27,000-Employee P.F. Chang’s Delivers Business Impact with Ultimate Software’s UltiPro

WESTON, Fla.--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Ultimate Software (Nasdaq:ULTI - News), a leading provider of unified human capital management SaaS solutions for global businesses, announced today that P.F. Chang’s China Bistro, Inc., owner and operator of P.F. Chang’s China Bistro and Pei Wei Asian Diner, is experiencing improved visibility into the company’s information, accelerated collaboration among its distributed locations, and stronger accountability through streamlined automation with the UltiPro® solution.

With more than 360 locations and approximately 27,000 employees, P.F. Chang’s needed a unified human capital management solution to cost-effectively optimize HR administration, while also enabling its HR and payroll teams to operate more strategically. After evaluating Ultimate Software’s end-to-end HCM functionality and business intelligence capabilities, the company decided to switch from a payroll service bureau to UltiPro in February 2009. Today, the company is pleased with the overall business efficiencies realized as well as Ultimate’s high level of customer service.

“I absolutely believe we chose the best HR technology provider, not just for the software, but also for Ultimate Software’s people,” said Nancy Mailhot, chief people officer for P.F. Chang’s China Bistro, Inc. “It’s clear that Ultimate’s employees are committed to the customer. Change can be uncomfortable, especially for a large, complex business like ours, but the talented people we have worked with at Ultimate Software have made a huge difference with our successful transition.”

Now that P.F. Chang’s is leveraging UltiPro, the HR and payroll teams have a comprehensive view of critical information related to the company’s people-oriented processes, including costs. One testament to the success of the deployment was the production of more than 54,000 perfect pay advises. P.F. Chang’s now has a 360-degree view of its workforce data as well as transparency and control of these processes. Additionally, P.F. Chang’s has been able to make a range of operational enhancements that have resulted in improvements in costs, efficiencies, and informational quality.

“I understand why some companies may shy away from the responsibility of handling their own payroll, but without this capability, a lot of details are invisible to them,” said Eric Niman, director of HR administration for P.F. Chang’s. “Since we made the switch to UltiPro, we have gained new insight into our information, improved our processes, and taken our operations to a new level of precision and efficiency. UltiPro has been very good for our business.”

Because UltiPro is integrated with its point-of-sale system, P.F. Chang’s has been able to reduce the time and effort that store managers need to spend on payroll. Using the UltiPro portal, branded by P.F. Chang’s as “PeopleXpress,” managers can quickly handle new hires, rehires, and transfers over the Web. Results have included streamlined communication, better quality of workforce data, eliminated delays when processing changes, and reduced calls to the HR team. The restaurant franchise also is in the process of rolling out UltiPro to its employees and plans to launch more of UltiPro’s people-centric functionality later this year.

“The beauty of UltiPro is not just in how we are using it today but also in the huge potential that it gives us for tomorrow as we continue to roll out more of UltiPro’s functionality and reporting capabilities,” said Niman. “We now have the technology foundation to build our HR program for long-term results, and UltiPro is our channel to deliver value across the organization to every one of our employees.”

“Ultimate Software understands the unique issues and challenges facing today’s HR and payroll professionals. Unlike the typical experience with a payroll service bureau, UltiPro delivers choice and control to businesses—advantages that optimize processes, make routine tasks faster and easier, and allow end users to operate at peak efficiency,” said Greg Swick, chief sales officer for Ultimate Software. “Especially valuable for companies like P.F. Chang’s, which have a very large workforce, UltiPro provides managers and executives with instant business intelligence that can be leveraged for both day-to-day decisions and long-term business transformation. We’re very pleased that P.F. Chang’s is using UltiPro to gain better visibility to its critical information, increase manager productivity, and make improvements that impact its overall business.”

About Ultimate

Ultimate is a leading provider of unified human capital management (HCM) Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) solutions for global businesses. Ultimate’s award-winning UltiPro®solutions deliver the functionality businesses need to manage the complete employment life cycle from recruitment to retirement. Based in Weston, FL, Ultimate employs more than 1,200 professionals who are focused on developing the highest quality solutions and services. In 2010, Ultimate was named an Optimas Award winner by Workforce Management magazine. In 2009, Ultimate was awarded first place in the People’s Choice Stevie® competition for Favorite New SaaS Product and was ranked the #1 best medium-sized company to work for in America by the Great Place to Work® Institute for the second consecutive year. In 2010, Ultimate’s security practices were recertified for ISO/IEC 27001, and Ultimate was the first HR SaaS vendor to be ISO/IEC 27001 certified in 2008. Ultimate has approximately 2,200 customers representing diverse industries, including such organizations as Adobe Systems Incorporated, The Container Store, Culligan International, Elizabeth Arden, Major League Baseball, The New York Yankees Baseball Team, and Ruth’s Chris Steak House. More information on Ultimate’s products and services 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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