UKG Acknowledged as a Key HR Software Provider by APPS RUN THE WORLD in the HCM Top 500 Market Report

UKG Strengths, Domain Expertise, and Key Differentiators

As the world’s largest privately held HR SaaS provider—following the merger of Ultimate Software and Kronos—UKG is strategically positioning itself for continued growth amid evolving market dynamics. While publicly traded competitors face headwinds from elongated enterprise sales cycles, the disruptive impact of Generative AI, and internal missteps, UKG is capitalizing on these shifts with a sharpened focus on key strategic areas. The company is deepening its investment in workplace culture through Great Place To Work® Hub, a platform designed to foster positive company culture, employee development, and workplace equity. UKG is also expanding its presence in the global payroll market with UKG One View, a multi-country payroll solution, and further enhancing its capabilities for small and mid-sized businesses—particularly those with large frontline workforces. UKG Ready, now serving more than half of its 80,000+ customers, underscores the company’s strong foothold in this segment.

2024 marks a significant leadership transition, with Jennifer Morgan assuming the role of CEO in July. She succeeds Chris Todd, who has led UKG since 2022 and is stepping down after 17 years of dedicated service. Under Morgan’s leadership, UKG remains committed to delivering industry-leading workforce solutions, leveraging its differentiated data as a strategic asset. This data enables organizations to harness Generative AI for greater efficiency across critical workforce processes, including talent acquisition, time management, and employee engagement. By helping businesses optimize these functions, UKG reinforces its mission of fostering exceptional workplace cultures and supporting organizations in achieving Great Place To Work® certification, a globally recognized program it also administers.

In May, UKG also announced the appointment of Rachel Barger – formerly senior vice president of Americas with Cisco – as its new president, Go-To-Market, overseeing sales, marketing and customer relationship management. Barger said in addition to its emphasis on conversational intelligence, it is banking on digital signals for customer success by using more AI tools for rapid deployment. The naming of Jay Dettling as its first Chief Partner Officer, coupled with its push into carriers, brokers, and prospects affiliated with private equity firms, underscore its desire to be more partner-friendly than ever, Barger said.

On the customer success front, Bob DelPonte, executive vice president and chief customer experience officer of UKG, said the vendor has seen a noticeable increase in customer satisfaction since it took more than 1,500 customers live since last October. His goal is to drive that further by cutting time to live to just a few months for its Ready midmarket customers with AI tools for rapid resolution of any issue relating to knowledge transfer and emergency response.

UKG is also rolling out Emerald Experience with dedicated support for its top-level customers, after hiring Silvio Bessa, one of the key architects of SAP’s premium support offerings.

The 102% recent increase in deals among strategic accounts and Midmarket customers over the past year highlighted the readily available white space that UKG is tapping into as it elevates its brand awareness, Barger added.

Hence, Sarah Hodges, the new chief marketing officer of UKG, vows that any lack of visibility of UKG will be addressed over the next six to 12 months as the company unleashes a slew of new marketing programs to put the UKG brand equity to work through persona narratives and customer outcomes.

UKG has made steady progress over the last five years with its continued dominance of the workforce management market, while gaining ground in the overall HCM applications market.

UKG Recent Developments

Jennifer Morgan, who became CEO of UKG in 2024, is shaking things up at the No. 1 workforce management apps vendor by taking a proactive stance to rebuild the company while extending its lead as the trusted workforce operating platform for enterprises and frontline workers.

Contrary to the belief that if ain’t broke, don’t fix it, Morgan has been making the preemptive moves by putting her own stamp on UKG with significant new executive hires, shepherding a well-established company that has had significant change since the merger and charting a new course that portends a massive cultural change.

Morgan said the biggest difference between the new UKG and the old one is that the entire organization should be laser focused on working collaboratively and taking a proactive approach to formulate programs and instill value that matters the most to its customers and other key stakeholders.

Since becoming the new CEO in July 2024, Morgan has rewired the inner working of UKG with a dozen or so appointments of seasoned executives from companies such as Adobe, Cisco, Procore and SAP who are now in charge of UKG’s operation, product, sales, marketing and corporate communications.

Examples include Suresh Vittal, who oversaw the development of Adobe Experience Cloud and is now the Chief Product Officer of UKG. In his new role at UKG, Vittal has been given the mandate of building AI-first solutions that not only anticipate and address customers’ evolving business needs. Some of the new features include shift incentives for healthcare customers and opening up its Flex platform to low-code tools. Additional duties involve improving its Data Hub, which is a vast repository of workforce insights covering tens of billions of schedules and punches created and tabulated.

