We had the opportunity to attend the ADP Analyst Day in New York today, ADP commanded the 'usual suspects' to New York (though we learnt some like to be called pundits) into their amazing innovation lab in the heart of Manhattan.

 
 
I was joined by fellow Constellation analyst R 'Ray' Wang so we recorded a short video summary of the event... take a peek:

 
If you can't watch - here are the top 3 takeaways:
 
  • The new UI ADP showed us last year and then rolled out to paycheck and selected use cases is now been rolled out to 80% of ADP applications. That by itself is a massive undertaking, but will help customers get more out of their ADP products, which in some cases sported more than pedestrian user experiences.
  • The ADP Talent Management product Vantage has also received the new user interface and with that the 'grey is gone' mission has been accomplished, except for the recruiter experience which is supposed to follow soon.
  • The ADP Data Cloud is one of the most exciting offerings in the ADP portfolio at the moment, helping customers to make more sense of their data. It also offers 'true' analytics to users, about key HR practitioner questions. Remarkably the product supports also the capability to include 3rd party, non HCM data, thus enabling insights beyond the traditional stovepipe contained intelligence approach.



 

Tidbits

  • ADP makes progress for multinational companies (MNCs) - bringing together products and services, now for over 104 countries and 99% of global employee population.
  • ADP is so comfortable of its products that it let the analysts use the new Onboarding solution, which was both an entertaining as well as educational way to get to know the ADP applications. 
  • The ADP market place is now at over 60 partners and growing fast, a good sign. Good to see business user enabled purchases options, which is the latest bastion to call in the overall IT trend to empower business users more (IT liking it or not). 

MyPOV

Compared to previous summits ADP showed overall less innovation, but that's a good sign for customers, as innovations are being built into product. Mainly that's the new user interface is responsive, can be embedded in 3rd party products, so overall a very positive experience.

On the concern side ADP must now execute on the sales side. The numbers shared for customer growth are encouraging, but ADP show it can really go to cloud scale - beyond the product, but also in marketing, sales, implementation and support. Closer to product the scalability and TCO of its proprietary cloud infrastructure will also be tested (we did not get briefed on it). 

But for now all signs are positive, ADP has eliminated a number of challenges it faced in the market, so time to look at ADP with a fresh mindset, it's not your father's ADP. Stay tuned.
 
More on ADP

 
  • Event Report - ADP Meeting of the Minds - It’s all coming together for ADP in 2015 - product wise - read here
  • First Take - ADP Meeting of the Minds - Day #1 Keynote - read here
  • Progress Report - ADP shows great vision, delivers product innovation - now it needs adoption - read here
  • Site Visit - ADP's new innovation lab in Chelsea - read here
  • News Analysis - ADP announces Spin-Off plans for Dealer Services, sharpens ADP's focus on HCM - read here.
  • Event Report - ADP's Meeting of the Minds - ADP has made up its mind (almost) - customers not yet - read here.
  • First take - 3 Key Takeaways from ADP's Meeting of the Minds Conference Day 1 Keynote - read here.
  • ADP innovates with with verve and good timing – read here.
 
And  more on the importance of the paycheck for HCM:
 
  • Could the paycheck re-invent HCM – yes it can – read here.
  • And suddenly, payroll matters again! Read here.
Find more coverage on the Constellation Research website here and checkout my magazine on Flipboard and my Youtube channel here
 
And last but not least - a compilation of key tweets from the event: