Product and Services Update – Q3 2017
The summer months at PrismHR were full of all kinds of exciting developments. From NetWise, the creator of ClientSpace, joining the PrismHR family to advancements with new products & features to the launch of our new Customer Resource Center, there’s a lot to share with you in this quarter’s edition of the Products and Services Update. Read below for all the details.
- PrismHR Acquires NetWise, the creator of ClientSpace – By joining forces, you can now improve client service from the start of the sales cycle all the way through to renewals.
- New Products and Features – Learn more information about the latest new products and features, including Data Retriever and Employee Self Service 2.
- Q3 Product Updates – Quickly review this quarter’s releases, see release notes and more.
- Compliance – Get the latest on SBEA and other key compliance updates.
- Partnerships – Get updates on recently announced new partnerships.
- Company and Organizational Updates – Read about David Wolverton’s promotion to Chief Application Officer, the new PrismHR CFO, and a new PrismHR board member.
- Customer Support Resources – Learn about the new Customer Resource Center, the upgrade of PrismHR Ideas, and some customer success improvement initiatives.
- Events and Associations – See where we’ve been and where we are headed.
- Sales and Marketing Resources – Make sure your team has the latest resources to accelerate your sales and marketing.
- Roadmap – Get insight into the PrismHR Roadmap.
ClientSpace
NetWise Technology, the creator of ClientSpace, joined the PrismHR family in September. This acquisition expands the PrismHR Platform with the industry’s leading client service solution, ClientSpace, enabling an even more complete and productive workflow for PrismHR customers.
PrismHR works to create the best possible software platform to help PrismHR customers acquire, service and retain their clients. By acquiring NetWise, the combined company will help HROs continue to optimize business processes and increase productivity for overall service efficiency, sales and pricing, implementation, risk management and HR.
Read the press release announcement and FAQs about the acquisition for more information.
New Products and Features
Data Retriever
First previewed at PrismHR LIVE in June, PrismHR is pleased to announce that the initial feature set of Data Retriever was part of the Q3 release, with more functionality expected to be released in Q4.
Data Retriever allows you to get faster, ad-hoc access to data and calculations at the employee level, exportable to Excel. And since it is built into the PrismHR security model, you can provide that functionality to your clients. If you missed the initial demo of Data Retriever at PrismHR LIVE presentation, watch the recording here.
Employee Self Service 2 Expanded Beta
Employee Self Service 2 (ESS 2) is easy to use, mobile-friendly and includes a better login process, a more modern user experience, and improved Spanish support. ESS 2 has been in beta for more than 3 months, and participants have shared great feedback on the new module. We expanded access to the ESS 2 beta for a limited number of participants starting in October. This beta update contains additional functionality, including company documents, additional user functions, and much more. When you apply to join the ESS 2 beta, you and your customers will have access to ESS 2 all the way through to the launch of ESS 2 in early 2018.
To participate in the limited ESS 2 beta, apply today.
Benefits Enrollment Webinar
PrismHR Benefits Enrollment is ready to roll!
Many organizations have already implemented it, making their end customer benefits enrollment experience fast and easy. To learn how you can take advantage of Benefits Enrollment, please join us for a Benefits Enrollment live video conversation on October 24. PrismHR customer XMI will be there to speak about the advantages they’ve gained with PrismHR Benefits Enrollment. Register for the webinar here.
Product and Infrastructure Updates
PrismHR Fall 2017 Quarterly Release
The Q3 release included PrismHR 1.8, API 1.10, HRPyramid Cloud 14.2 Service Pack 13, and Benefits Enrollment 2.6. View this video overview of the recent 2017 PrismHR Fall Release:
PrismHR Payroll, Benefits and HR
PrismHR 1.8 includes functionality to make pay and deduction register adjustments and reverse entire batches. Security updates include the ability to set multi-factor authentication at the client level. Additional functionality includes compliance items related to SBEA, weighted overtime and garnishment processing and many additional fixes. In addition, the initial feature set of Data Retriever, including the ability to pull employee and demographic data, was included. Read the release notes here.
