COMPANY PROFILE

High Liner Foods Incorporated is a leading North American processor and marketer of prepared, value-added frozen seafood. High Liner’s branded products are sold in the U.S., Canada, and Mexico under the High Liner®, Fisher Boy®, Mirabel®, and Sea Cuisine™ labels, and are available in most grocery and club stores. The company also sells its High Liner®, FPI®, Mirabel®, and Viking™ food service products to restaurants and institutions, and is a major supplier of private label seafood products to North American food retailers and food service distributors.

THE CHALLENGES

Previously, High Liner was using two different payroll service bureaus to handle the HCM requirements of its North American workforce, comprised of approximately 1,100 employees in the U.S. and Canada. The two systems did not integrate with one another—resulting in reporting challenges, inefficiencies, and increased potential for errors. After a large merger, company executives accelerated plans to search for a new HCM solution.

THE SOLUTION

In August 2009, High Liner selected UltiPro in order to increase efficiencies and improve data integrity and reporting through one comprehensive HCM solution. By now taking advantage of sophisticated reporting tools, HR can quickly and easily analyze workforce metrics as well as reduce its reliance on manual spreadsheets. In addition, Ultimate Software's cloud solution is helping the HR team to function more independently and allowing the IT team to devote resources to other important projects across the business.

“Before our company selected Ultimate Software, we spoke with many customer references, read independent analyst research, and evaluated other HCM providers," said Natalie Shannon, human resources systems specialist for High Liner Foods. "We found that Ultimate Software’s superior reputation discovered through our research was accurate, and we have been very pleased with UltiPro.”

One of High Liner’s most significant challenges with the two payroll service bureaus it had used was the lack of consolidated workforce reporting. For instance, when an executive wanted to evaluate compensation for all employees, the HR team had to run two reports (one from each system), export the reports into a spreadsheet, and manually manipulate the data. With UltiPro, High Liner Foods now has instant access to comprehensive data from all of its North American locations—available 24-7 from anywhere via the Web.

“With our previous systems, we had to be in our Canada office to run reports on our Canadian workforce. With UltiPro, we now can access information about our North American operations from anywhere at any time,” said Shannon. “We have already used UltiPro’s flexible access for one of our users who needed to manage some processes from her home. The power of enterprise-wide reporting and freedom to access our reports through the Web is tremendous.”

Customers who use UltiPro enjoy additional convenience because Ultimate Software maintains all of the hardware and software at a secure data center as well as takes care of the updates and system maintenance. High Liner’s HR department doesn’t have to rely on its IT team, which can then focus its resources on other strategic initiatives within the company

“With Ultimate’s cloud delivery, managing our HCM solution is no longer on the shoulders of our IT team,” said Shannon. “We really like the flexibility and time savings—plus we have peace of mind knowing that our HCM solution is in the expert hands of Ultimate Software, with its team of people who are 100% dedicated to ensuring that UltiPro remains up-to-date and problem-free.”