collect and understand employee feedback; analyze sentiment using advanced natural language processing (NLP) and machine learning; and gain real-time insight into the employee experience.
• UltiPro Learning: A person-first learning experience that provides a compelling employee-focused approach to professional development, UltiPro Learning helps customers elevate employee development by building the right learning strategy for the organization; shift from training employees to developing talent with a consumer-grade experience (mobile access, social collaboration, and self-directed learning); and promote community building and collaboration among employees.
• UltiPro’s enhanced mobile app: UltiPro’s native mobile app for iOS (Apple) and Android smartphones, available in summer 2017, allows customers to elevate employee productivity with better notifications, easier collaboration, and enhanced interaction through the mobile device.
Ultimate also unveiled its new people-first artificial intelligence (AI) platform, named “Xander” in honor of Alexander Graham Bell, the scientist who is credited with patenting the first practical telephone—forever transforming human communication and interaction. Xander is a portfolio of advanced AI technologies that are as sensitive to emotions as they are to statistics. Built on NLP and machine learning, Xander will enable Ultimate’s solutions to automatically understand, predict, prescribe, and act on all relevant HCM data.
With a record number of HR, payroll, and talent management professionals attending from diverse industries, Connections 2017 featured opportunities for global customers to expand their knowledge of Ultimate’s technology and solutions, gain insight into HR and payroll issues and trends, learn from hands-on training, collaborate with other UltiPro users, and interact closely with company leadership and industry influencers.
“The Connections conference has given me valuable insight into how other organizations are leveraging UltiPro to gain maximum value from their investment in HR technology,” said Kim McWaters, chairman and chief executive officer at Universal Technical Institute. “I was pleased to experience first-hand how our culture of purpose, people, and profit aligns closely with Ultimate’s commitment to putting people first. I believe that HR plays a critical part in an organization’s success, and that technologies such as UltiPro are essential to support HR.”
Keynote speakers for this year’s conference included Scott Scherr, Ultimate’s chief executive officer, president, and founder; Adam Rogers, Ultimate’s chief technology officer; and Martin Hartshorne, Ultimate’s vice president of products; as well as:
• Will Smith, actor, musician, producer, and philanthropist, who discussed his personal system to remain motivated and improve lives
• Carey Lohrenz, author and aviator, who described her strategies to find personal empowerment and overcome fear in the face of significant challenges
• Tim Urban, writer and influencer, who shared advice on how to stop procrastination habits that interfere with creativity and innovation
Ultimate also presented its annual Innovation Awards, recognizing customers that have demonstrated extraordinary business results or HCM innovation with UltiPro in the past year. Each category within the Innovation Awards highlights a customer or customers that have excelled in a particular area of HCM through its partnership with Ultimate. The following Ultimate customers received 2017 Innovation Awards at Connections:
• Berkeley College won in the category of People First for using UltiPro to create and successfully execute its “hire to inspire” program.
• Independent Bank won in the category of People First for deploying a performance management process with UltiPro that has fueled engagement and significantly reduced turnover.
• The Co-Operators received the award for Business Impact for using UltiPro as the engine of innovation for transforming the company’s HR systems and strategy.
• Gate was the Services Partnership winner for its work alongside Ultimate’s systems consultants to successfully complete a complicated activation of UltiPro in less than six months.
• RMH Franchise won in the category of HR Excellence for using UltiPro to manage the restaurant industry’s complexities and support the company’s growth-through-acquisition business model.
• AmeriPride Services won the award for Best UltiPro Rollout for launching the solution to unify its U.S. and Canadian HCM.
• IHI E&C won the award for Innovation Evangelist for partnering with Ultimate to test and explore cutting-edge HR technologies.
• American Fidelity was the Innovation Evangelist category winner for leveraging the power of data to complement insight with UltiPro’s Retention Predictor™.
• Anderson Center for Autism won the award for Transformational HCM Leadership for achieving remarkable savings of time and money with multiple UltiPro capabilities.
In addition, representatives from the industry analyst and blogger community presented at Connections on HCM strategies and trends, and were on hand throughout the conference to interact with attendees.
As a thank you to customers for their lifelong partnership and support, Ultimate also hosted a Customer Appreciation Party featuring a concert by internationally renowned pop-rock band Maroon 5.
“It is an honor every year to be able to celebrate with our customers at Connections,” said Scott Scherr, Ultimate’s chief executive officer. “Our customers make us successful in so many ways, not only through their commitment to Ultimate and their partnership, but also with their ideas and feedback that shape our products and services. Our customers are true innovators in the area of people management, and I extend my deepest thanks for continuing to inspire us to put people first.”
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