Reading all these comments about how ADP is the worst for any of its online tools (and in my experience, it really is), could someone enlighten me as to why so many companies use them? Is there no alternative?
ADP intentionally broke its Zenefits integration
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Re: ADP intentionally broke its Zenefits integration
#42I have to put the blame on Zenefits here. You cannot offer something to a customer that depends on integration with a competitor. Shame on you. No I don't support ADP and am not a fan but basic business dictates that you should not even offer this service if it depends on integration with a competitor.
> depends on integration with a competitor Zenefits wasn't a competitor to ADP, but it seems that ADP thinks that they may want to roll out a product that competes with Zenefits, so now they are trying to clear the playing field before they step onto it. This would be similar to Apple deciding to screw up some 3rd party apps that run on OSX because they are working on a product that competes (but has not been announc…
"This would be similar to Apple deciding to screw up some 3rd party apps that run on OSX"
I like how you specified "on OSX" because this is exactly what Apple has done multiple times on iOS. Remember Maps?
Re: ADP intentionally broke its Zenefits integration
#43I have to put the blame on Zenefits here. You cannot offer something to a customer that depends on integration with a competitor. Shame on you. No I don't support ADP and am not a fan but basic business dictates that you should not even offer this service if it depends on integration with a competitor.
Zenefits' entire service is about re-selling and managing other services. That's like saying an accountant is at fault for relying on payroll processors that may someday decide they want to be accountants too - of course they're not at fault, that's how accounting is DONE. This is ridiculous on ADPs part.
No offense, but this is standard business practice. Integration hooks are added to an application PURELY as a feature to make the application more compelling. Uses of the integration hooks which are not making the application more compelling will probably be undermined eventually.
Ultimately Zenefits is in this situation because they are more or less a UI or Orchestrator of other services that do the 'real' work. ADP was just tired of letting a middle man eat off of them.
Re: ADP intentionally broke its Zenefits integration
#44I'm very surprised ADP would even open themselves up like this to a competitor. The mythical ADP API has been hovering around for years. It feels like ADP just "fixed the glitch" in "Office Space" terms.
Anyone going with an ADP competitor is going to have to get fully off ADP. This is a big risk for companies. ADP knows this and the overhead around compliance and other back-end work is massive. Any company trying to innovate in the HR space has the security blanket of ADP to combat.
For those that take the risk on companies like Zen* or *Zen need to weigh it. ADP has already had to open-up a bit and improve systems over the last few years to go mobile and improve UI enough to not make it totally horrible. But, it typically comes down to compliance vs. innovation and ADP is the former. If ADP did "fix the glitch" here, it reaffirms the risk and peril of innovation when you still are dancing with the 800lb gorilla. HR folks don't want the headache of that dance and that is why ADP usually wins unless you can totally lap them.
Re: ADP intentionally broke its Zenefits integration
#45ADP online access is awful. They make up a username for you, some combination of first initial, last name @ company name. Then the login isn't a modern system, it's the old "authentication required" browser pop up, which disables any user remembering or password managers. Such a pain to deal with!
1Password lets you save passwords for use in htaccess logins (or credentials for anything in general). It's just the autofill feature that won't work.
Re: ADP intentionally broke its Zenefits integration
#46I just went digging around the zenefits.com and pulled this verbiage out, which i think outlines the fundamental business problem:
'Zenefits works with all top payroll providers, so there's no need to switch from your favorite system.'
ADP doesn't want to be a 'provider' in the 'Payroll As A Service' sense. Further Zenefits entry point into the market is based on the low friction of you not needing to leave your current payroll system...
why on earth would ADP let this continue?
Re: ADP intentionally broke its Zenefits integration
#47[deleted]
Re: ADP intentionally broke its Zenefits integration
#48Reading all these comments about how ADP is the worst for any of its online tools (and in my experience, it really is), could someone enlighten me as to why so many companies use them? Is there no alternative?
It's a combination of a) founders/ceos not being aware of alternatives, b) many perceived alternatives don't in fact offer an alternative, but a layer on top (zenefits). and c) since ADP is so difficult, the pain of getting off of them - and the perceived pain of switching to someone new, is a large enough disincentive to keep folks from switching.
New companies like Justworks don't build on top of other systems but have built everything in house. You don't need to coordinate with payroll providers, or health insurance brokers, or even government agencies (to do your W2s, I9s, 1099s, etc) - because they literally do it all for you.
On top of that, their software doesn't look like crap and their support staff is actually, you know, supportive. Oh, and they're not "Free" like Zenefits- but they save you so much on healthcare you end up spending less than you would on "Free" software that doesn't work.
Re: ADP intentionally broke its Zenefits integration
#49I just went digging around the zenefits.com and pulled this verbiage out, which i think outlines the fundamental business problem: 'Zenefits works with all top payroll providers, so there's no need to switch from your favorite system.' ADP doesn't want to be a 'provider' in the 'Payroll As A Service' sense. Further Zenefits entry point into the market is based on the low friction of you not needing to leave your curr…
I see you getting downvoted, but I don't think that's fair. Whether people like it or not this is almost certainly how ADP views the situation. The term "disintermediation" used to be tossed around 10-15 years ago, to describe the process of upstart tech companies getting between older, slower moving companies and their customers. ADP is definitely in the older, slower moving category. Defense is probably the only real offense they can bring to bear. I know they do business as a back office provider to various resellers who target segments they aren't particularly good at servicing. They probably don't view the Internet as a candidate for this, though.
Re: ADP intentionally broke its Zenefits integration
#50ADP online access is awful. They make up a username for you, some combination of first initial, last name @ company name. Then the login isn't a modern system, it's the old "authentication required" browser pop up, which disables any user remembering or password managers. Such a pain to deal with!
Our company transitioned do this "authentication required" one 6 months ago, and then transitioned to the new modern web 2.0 version (called workforcenow.adp.com)
ADP still messed up the PTO carry over hours - I think it took them 2 weeks for fix.