American Italian Pasta
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Improved HR reporting for better expense planning and information management |
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Reduced workload for HR/payroll staff with self-service functionality |
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Alleviated the reliance on internal IT |
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| Founded in 1988 and based in Kansas City, Missouri, American Italian Pasta Company is the largest producer of dry pasta in North America. The company has four plants that are located in Excelsior Springs, Missouri; Columbia, South Carolina; Tolleson, Arizona; and Verolanuova, Italy. |
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Before selecting Ultimate Software’s UltiPro, the pasta manufacturer was using a payroll service bureau, but found that the outsourcer could not provide the unified functionality and technology that American Italian Pasta needed to remain lean and efficient.
In addition, American Italian Pasta required more enhanced business intelligence capabilities so the company could more accurately forecast hiring needs and costs. The manufacturer also wanted in-house control of HR data without the upfront costs or IT resources that are often required with on-premise HR/payroll solutions.
American Italian Pasta selected UltiPro in 2000 and then Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) in 2003. |
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By activating UltiPro with SaaS and leveraging its analytical capabilities, American Italian Pasta is better equipped to plan for market changes and adjust its expenditures accordingly.
The company has gained a more comprehensive view of all HR activity as well as provided its management with strategic business decisions at each of the company’s multiple locations.
“We have three manufacturing facilities in the U.S. as well as sales staff in 24 states. We use UltiPro for everything that enhances our decision-making, including payroll processing, general ledger interface, benefits, and management information,” said Valerie Finney, director of human resources for American Italian Pasta.
The company adopted UltiPro’s self-service for managers and employees as another way to transform its practices and improve efficiencies. With the UltiPro portal, employees can quickly access data such as benefit deductions and year-to-date payroll information—activities that previously required phone calls or emails to HR staff.
Managers can use UltiPro to view due dates for performance appraisals, compensation history, and home contact information for their staff. Because of these efficiencies, the human resource and payroll staff has maintained its workload even when the department’s headcount dropped by 20%.
“By moving from paper processes to electronic processes, we’ve automated many manual tasks, helping us do more with less,” said Karen Sanders, HRIS/payroll manager for American Italian Pasta.
“I used to work with a large enterprise resource planning software solution for a previous employer, and UltiPro can do everything that it could do, but without the hassles and extra costs. I’m very impressed. UltiPro is a state-of-the-art solution that has excellent functionality.”
American Italian Pasta is maximizing the benefits of UltiPro by taking advantage of SaaS delivery. American Italian Pasta relies on Ultimate to handle all the IT responsibilities—such as updates, upgrades, backups, and maintenance—while still having complete access to critical employee data, a Web portal for managers and employees, business intelligence tools for executive decision-making, and comprehensive HRMS/payroll functionality.
“Ultimate’s Software-as-a-Service is marvelous,” said Sanders. “We have had no downtime or system issues, and now I can devote my time to other projects, such as headcount analysis and departmental budgeting.” |
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