Market Perspectives

We are happy to share some insights about UKG drawn from our latest market research, Ventana Research Buyers Guide: Payroll Management, which assesses how well vendors’ offerings meet buyers’ requirements. 

We recently published three Ventana Research 2023 Payroll Management Buyers Guides, an assessment of technology vendors and products that provide individual and combined payroll management, domestic payroll and global payroll platform support.  

At Ventana Research, we continue to believe that, for most use-cases, there is a clear choice for payroll management platforms for any use in your organization. We developed three technology assessments and buyers guides to focus on overall payroll management requirements as well as specific domestic payroll and global payroll platform use-cases. 

In all of our Buyers Guides, we utilize a structured research methodology called the Value Index that includes evaluation categories designed to reflect real-world criteria incorporated in a request for proposal (RFP) and vendor selection process for payroll management. We evaluated UKG and seven other vendors in seven categories, five relevant to the product (adaptability, capability, manageability, reliability and usability) and two related to the vendor (TCO/ROI and vendor validation). 

In the overall Payroll Management Buyers Guide, our analysis classified UKG as Exemplary, receiving an overall grade of A- with an 82.7% performance. UKG’s best grouped results came in Product Experience at 83.6% performance and an A- grade due in part to its A in Usability. In Customer Experience, UKG received a B++ with a 77.8% performance due to its 83.8% performance in Validation. UKG was designated a Leader in seven of the 10 categories including Overall, Product Experience, Capability, Reliability, Usability, Customer Experience and Validation. UKG fully participated in the RFI process. 

UKG’s A- grade in Product Experience was impacted by its B++ in Manageability where it could increase the accessibility of administrative functions available to non-IT users. Customer Experience was impacted by its B+ grade in TCO/ROI where it could provide employees with tools to calculate the total cost of ownership of the product.  

UKG performed best in Product Experience with an A- grade, notably in Usability where it received an A due to its ability to foster collaboration within the platform. In Reliability, UKG received an A- grade for the architecture and structural design of the software. 

In the Domestic Payroll Buyers Guide, our analysis classified UKG as Exemplary, receiving an overall grade of A- with an 82.3% performance. UKG’s best grouped results came in Product Experience at 83.3% performance and an A- grade due in part to its A in Usability. In Customer Experience, UKG received a B++ grade with a 77.8% performance due to its 83.8% performance in Validation. UKG was designated a Leader in eight of the possible 10 categories including Overall, Product Experience, Adaptability, Capability, Reliability, Usability, Customer Experience and Validation. UKG fully participated in the RFI process. 

UKG’s A- grade in Product Experience was impacted by its B++ in Manageability where it could offer more performance management options for non-IT users. Customer Experience was impacted by its B+ grade in TCO/ROI where it could offer tools to prospective customers for calculating the total cost of ownership.  

UKG performed best in Product Experience with an A- grade, notably in Usability, receiving an A due to its ability to offer integrated collaboration and communication between users. In Reliability, exceptionable tuning capabilities are provided to optimize scalability. UKG’s customer programs and resources led to its A- in Validation. 

In the Global Payroll Buyers Guide, our analysis classified UKG as Exemplary, receiving an overall grade of A- with an 82.7% performance. UKG’s best grouped results came in Product Experience at 83.6% performance and an A- grade due in part to its A in Usability. In Customer Experience, UKG received a B++ with a 77.8% performance due to its 83.8% performance in Validation. UKG was designated a Leader in seven of the 10 categories including Overall, Product Experience, Capability, Reliability, Usability, Customer Experience and Validation. UKG fully participated in the RFI process. 

UKG’s A- grade in Product Experience was impacted by its B++ in Manageability where it could increase the accessibility of administrative functions available to non-IT users. Customer Experience was impacted by its B+ grade in TCO/ROI where it could provide employees with tools to calculate the total cost of ownership of the product.  

UKG performed best in Product Experience with an A- grade, notably in Usability where it received an A due to its ability to foster collaboration within the platform. In Reliability, UKG received an A- grade for the architecture and structural design of the software. 

This assessment was based on UKG Pro Payroll and UKG Global Payroll, v. September, released September 2023.  

This research-based index is the most comprehensive assessment of the value of human capital management software in the industry. Technology buyers can learn more about how to use our Buyers Guide by clicking here and included vendors that wish to learn more can click here. Click below to read the individual reports: 

Payroll Management Buyers Guide  

Domestic Payroll Buyers Guide  

Global Payroll Buyers Guide