NuView Systems Software Review

An Independent Human Resources Software Review

Headquartered in Andover, MA and founded in 1994, NuView Systems, Incorporated is a small HR software firm delivering HRIS and Payroll solutions to roughly 350 customers and 250K employees worldwide. Led by founder and CEO Shafiq Lokhandwala (an electronics and communications engineer by trade), NuView is one of the most innovative and under-estimated software vendors within the HRIS space; originally developing web-native HR solutions in the 1990s and ultimately putting together a best-of-breed HRMS software suite that delivers many best-in-class international capabilities.

NuView's original HR software product line was the HR Expert! Suite—a targeted solution (released in 1995) aimed at the automation of the Benefits Administration process. While this product did receive the attention of several analysts at the time, NuView made the decision as a company to pursue a different product; and in 1999, NuView introduced MyHRIS, an HRIS product that was web-native and geared towards delivering the entire suite of HR administrative functions. Once again, the MyHRIS software line garnered praise for its efforts and was heralded as one of the top HR software products available. Ultimately though, in 2005, NuView opted for another new product, NuViewHR—an expanded software suite with strong customization capabilities, a comprehensive toolkit, and a host of globally-focused functions. In many ways it looks to be the case that NuView simply updated each HR software product line to arrive at the creation of NuViewHR rather than keeping with one product and delivering new releases. However, it seems that now the company has finally settled on NuViewHR to be its flagship payroll and HR software solution, and the company just this past May (2011) delivered the latest release of NuViewHR v.4.15.

The Strategy of a Small HR Software Company

By all accounts, NuViewHR is the veritable David versus Goliath, competing in a vast Human Resource software market with likes of Oracle, SAP, Infor, and Workday. Indeed, employing just shy of 100 staff, NuView is one of the smallest HR software vendors we have reviewed thus far. Still, with its modular, web-native HRMS offering it's clear that NuView's software platform can enable business strategy across the enterprise and compete against much larger foes. Further, because the company has not diluted its strategy by shifting focus into other ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) functions, the company has been able to keep a good deal of "administrative bloat" off—ultimately staying true to their goal of providing a quality human resource management system for HR, payroll, and benefits administration, along with some added capabilities for compensation, recruiting, performance management, and learning/development. The company is a testament to the fact that simplicity and sophistication are not mutually exclusive.

Aside from the strategy of maintaining a singular HR software focus, NuView has also developed a number of strategic partnerships that provide value-added content and/or complementary services for the company's global customer base. Some of these collaboration-based arrangements include (among others):

• SmashFly Technologies – which allows NuView clients to directly pass requisition data to a single platform, where jobs can be marketed through a variety of job boards and channels, rather than have to work through multiple interfaces.
• Datamatics Management Services, Inc. – which serves as a complete Time & Attendance/Scheduling solution, with clocks and other time collection options.
• Celergo – which provides outsourced international payroll services in major countries throughout North America, Europe, and Asia; as well as being uniquely equipped to manage payrolls in more challenging countries such as those in Latin America, the Middle East and Africa.
• Pay-Pro/Pay-Well – which together provide payroll processing that encompasses the United Kingdom, South Africa, Swaziland, Lesotho, Botswana, Zimbabwe, Namibia, Nigeria, Egypt, Ghana, and Malaysia through highly configurable macros that translate payroll rules and requirements into automated processes.
• The Benchmark Partners – which offer HR consulting services such as HR Strategy Development, HR Scorecard, Employee Exit Interviews, HRIT Infrastructure Evaluation, HR Process Mapping and other services.

Yet, for all the positive strategies, partnerships, and functionality that the NuViewHR software delivers, the company is not well known. In fact, for many of you who are reading this review, this may be your first exposure to the company, let alone its HR/Payroll solution. As such, in this review we will take an in-depth look into the heart of the NuViewHR solution to find out the competitive offerings, architecture, viability, and market for the suite; so that you might be more informed.

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