Many additional updates were made to PrismHR throughout Q3. This includes Feature Enhancements that Support SBEA, Pay Check Calculator Check Printing, and Change to Hourly Employee Processing for PTO, along with 65 fixes. Here are the release notes for PrismHR 1.7.1, 1.7.2, 1.7.3 and 1.7.4.
Benefits Enrollment
Benefits Enrollment 2.6 contains new features including Basic Life Extra Plans. There are also 10 enhancements and a wide range of fixes. Release notes are here.
In addition, many improvements were made to Benefits Enrollment during Q3, including New Current Benefits Form and Viewing Life Coverage and EOI Information in Summary and Confirmation Forms. Here are the release notes for Benefits Enrollment 2.5.1, 2.5.2, 2.5.3 and 2.5.4.
API
API 1.10 includes new dynamic online documentation. It also includes client benefit setup, pricing and billing setup, employee rehire, messages, and expanded data and subscriptions in the areas of users and user security, absence, pay, location, and position codes, vehicles, employee status, and payroll and billing voucher information. Read the release notes here.
Additionally, the API 1.9 release includes methods relating to Payroll, Employees’ Benefit statuses, Client Details, and Managing PrismHR Client Contacts. For more information, please refer to the Release Notes.
HRPyramid
The HRPyramid Cloud 14.2 Service Pack 13 includes a wide range of fixes. Read the release notes here. And a range of additional updates for HRPyramid made in Q3 include compliance, check printing and more. View release notes for HRPyramid 14.2 Service pack 12, 14.2 SP 12.2, 14.2 SP 12.3 and 14.2 SP 12.4.
OnHRP
OnHRP was updated with a number of stability, security and performance improvements, along with Chrome 60.0 support and enabling the latest I-9. View the release notes here.
Time & Labor
Time & Labor Version 7.0.53.5 was released, including new features and enhancements such as Geofencing and Advanced Scheduler, as well as many additional fixes. See the release notes here.
Hiring
An active jobs report at the client level and at the PEO level has been added that provides a list of jobs that were active for more than 24 hours in any given calendar month. This takes the middle man out of the process so users can get the data they need right away.
Compliance
Q3’s primary focus was expanding and improving SBEA functionality to fully support the requirements of PEO certification. Product updates provide tools for reapportionment of wages and taxes to the client level, as opposed to the federal level, to enable those with retroactive certification to report and accrue on the client level for the remainder of the year. 941 Schedule R report was released with additional reporting to provide oversight to some of the niche scenarios that might arise with retroactive adjustments.
On the SBEA front, we continue to work towards support with MasterTax to enable e-filing. Niche use cases and enhanced support, such as for 8973, are also under consideration.
Other items recently released or set for release include:
- PTO max use limits and max use limit display – permissible in Massachusetts along with other mandated sick pay statutes
- Weighted average pay code functionality, which will allow for automation of California sick pay, and other use cases
- The new tax deduction code for New York state was put into effect. Read this article in the Customer Resource Center for more information.
Development has begun and will continue on the following items:
- Electronic fund transfers for state tax levies as required in Minnesota et. al.
- Check stub display of tip allowance where an employee works various positions or at various rates, required in New York, et. al.
- Check stub display of non calendar year sick pay earnings, which is arguably required in Arizona.
Lastly, although the ACA remains in place, the Office of Management and Budget recently stayed implementation of the revised EEO-1 survey. We will continue to support the existing file format and continue to monitor the situation for further developments.
Partnerships
JazzHR, the leading recruiting solutions provider for small and mid-sized businesses, has been collaborating closely with the PrismHR team and will be available in November. This seamless integration will allow you to easily manage all client recruiting activities and stream important data between PrismHR and JazzHR.
Want to see how it works before we make things official? Get exclusive early access to the beta.