Recently, UKG struck a deal with ServiceNow to align each other’s work in agentic AI development so that both HR executives who are familiar with the former, and IT heads who are accustomed to dealing with the latter, can easily extract and optimize the cross-functional value of such joint efforts. This can help unlock the true potential of productivity gains for any aspect of its business from the IT side to front line workforce as Morgan envisions.

Additionally, UKG unveiled significant enhancements to the UKG Ready HR suite, aimed at improving intelligence and ease of use. The introduction of UKG Ready Job Genius and Interview Guide, powered by UKG Ready Bryte AI, will streamline the recruiting process for HR professionals and hiring managers. These AI-driven tools will generate compelling job descriptions based on specified skills, qualifications, and role requirements while also suggesting relevant interview questions. By leveraging generative artificial intelligence, these enhancements will not only support more effective hiring practices but also save valuable time for HR teams.

UKG Ready is also expanding its capabilities through seamless integrations designed to enhance efficiency and accuracy. Customers will soon be able to upload general ledger information directly into NetSuite, enabling real-time financial insights and ensuring data integrity. Moreover, through integration with Employee Navigator, a leading benefits administration and HR software provider, benefits brokers will have improved tools to manage employee benefits, design competitive plans, and maintain regulatory compliance. These updates reinforce UKG’s commitment to providing comprehensive, intelligent solutions that optimize HR and business operations.

UKG Customers in ARTW Customer Database

Leveraging a rigorous data-centric research methodology, APPS RUN THE WORLD asks the simple question: Who’s buying UKG applications and why? And we provide the answers – supported by decades of research – to our clients around the world. Our Customer database has over 100 data fields that detail company usage of UKG and other enterprise apps by function, customer size, industry, location, implementation status, partner involvement, Line of Business Key Stakeholders and IT decision makers contact details. List of Verified UKG Pro, UKG Ready, UKG One View customers.

UKG Key Cloud and HCM Applications

UKG Pro, UKG Ready, UKG One View

UKG HCM and Cloud HCM Applications Revenues, $M:

UKG Revenue Breakdown by Type:

UKG HCM Applications Revenues By Sub-Functional Markets, $M:

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UKG Total and HCM Applications Revenues by Region:

UKG Direct vs Indirect sales

UKG Customers - Breakdown by Geo, Size, Vertical and Product

List of Verified UKG Customers

No. of UKG Customers: 80000

No. of UKG HCM Applications Customers: 80000

No. of UKG Cloud HCM Customers: x

No. of UKG Cloud HCM Subscribers: 45m

UKG serves approximately 80,000 clients and 45 million users across 165 countries, maintaining a physical presence in all major geographies. The company processes payroll for around 13 million client employees through approximately 7,000 payroll clients, utilizing either a Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) or managed model. Dedicated teams of approximately 1,000 employees focus on U.S. and Canada domestic payroll services, while an additional 300 employees support multi-country payroll delivery.

Building on the momentum of its Immedis acquisition and the launch of UKG One View, UKG has rapidly expanded its global payroll footprint. The company has signed more than a dozen enterprise customers, enabling payroll processing for over 120,000 employees across 50+ countries within just weeks. By consolidating workforce data into a single, centralized platform, UKG One View provides multinational organizations with unprecedented visibility into their global workforce. Expanding global payroll capabilities remains a top priority, with the integration of funding schedules into a unified solution poised to be a game-changer for international enterprises.

In the SMB market, UKG has seen significant adoption of its UKG Ready suite, adding thousands of new small and mid-sized businesses in recent months. More than 51,000 customers—over 60% of UKG’s 80,000+ installed base—rely on UKG Ready to automate core HR, payroll, and workforce management functions across North America, EMEA, and ANZ. A key differentiator is the inclusion of Bryte Assist, UKG’s AI-driven conversational search engine, which streamlines access to company policies, compliance records, and workforce insights, further enhancing the efficiency and intelligence of UKG’s solutions.

UKG Market Opportunities, M&A and Geo Expansions

In December 2024, UKG announced the appointment of Suresh Vittal as Chief Product Officer (CPO), effective January 2025. Vittal’s leadership will play a pivotal role in advancing UKG’s product strategy, with a continued emphasis on embedding artificial intelligence (AI) and leveraging workforce intelligence across the company’s comprehensive suite of solutions. With more than two decades of experience in the SaaS industry, Vittal most recently served as CPO at Alteryx, where he was instrumental in democratizing AI and machine learning. Prior to that, he spent nearly a decade at Adobe, rising to Senior Vice President of Platform and Products for Adobe Experience Cloud, where he drove innovation at scale.

