National Gypsum Transitions from Hosted ERP to Ultimate Software’s Intersourcing to Reap Financial Benefits

WESTON, Fla., Sept. 7 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ — Ultimate Software (Nasdaq: ULTI), a leading provider of Web-based payroll and workforce management solutions, announced today that National Gypsum Company, a developer and supplier of building and construction products with 2,800 employees, reports that it is on track to save approximately $850,000 over 5 years since going “live” in January 2005 on Ultimate Software’s UltiPro delivered through its hosted service model, Intersourcing. In addition, the manufacturer has been able to reassign staff and take advantage of Intersourcing’s security for Web reporting.

Prior to UltiPro, National Gypsum had been using a large enterprise resource planning (ERP) solution, hosted by a third-party application service provider, for its payroll, HR, and benefits management. The ERP’s system proved to be cumbersome to operate and expensive to support and upgrade, so National Gypsum began exploring the HRMS marketplace and selected Intersourcing for its cost-effective functionality.

“At the time we were looking for a new solution, we saw a report from a major industry analyst ranking Ultimate Software’s functionality on par with the ERP we had been using, and our due diligence revealed that Ultimate Software would be much less expensive to operate. That got our attention,” said David Ochoa, HRIS manager for National Gypsum. “By switching to Intersourcing, we’ve found the information on both the functionality and cost effectiveness to be true, and expect to recoup most of our initial investment within the first two years of using Intersourcing and then start achieving major savings very quickly.”

In addition to reducing maintenance and hosting fees since moving to Intersourcing, National Gypsum has been able to reassign one and a half full- time equivalents (FTEs) that formerly supported its ERP. Because Ultimate Software handles the upgrades and maintenance associated with UltiPro for its Intersourcing customers, the construction manufacturer’s IT staff can now focus on other areas of the business.

National Gypsum is leveraging Intersourcing’s Web access so that managers can run reports over the Internet. According to Ochoa, UltiPro’s security has allowed him to roll out dozens of reports to managers, who have been very pleased with the flexibility of choosing specific parameters to customize documents as needed.

“Managers can group or sort information, including historical data, which they didn’t have the ability to do before. Because UltiPro has very adaptable security and gives me the tools to assign security by location, pay group, or even by employee, I can give rights to a particular supervisor to access both hourly and salary headcount reports, but I can keep payroll information private for those same salaried employees. The security is that specific. With our prior vendor, security was by department — all or nothing. The security in Intersourcing has allowed me to give managers much more usable data,” said Ochoa.
“National Gypsum is a perfect example of a company that is seeing bottom- line benefits with our workforce management solution,” said Greg Swick, senior vice president of sales for Ultimate Software. “We’re especially pleased to see that they are maximizing the value of UltiPro that comes from extending strategic reporting to managers over the Internet and safeguarding the access with our flexible security features.”

About Ultimate Software
Ultimate Software, a leading provider of Web-based payroll and workforce management solutions, markets award-winning UltiPro as licensed software, as a hosted application through Intersourcing, and as a co-branded offering to Business Service Providers (BSPs) under the “Powered by UltiPro” brand. Employing approximately 500 professionals who are focused on developing the highest quality products and services, Ultimate Software was named the 2005 Payroll Provider of the Year by the Human Resources Outsourcing Association and listed among the 2005 Top 25 Best Medium-Sized Companies to Work For in America by the Great Place to Work Institute and the Society for Human Resource Management. Ultimate Software customers represent diverse industries and include such organizations as The Container Store, Elizabeth Arden, The Florida Marlins Baseball Team, The New York Yankees Baseball Team, Nintendo of America, Ruth’s Chris Steak House, SkyWest Airlines, and Trammell Crow Residential. More information on Ultimate Software’s products and services can be found at http://www.ultimatesoftware.com .

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