Analyst Perspectives

Here are some insights on Kronos drawn from our latest Value Index research, which provides an analytic assessment of how well payroll software vendor offerings address buyers’ requirements. The Ventana Research Value Index on Payroll Software 2020 is the distillation of a year of market and product research efforts by Ventana Research. We evaluated Kronos and seven other vendors in seven categories, five product-related (adaptability, capability, manageability, reliability and usability) and two concerning the vendor (TCO/ROI and vendor validation). To arrive at the Value Index rating for a given vendor, we weighted each of the seven categories to reflect its relative importance in an RFP process, with the weightings based on data derived from our benchmark research on payroll software.

Kronos provides payroll software via its Workforce Ready and Workforce Dimensions products; it ranks sixth in this Value Index. The vendor is a Value Index Leader in Customer Assurance, earning a top-three spot in both TCO/ROI and Validation.

While Kronos is better known for its workforce management software, Workforce Ready and Workforce Dimensions include a strong cloud-native payroll product that includes live chat support for payroll administrators and text notifications. In addition, users can create rules for managing repetitive tasks with robotic process automation and configure real-time analytics on the fly. The vendor provides excellent business case support, case studies and customer references, contributing to its high rating in Customer Assurance.

The vendor earns its lowest scores in Adaptability; while business rules and KPIs are configurable, the platform doesn’t yet fully extend across all workflows. Still, Workforce Dimensions is a considerable improvement over Workforce Ready in the area of time and attendance, a major input to payroll. The vendor also scores lower in the Manageability category, where its payroll product could provide easier support for IT administration functions.

Kronos provides a rich, mobile-first experience and has made great strides in payroll. Its always-on, real-time calculation engine provides a robust set of capabilities for both managers and employees.

This research-based index is the most comprehensive assessment of the value of payroll software in the industry. You can learn more about our Value Index as an effective vendor selection and RFI/RFP tool here. Participating vendors can learn more about how to use the Value Index here.