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ADP intentionally broke its Zenefits integration

news.ycombinator.com

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Re: ADP intentionally broke its Zenefits integration

#71

Post by ganeumann »

apalmer wrote: post #46

I 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…

To play devil's advocate, I can think of two reasons:

1) If you're choosing a payroll provider, Zenefits integration may help you choose ADP because you have a non-awful user experience with Zenefits as a front-end.

2) It could run afoul of antitrust law for tying, monopolizing, or the essential facilities doctrine (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aspen_Skiing_Co._v._Aspen_Highl...), if the case could be made that ADP has sufficient market power.

Re: ADP intentionally broke its Zenefits integration

#73

Post by goodweather »

zimbatm wrote: post #35
voidlogic wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In a well designed system this kind of segmentation and isolation can be done in a way that is transparent to the user experience. TL;DR Have your front end talk to multiple backends-

The front end is where it usually gets compromised

but they share the same username and password on the different portal?

Re: ADP intentionally broke its Zenefits integration

#74

Post by Dylan16807 »

apalmer wrote: post #46

I 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…

Because their job is to provide a payroll system. Not to care about the subcontracting their customer does. Unless the customer is doing something abusive, they have no place getting in the way. (And using a third party manager is clearly not abuse.)

Re: ADP intentionally broke its Zenefits integration

#75

Post by jeffasinger »

This is basically because Zenefits and ADP indirectly compete.

ADP, Paychex and some other major payroll providers make quite a bit of money be using their relationships with companies to sell insurance and other benefits to their customers. Zenefits is basically an insurance broker, and therefore competing with ADP on this front (which is a lot of revenue for both companies).

Payroll really shouldn't suck, the basics of it should be pretty easy. The problem is that the vast majority of payroll providers are nearly impossible to work with.

Disclosure: I work at Employii, a company that makes payroll/hr software designed for integration with insurance brokers.

Re: ADP intentionally broke its Zenefits integration

#76

Post by Dylan16807 »

zimbatm wrote: post #35
voidlogic wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In a well designed system this kind of segmentation and isolation can be done in a way that is transparent to the user experience. TL;DR Have your front end talk to multiple backends-

The front end is where it usually gets compromised

Then both passwords get captured on the front end.

There's no benefit to multiple accounts unless the more important one is used much more rarely.

Re: ADP intentionally broke its Zenefits integration

#79

Post by atonse »

lambdasquirrel wrote: post #52
calcsam wrote: post #8

Engineer at Zenefits. Can confirm this.

Since we conveniently have an inside man, which one of the payroll providers would you recommend us use when we start a startup?

I'm sure they can't publicly pick a partner over others. Someone at Zenefits should use a throwaway account :)

Re: ADP intentionally broke its Zenefits integration

#80

Post by foobarqux »

colmvp wrote: post #30
netaustin wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's what initially sold us on Zenefits, though — it puts a reasonably polished interface on ADP, which is reliable enough for the commodity money transfer service it provides, I guess. Same goes for Aetna — Zenefits puts a nice UI on commodity health insurance. Working with a traditional broker was a nightmare.

Zenefits was easily one of the worst experiences I've ever had for dealing with switching/canceling health insurance.

Can you elaborate?
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