FinFit’s Financial Wellness Program helps employees become better focused at work by providing emergency, short-term loans to employees at no cost to employers. Additionally, FinFit helps employees prevent future financial challenges by providing self-directed education and resources to improve financial fitness. Learn more about FinFit in the PrismHR Marketplace. Access to FinFit for PrismHR organizations and your customers will be generally available in the coming weeks.
And be on the lookout for additional information about how you can use JazzHR and Finfit soon.
Company and Organizational Updates
New PrismHR CFO
PrismHR recently announced that Brian Unruh has joined the company as Chief Financial Officer. Unruh leads financial and legal operations and guides a range of key business initiatives. Prior to joining PrismHR, Unruh worked at Endurance International Group for more than 5 years, during which time the company went public and grew to more than $1 Billion in revenue. He held a range of senior leadership positions, most recently CEO of the web hosting business, serving millions of small and medium-sized businesses succeed online. Previously, Unruh was the CFO at Dotster when it was acquired by Endurance in 2011. Learn more about Brian here.
Expanded Role for David Wolverton
David Wolverton was recently promoted to the role of Chief Application Officer at PrismHR. David has two decades worth of knowledge and skills that he brings to this position. David’s primary focus is to help align product development activities across applications to increase your productivity and operational efficiency.
New PrismHR Board Member
Craig Dynes recently joined the PrismHR board, bringing his extensive finance and operational expertise to the organization. Craig founded the accounting software provider Tax Prep before selling it to IFX, and he has previously worked at Pegasystems, Demandware, and Sybase, among others. PrismHR is very fortunate to be able to leverage Craig’s extensive technology background to help PrismHR continue to be more efficient and improve operations.
Customer Support
Customer Support Update
The Customer Support team continues to work to improve operations and deliver better support for you. Here are some of the most recent updates on our Continuous Improvement initiatives:
- Backlog: Customer Support and Product Delivery are collaborating to accelerate resolution of the highest priority open issues.
- Technology: Phase 1 of the new Customer Resource Center (CRC) was launched in July, and we are currently working on a number of internal improvements to help us respond to more tickets faster.
- Self Service: The new CRC also includes a much improved Knowledge Base. We are actively building out the Knowledge Base articles to help you find answers to your questions without having to submit a ticket. More details are below.
- Cross Training: The more knowledgeable the support team is, the faster they can resolve your support issues. PrismHR is working to accelerate the learning curve of new employees and investing in formal and informal training programs to ensure greater knowledge at both the ticket level as well as in broader subject areas.
New PrismHR Customer Resource Center
As mentioned above, the new Customer Resource Center (CRC) was launched on July 17. If you haven’t already visited it, watch this video to learn more:
Since the new CRC launch, approximately 100 new articles have been added to the knowledge base, with more being added every week. Article topics include common ACH, importing, and worker’s comp errors, adding successor wages, and Time & Labor.
With the new CRC, our goal is to get you answers to your questions as quickly as possible. So now, when you start to submit a case, you can also see related knowledge base articles. Find other tips on how to search the CRC Knowledge Base here.
PrismHR Ideas
PrismHR Ideas (ideas.prismhr.com) has been upgraded to make it easier for you to post and vote for ideas. As part of this transition, PrismHR Ideas is directly integrated with the Customer Resource Center (CRC). Previous suggestions have also been migrated into the new system.
To learn more about the new PrismHR Ideas, please view the Quick Start Guide in the Customer Resource Center.
Stay tuned as we move into next year and continue to refine and improve on these initiatives.
Industry Events and Associations
PrismHR LIVE 2018 – June 11-13 – San Antonio, TX
It’s not too soon to starting thinking about next year’s PrismHR LIVE conference in San Antonio! Pre-register here to get early bird pricing. If you you’d like to learn more about what PrismHR LIVE is all about, check out this recap blog post to see some of the highlights from PrismHR LIVE 2017.
Call for PrismHR LIVE 2018 Papers and Topics
We want to hear your ideas for PrismHR LIVE 2018!