Vittal aims to turbocharge natural language processing as its near-term AI objective by making conversational UI the lowest common denominator for frontline managers to render repetitive tasks obsolete and touchless payroll possible for all users. Search and assist becomes AI search and act (in real time), according to Vittal. In that vein, UKG has expanded its AI capabilities with the launch of UKG Bryte AI Agents, now embedded within the UKG Pro HCM suite. These intelligent agents enable organizations to harness AI-driven automation to enhance workforce experiences and optimize people-centric processes. Bryte AI Agents go beyond traditional AI by utilizing Large Action Models (LAMs), which combine the language fluency of Large Language Models (LLMs) with the ability to autonomously execute complex, multi-step workflows and make data-driven decisions. These AI agents continuously enhance their performance through reinforcement learning and supervised learning, ensuring organizations can drive efficiency, reduce administrative burden, and elevate their HR and workforce management strategies.

UKG Risks and Challenges

UKG’s overhaul serves as a wake-up call for any software company that needs to stand out against the backdrop of the global trade war or mitigate the risks of overdoing AI just for the sake of staying buzzword compliant.

As economic and geopolitical chaos reign, one needs to stay true to its core competency and its principles by committing to its key constituents that it is fully accountable to their future and it’s a job that requires no prompt engineering. It must be delivered from within engendering trust, transparency and a 100% commitment to mutual success for all the parties involved with no one being left behind.

It’s a clear mission and Jennifer Morgan, as the new CEO at UKG, is putting all the right pieces together in order to defend its core, while expanding into the next frontier with care, precision and her signature customer focus.

UKG Ecosystem, Partners, Resellers and SI

In January 2025, UKG and OpenSesame, a provider of online business training, made a strategic partnership to offer a library of 40,000 courses through the UKG Ready learning platform. This integration will enable HR teams to enhance employee growth and retention by providing streamlined, personalized, and accessible learning experiences. The expanded course offerings will address all aspects of online training, including mandatory compliance courses and soft-skill development, supporting both individual and organizational growth. OpenSesame’s diverse library spans industry-specific topics, language options, and various course formats, ensuring that organizations can cultivate productive, engaged workforces, regardless of location or learner preferences. Daily automated updates will ensure that training materials remain current and relevant.

UKG has strategically established Global Operations Hubs in key locations to enhance its global presence and operational efficiency. In September 2024, the company launched a Global Operations Hub in Kilkenny, Ireland, with plans to create approximately 200 new positions focusing on cybersecurity, customer success, research and development, and professional services. This expansion leverages Kilkenny's vibrant technology community and its reputation for cybersecurity expertise. Additionally, UKG has established Global Innovation Hubs in Bulgaria and Uruguay to support the development of its award-winning solutions. These hubs are part of UKG's mission to inspire every organization to become a great place to work through technology built for all. By establishing these hubs, UKG aims to tap into local talent pools, foster innovation, and enhance its ability to deliver comprehensive HR, payroll, workforce management, and culture solutions to its global customer base.

UKG operates direct sales teams in key markets such as North America, the UK, Europe, Australia, China, and India, while actively expanding its channel ecosystem to target emerging markets in Southeast Asia, the Middle East, and Africa. Strategic partnerships include Health Matrix, a healthcare technology provider in the Middle East, and Bytes Technology Group, which serves various industries in Africa and the Middle East. Additional reseller collaborations with Valueteam in Brazil, Hyperlink in the Middle East, NGA in Europe, and Group Seidor in Spain and Portugal are enabling UKG to capture new opportunities in these regions. The company also formed a partnership with Qimpro to drive workforce transformation in India and expanded its presence in China through a reseller agreement with Capgemini. Beyond these reseller efforts, UKG's direct sales teams are closely working with global consulting firms, including Accenture, Deloitte, Capgemini, PWC, E&Y, IBM, and Cognizant.

Research Methodology

Data used in research reports are derived from publicly available documents, continuous surveys of applications vendors, customers, resellers, Independent Software Vendors, systems integrators and other verifiable sources.

Vendor shares and market forecast results are based on a combination of existing databases as well as demand side and supply side research conducted throughout the year with validation from vendors, customers, channel partners and documentations such as earnings releases and 10Q and 10K filings, vertical industry studies, regional and country-level statistics from public and private institutions(i.e. colleges, universities, government agencies and trade associations).

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