Kronos Incorporated

Last updated
Kronos Incorporated
Type Private
FoundedOctober 31, 1977;45 years ago (1977-10-31)
FounderMark S. Ain
DefunctApril 1, 2020 (2020-04-01)
FateMerged with Ultimate Software
Successor Ultimate Kronos Group
Headquarters,
U.S.
Key people
Revenue$1.433 billion (2019) [1]
Owner Hellman & Friedman
Number of employees
6,000 (2019) [2]
Website www.kronos.com

Kronos Incorporated was an American multinational workforce management and human capital management cloud provider headquartered in Lowell, Massachusetts, United States, which employed more than 6,000 people worldwide. [3]

Contents

In February 2020, the company announced a merger with Ultimate Software and that the combined company would be led by Aron Ain and be called Ultimate Kronos Group. The merger was officially completed on April 1, 2020.

History

Kronos Incorporated corporate headquarters in Lowell, MA Kronos HQ in spring.jpg
Kronos Incorporated corporate headquarters in Lowell, MA

Kronos was founded in 1977 by Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and Simon Business School alumnus Mark S. Ain. [4] Under Mark Ain's leadership, Kronos sustained one of the longest records of growth and profitability as a public company in software industry history. [5]

In 1979, Kronos delivered the world's first microprocessor-based time clock and, in 1985, delivered its first PC-based time and attendance product.

In 1992, Kronos became a publicly-traded company on NASDAQ.

Aron Ain, [6] succeeded his brother Mark Ain as chief executive officer in 2005. [7]

In March 2007, Kronos went private again, bought out for US$1.74 billion by the lead investor Hellman & Friedman and the secondary investor JMI Equity. [8]

In 2012, the Third Circuit Court of Appeals enforced a subpoena seeking production of documents by Kronos, Inc., in an administrative charge before the EEOC alleging disability discrimination. The charge was brought by an individual job applicant against Kroger Food Co., who did not hire the job applicant and used a Kronos assessment as part of its hiring process. [9] Kronos, which was not a party to the litigation, objected to the EEOC's subpoena on the basis that the information requested was irrelevant, and production would require Kronos to disclose protected trade secret information. [10]

In 2014, private equity firms Blackstone and GIC invested in Kronos alongside Hellman & Friedman and JMI Equity. In the transaction, Kronos was valued at $4.5 billion. [11] This was the first year that the company achieved $1 billion in annual revenue. [12]

In 2017, Kronos moved its corporate headquarters from the nearby town of Chelmsford to the Cross Point Towers in Lowell, Massachusetts, consolidating multiple offices under one roof. [13]

In February 2020, the company announced a merger with Ultimate Software and that the combined company will be led by Aron Ain. [14] [15]

In April 2020, as a response to the COVID-19 pandemic, Kronos introduced an automated report-generating tool to aid contact tracing. [16] The tool analyzes work and attendance records of employees who test positive (or presumed positive) for COVID-19 to generate a report of potentially affected co-workers. [17]

On December 13, 2021, Kronos announced that, on December 11, it was discovered that Kronos had been subject to a ransomware attack which disabled the functionality of the Kronos Private Cloud software for "up to several weeks". [18] This breach forced many Kronos customers including municipalities, universities, and private employers to resort to alternative methods, including issuance of paper checks, to properly pay their employees. [19]

Products

Originally a manufacturer of time clocks, the majority of Kronos' revenue is now derived from software and services. The company provides cloud applications [20] for workforce management and human capital management, as well as consulting, education, and support services to its customers.

Acquisitions

Kronos has conducted a number of acquisitions, [21] with some of the most notable including:

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">SAP</span> German multinational enterprise-software company

SAP SE is a German multinational software company based in Walldorf, Baden-Württemberg. It develops enterprise software to manage business operations and customer relations. The company is the world's leading enterprise resource planning (ERP) software vendor. SAP is the largest non-American software company by revenue, the world's third-largest publicly traded software company by revenue, and the largest German company by market capitalization. Apart from ERP software, the company also sells database software and technology, cloud-engineered systems, and other ERP software products, such as human capital management (HCM) software, customer relationship management (CRM) software, enterprise performance management (EPM) software, product lifecycle management (PLM) software, supplier relationship management (SRM) software, supply chain management (SCM) software, business technology platform (BTP) software and programming environment SAP AppGyver for business.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">BMC Software</span> American enterprise software company

BMC Software, Inc. is an American multinational information technology (IT) services and consulting, and Enterprise Software company based in Houston, Texas.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Salesforce</span> American software company

Salesforce, Inc. is an American cloud-based software company headquartered in San Francisco, California. It provides customer relationship management (CRM) software and applications focused on sales, customer service, marketing automation, e-commerce, analytics, and application development.

Ceridian HCM is an American provider of human resources software and services with employees in the USA, Canada, Europe, Australia and Mauritius. It is a publicly traded company on the New York Stock Exchange.