Share your expertise with hundreds of HR service providers. As a presenter at PrismHR LIVE, you have the opportunity to share your knowledge with your peers, boost the overall industry, and showcase your leadership in the HR outsourcing market. We are looking for sessions that cover PrismHR technologies as well as teach attendees to how to increase productivity and make the most impact in their business. This can include best practices, how to, ideas for growth and more.
If you’re interested in speaking at the conference or have a session topic idea, submit your ideas below (note you’ll need to set up an account first).
Don’t wait – submit your topics now. All topics must be received by November 17!
Other Industry Events
This quarter we participated in NAPEO’s CFO/COO Seminar on July 11-12, and the IPPA Business Excellence Conference on September 13-15.
We also saw many of you at NAPEO’s 2017 Annual Conference and Marketplace in Orlando on September 6 – 8. This was one of PrismHR’s most successful NAPEO events ever, with an estimated 900 HROs in attendance. Read more about our presence at NAPEO in this blog post.
Sales and Marketing Resources
Are you a member of the PrismHR SEEDS program? SEEDS gives you sales and marketing resources to help make it easier to market and sell PrismHR technology. Sign up or login.
What’s new and what’s next in the SEEDS program:
Articles to help you sell and market: SEEDS Blog
The SEEDS blog provides the latest sales and marketing best practices as well as new resources for the SEEDS program. Be sure to catch up on a few sessions from PrismHR LIVE, including panel discussions on Adapting Your Game to Reach Larger Prospects and Marketing and Selling to Millennials.
PrismHR Demo Training
Demo training for the PrismHR platform is now available as part of the SEEDS program. Learn how to give an effective demonstration of PrismHR technology with demo training resources which include: Demo Training Guide, Demo Training Videos and Best Practices Guide.
Marketplace Resources Coming Soon
Be on the lookout for new marketing and sales resources for some of our marketplace partners. New resources will be announced via the SEEDS blog and email.
Roadmap*
Here’s some areas where PrismHR will be focusing in the last quarter of 2017:
- Moving more HRPyramid and Apex features to PrismHR: Top priorities for the team include reducing the need for back and forth between HRPyramid and PrismHR. Additionally, with so many organizations moving from Apex to PrismHR, we are working to bring some of the most popular Apex features to PrismHR. These efforts include Batch and Multi-Check Reversals and Pay/Deduction Register Adjustments.
- PTO Enhancements: We’re working hard to get PTO enhancements both into Q4 as well as throughout 2018. This will include support of unlimited PTO as well as the ability for service providers to view and approve all outstanding time off requests.
- Reporting: Current areas of focus, in addition to Data Retriever, are improving output formatting, along with enhanced Excel support.
- Benefits Enrollment: Look for updates to Workflow, Substitution Variables, and Logging/Notifications.
- API: Currently in beta, we are working to provide automated access to G/L accounting from PrismHR, enabling real time integration with third party financial systems.
- Compliance: The focus for Q4 will be on year-end functionality, namely required W2 and ACA updates, as well as other improvements. Improved garnishment and minimum wage functionality will also be reviewed for development at the end of Q4 and into 2018.
Looking further out, here are some key priorities for 2018:
- Onboarding: We expect to have a beta release in Q1 2018 with the general availability release (GA) to follow in 2018. Q1 2018. If you’re interested in participating in the beta program, please fill out this form.
- Benefits Enrollment: We will be rolling in a whole series of life events, and we want to do more with reporting. We are looking to do the same dashboarding in Benefits Enrollment that you’ll be seeing with Onboarding.
Additional key efforts include improving employee self service as well as manager self service along with streamlining new client onboarding. Enhancing alerts and notifications is a key area of focus as is improving ad hoc reporting via support for Informer 5.
*These roadmap statements represent PrismHR’s current intentions. PrismHR development plans are subject to change or withdrawal without notice. Any reliance on these statements is at the relying party’s sole risk and will not create any liability or obligation for PrismHR.