Medline Industries Effectively Manages Growth With Core Ultipro

Weston, FL - Ultimate Software , a leading provider of end-to-end strategic human resources, payroll, and talent management solutions, announced recently that Medline Industries, Inc., the number one provider of healthcare supplies and equipment to the long-term care market, is using core UltiPro to effectively handle business expansion, hold down administrative costs, and improve efficiencies.

When Medline became an Ultimate Software customer in 1999, it had approximately 2,000 employees. Over the years, the company has grown exponentially to nearly 5,000 employees working in almost every state in the country. According to Dave Bernier, director of payroll operations, UltiPro has allowed him to:

• manage multiple acquisitions without intensive data entry or adding head count
• speed processes and save time with decreased paper flow and fewer manual tasks
• cut overall costs,/li>

"Following the acquisition of a company with approximately 1,200 employees, I was able to hire, through UltiPro and without additional administrative help, the new associates within a period of only 48 hours," said Bernier. "The process included adding their deductions, tax exemptions, benefits choices, and history into the system. I was recognized by management for a job well done, and I couldn't have done it without UltiPro. I've used the solution many times to adapt smoothly to business changes."

UltiPro's Web-based self-service has reduced the time that Bernier's team spends on tactical activities since Medline's employees can use the UltiPro workforce portal to enroll in the healthcare supplier's flexible spending account program and to keep personal information current. Employees can also view paycheck details online and opt to discontinue printing of their paychecks. By moving to a paperless payroll with UltiPro, the company is on track to achieve significant savings.

"By migrating to an electronic payroll with UltiPro, I believe we are cutting costs annually equivalent to one or two salaries. Being able to go paperless with paychecks is an important enhancement for the company, my team, and the employees," said Bernier. "We are pleased that UltiPro is helping us be more eco-friendly by cutting back our need for paper."

UltiPro's Open Enrollment, another feature that alleviates printing, handling, and distributing forms, is allowing Medline's HR department to manage the formerly paper-intensive benefits-enrollment process online. The organization is using UltiPro to let its distributed workforce select benefits at their convenience from home or office without sorting through forms. With UltiPro, the HR team can track the status of enrollment in the various plans before the process is complete. They can monitor trends and remind employees, if necessary, to complete their enrollment. Rather than devoting time to managing paper and entering benefits changes for health insurers and plan providers, the HR/payroll team can now re-direct their efforts to high-value projects, such as determining other methods to improve employee productivity and manage talent.

"UltiPro has cut our data entry tremendously and reduced the errors that typically occur when interpreting handwritten documents," said Bernier. "Despite doubling in size, we have added only one part-time person in the eight years since we purchased UltiPro because we have automated so many processes that used to be manual."

Not only has the payroll staff remained roughly the same size, but Bernier has also taken on new responsibilities over the past few years. Using UltiPro's enterprise integration tools, businesses can move information in and out of UltiPro electronically without needing internal IT resources.

"I transfer information between UltiPro and about a dozen other internal systems regularly, including a global enterprise resource planning solution that we use for our General Ledger," said Bernier. "It's fairly simple, hassle-free process for me with UltiPro since the integration tools are built into UltiPro."

"UltiPro includes many built-in tools for facilitating the many people-management tasks associated with mergers and acquisitions. We often hear from our customers in growth mode, like Medline, that they are able to manage the increase in scale and complexity very efficiently with UltiPro and can keep their administrative teams lean," said Greg Swick, senior vice president of sales for Ultimate Software. "We are pleased to see Medline's business expansion and the success the HR and payroll teams have had maximizing the value they bring to the process."

SOURCE: Ultimate Software