Mindtree Ltd was an Indian multinational information technology services and consulting company, headquartered in Bangalore. Mindtree was acquired by Larsen & Toubro in 2019 before being merged with L&T Infotech (LTI) in 2022 to form LTIMindtree.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Workday, Inc.</span> American software company

Workday, Inc., is an American on‑demand (cloud-based) financial management, human capital management and student information system software vendor. Workday was founded by David Duffield, founder and former CEO of ERP company PeopleSoft, along with former PeopleSoft chief strategist Aneel Bhusri, following Oracle's acquisition of PeopleSoft in 2005.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">NetSuite</span> Technology company

NetSuite Inc. is an American cloud-based enterprise software company that provides products and services tailored for small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) including accounting and financial management, customer relationship management, inventory management, human capital management, payroll, procurement, project management and e-commerce software. NetSuite was founded in 1998 with headquarters in Austin, Texas. The company is widely seen as the first cloud computing software company, with its founding pre-dating that of Salesforce.com by about a month. Oracle Corporation acquired NetSuite for approximately US$9.3 billion in November 2016. The Oracle NetSuite Global Business Unit is managed by Executive Vice President Evan Goldberg as "Oracle’s Cloud ERP for Small and Mid-sized Enterprises with the ability to scale to Fortune 500 firms."

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hellman & Friedman</span> American private equity firm

Hellman & Friedman LLC (H&F) is an American private equity firm, founded in 1984 by Warren Hellman and Tully Friedman, that makes investments primarily through leveraged buyouts as well as growth capital investments. H&F has focused its efforts on several core target industries including media, financial services, professional services and information services. The firm tends to avoid asset intensive or other industrial businesses. H&F is based in San Francisco, with offices in New York and London.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ultimate Software</span> Former American multinational technology company

Ultimate Software was an American multinational technology company that developed and sold UltiPro, a cloud-based human capital management (HCM) software system for businesses. Headquartered in Weston, Florida, the company was founded in 1990 by Scott Scherr, and released its first version of software in 1993. As of the fourth quarter in 2017, Ultimate Software reported total revenues of over $940.7 million. As of 2017, the company employs more than 5,000 people and services 4,100 customers in 160 countries. Ultimate has offices around the USA, Canada, UK, and Singapore. On February 4, 2019, Hellman & Friedman Capital Partners announced it would purchase Ultimate Software Group for $11 billion; the purchase closed on May 3, 2019.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Genesys (company)</span> American technology company

Genesys, or Genesys Telecommunications Laboratories, Inc., is an American software company that sells customer experience (CX) and call center technology to mid-sized and large businesses. It sells both cloud-based and hybrid cloud software. The company was founded in 1990 and was acquired by investment firms Permira Funds and Technology Crossover Ventures (TCV) in February 2012.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kenexa</span> American employment services company

Kenexa, an IBM Company, provides employment and retention services. This includes recruitment process outsourcing onboarding tools, employee assessment, abilities assessment for employment candidates ; and Kenexa Interview Builder, a structured interview archive with example questions.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">UKG</span> American software company

Ultimate Kronos Group (UKG) is an American multinational technology company with dual headquarters in Lowell, Massachusetts, and Weston, Florida. It provides workforce management and human resource management services.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">API Healthcare</span>

API Healthcare is based in Hartford, Wisconsin and is a developer of healthcare-specific workforce management software. The company is best known for providing workforce management solutions to the healthcare industry.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">CSG International</span> Corporation in Greenwood Village, Colorado

CSG is a multinational corporation headquartered in Greenwood Village, Colorado. It provides business support systems (BSS) software and services, primarily to the telecommunications industry.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">GitLab</span> Open-source Git software package

GitLab Inc. is an open-core company that operates GitLab, a DevOps software package which can develop, secure, and operate software. The open source software project was created by Ukrainian developer Dmytro Zaporozhets and Dutch developer Sytse Sijbrandij. In 2018, GitLab Inc. was considered the first partly-Ukrainian unicorn.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">GK Software</span> Technology company

GK Software SE is a listed technology company headquartered in Schöneck/Vogtland. The company specializes in software and services for the operation of large retail company branches. GK employs about 1,114 individuals at sixteen locations worldwide. The name stands for the initials of the two founders of the company, Rainer Gläß and Stephan Kronmüller. According to the fiscal year 2021 annual report, GK Software achieved revenue of €130.8 million.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">PeopleDoc</span>

PeopleDoc is a cloud-based human resources service delivery and document management platform founded in France. In 2018, it was acquired by Ultimate Software for approximately $300 million. PeopleDoc continues under that name as a division of UKG, the successor company of Ultimate Software.

Motus is a workforce management company headquartered in Boston, Massachusetts, that offers vehicle reimbursement, fleet management and business intelligence solutions. This includes mileage reimbursement, BYO programs, Managed Mobility Services and living cost intelligence.

Aron Ain is an American software technology executive and author. He became the CEO of UKG in 2020, a role he held until being named UKG Executive Chair, effective July 1, 2022. UKG was created from the merger of Ultimate Software and Kronos Incorporated, and provides global HCM and workforce management solutions. Previously, Ain had been the chief executive officer of Kronos Incorporated since 2005.

Oracle Cloud Human Capital Management is a cloud-based HCM software application suite for global HR, talent, and workforce management released by Oracle Corporation in 2011.

References

  1. "Kronos Has Record 2019: Annual Recurring Revenue Crosses $1 Billion | Kronos".
  2. "Kronos To Hit $1.5B In Revenue In $22.5B Human Capital Software Market". Forbes. Retrieved 19 December 2019.
  3. "Kronos Employees Say Culture, Vision, and Innovation Drive Outstanding Engagement". Businesswire.com. 2015-05-12. Retrieved 2018-03-18.
  4. "Meet Mark Ain" . Retrieved 18 March 2018.
  5. Turchin, Brian. "THE BIG THREE: MICROSOFT, SAP- AND KRONOS?" (PDF). Software Business. Archived from the original (September/October 2003) on March 29, 2004. Retrieved November 12, 2007.
  6. Bryant, Adam (September 9, 2016). "Aron Ain of Kronos: The Incalculable Value of a Good Boss". The New York Times.
  7. "Kronos(R) Announces Executive Succession Plan; Mark Ain to Become Executive Chairman; Aron Ain to Become Chief Executive Officer; Paul Lacy to Become President". Business Wire. September 14, 2005.
  8. "Today In Business - Buyout Deal For Kronos". The New York Times. March 24, 2007. Retrieved March 18, 2018.
  9. "Appellant v. KRONOS INCORPORATED" (PDF). UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE THIRD CIRCUIT. June 26, 2012. Archived from the original (No. 11-2834) on October 4, 2013.
  10. Offer, Meghan O. (October 2, 2012). "Third Circuit Enforces EEOC Subpoena Seeking Test-Maker's Files on Employee Selection Tests Used by Employer". Employment Law Watch. Retrieved March 18, 2018.
  11. Mike Spector; Gillian Tan (20 February 2014). "Blackstone, GIC Invest in Kronos". Wall Street Journal. Retrieved 18 December 2019.
  12. Dan Primack. "Kronos hits $1 billion revenue mark". Fortune. Retrieved 19 December 2019.
  13. Hoban, Michael (September 20, 2017). "From Mill City to Innovation Hub: Relocating a Global Headquarters Outside Boston". Urban Land Magazine. Retrieved March 18, 2018.
  14. Webster, Kayla (February 21, 2020). "HCM giants Kronos and Ultimate Software merge". Employee Benefit News. Retrieved February 24, 2020.
  15. Gottfried, Miriam; Lombardo, Cara (February 20, 2020). "Two Big Workplace-Software Providers to Merge". Wall Street Journal. Retrieved March 10, 2020.
  16. Sarkar, Brinda (2020-04-29). "Kronos introduces employee contact-tracing capability". The Economic Times. Retrieved 2020-06-17.
  17. Golden, Ryan (2020-04-30). "Kronos unveils contact tracing to track COVID-19 spread at work". HR Dive. Retrieved 2020-06-17.
  18. "Kronos Private Cloud Status Updates | UKG". 2021-12-14. Archived from the original on 2021-12-14. Retrieved 2021-12-31.
  19. Sullivan, Becky; Franklin, Jonathan (2021-12-16). "Kronos hack will likely affect how employers issue paychecks and track hours". NPR. Retrieved 2021-12-31.
  20. Pang, Albert (December 2, 2019). "Kronos Incorporated Among Cloud Top 500 Software Vendors | Apps Run The World".
  21. Ray-Ghosal, Indrani. "Kronos Acquires Financial Management Solutions Inc. to Deepen Financial Services Industry Expertise". Kronos. CHELMSFORD, Mass. Retrieved January 5, 2017.
  22. "Kronos Acquires Public Safety Scheduling Leader PDSI and its TeleStaff Product". Business Wire. 2 May 2011.
  23. "Kronos Acquires Australian Workforce Solutions Business of Simplex International Pty. Ltd. in Completion of 2001 Transaction" . Retrieved 18 March 2018.
  24. "Kronos Acquires Stromberg from Paychex…from Kronos". HRchitect. October 14, 2009. Archived from the original on November 17, 2014. Retrieved March 18, 2018.
  25. Kizielewiz, Jim (September 22, 2004). "Kronos acquires 3i systems". Boston Business Journal. Retrieved March 18, 2018.
  26. "Kronos Acquires SMB Workforce Management Leader SaaShr.com". Business Wire. March 28, 2012.
  27. "Kronos Extends Workforce Management Market Leadership With Acquisition of TimeLink". www.kronos.com. August 20, 2013. Archived from the original on August 22, 2016.
  28. "Kronos Acquires Empower Software Solutions". Yahoo Finance. Retrieved March 24, 2016.
  29. "Kronos Acquires Financial Management Solutions Inc. to Deepen Financial Services Industry Expertise". www.kronos.com. Retrieved July 27, 2017.
  30. "Kronos Acquires Global Casino Resort Industry Leader Digital Instinct and its Virtual Roster Product". www.kronos.com. Retrieved July 27, 2017.
  31. "Kronos acquires OptiLink to strengthen workforce management offerings". www.healthcarefinancenews.com. Retrieved September 21, 2020.