Brightmine vs. Optimum Solutions HRIS (discontinued)

For junior colleagues who need help drafting letters, the frameworks are great and really help them formulate succinct and compliant letters. The article content explaining legal backgrounds is also helpful. For more experienced team members, the information is less useful as it is what we would expect. More case studies and examination of recent judgments and analyses could be better used for these users.

Incentivized

Optimum Solutions works very well for all our payroll needs. We run payrolls weekly, semi-monthly, monthly and yearly. The end of year process is lined out very well and webinars are available to go over any new regulations required. We haven't utilized the HR part of the software as much on the iSeries but are planning on changing that once we get converted to the Windows version later this year. The main reason for this is the HR part of the software on the iSeries is separate from payroll.

Incentivized

• Template policies are perfect, up to date and read very well
• The manager training sections are great as you can build them into your own sessions and provide accurate answers
• Their themed packs are excellent resources when you are venturing into new guidance, for example supporting menopause in the workplace

Incentivized

• The setup of Optimum HRIS was intense as the software comes as a basic shell and everything is personalized to our organization. All earnings codes, leave time, employee types, job codes, taxes, etc. are set up for each company. While this was almost overwhelming at the beginning, we have so much control over the set up and better grasp of the inner workings of the system.
• Tax updates come quickly and are easily applied. This is especially welcome at year end.
• The built-in reporting is robust and offers a lot of options, but the ability to dig in to the database using SQL and Excel allows for very powerful reports that are infinitely personalized.

• Would love to see a combination report of the 50 state Paid Sick Leave chart and the Vacation Time Report. A large amount of companies combine these into PTO and it would be beneficial to have all the information in one place rather than consulting two reports. Or perhaps a new report that is tailored to PTO laws.
• Would like Old Laws maintained somewhere. When completing audits of minimum wage laws, I am unable to find the previous minimum wage requirements within Brightmine. This delays my audits and results in me turning to google to find the previous requirements. Example: Minimum wage for 2022 in California.
• Would be nice if there was a report of Old/Previous Minimum Wage Requirements

Incentivized

• When exporting reports to Excel I found the formatting to be difficult to work with and having to reformat the reports can be a nightmare. My company's IT department created its own business tools to make the reporting format more user friendly.

Incentivized

Without realising it we use Brightmine so often and it is so beneficial as our daily roles are onerous. By having a tool there that covers such a wide variety of products we can rest assured we know if we need something we can find it on there easily. With no hassle

Incentivized

The website is so easy to use and navigate through. I check this website weekly on the states i am responsible for and it is so well organized to quickly find those states. I also use this to check up on information with policies and laws i run into and all the information is quick and easy to find

Incentivized

It is almost always available when I need it. I have only ran into 2 situations where i received an error message and could not get logged in but was told this was a widespread issue that would quickly be resolved

Incentivized

Everything loads quickly and is exactly where i need it to be. I like how the sidebar breaks down different sections of policies for each state to help me find what i am looking for or gives suggestions or documents to review that may also be helpful

Incentivized

The initial support was brilliant with a colleague who showed us how to use the platform, as the platform is so easy to navigate we havent had further support but i know if i needed any i could contact brightmine to offer the support. It is so easy to use so havent needed to

Incentivized

The people on the call training us were very friendly and knowledgeable! They helped me learn of new tabs for finding templates to create new trainings to update departments on policies and procedures. It also has great excel sheets so i can see side by side differences between states regarding different laws and compensation changes.

Incentivized

I didnt implement but just wanted to say the person providing the training was brilliant and guided us through each page so we knew how to navigate, also allowed us to ask a lot of questions if we needed to which was helpful. So we could go away with confidence to use it

Incentivized

Brightmine was a resource provided by my employer, whereas SHRM I had to purchase on my own. I think they are both comparable to each other, but ever since Brightmine re-branded, I feel that the layout is much more inviting and user-friendly.

Incentivized

We evaluated some payroll services but found the ongoing cost greater than the initial cost of purchasing our own software and keeping the payroll process in house. Other payroll software was generally more expensive and we are satisfied with Optimum Solutions. I would say the main reason we stayed with Optimum Solutions, converting from their iSeries version to their Windows version, was because of their outstanding staff and support.

Incentivized

The price is too expensive and there is not clear transparent pricing model

Incentivized

WE only use it in HR but, I have no doubt that it could be scaled across other sites / teams.

Incentivized

No issues

Incentivized

• saves so much valuable time when updating policies which is huge as we have a small team and time is limited.
• Normally, it saves time on hours or research as you can find it all on the site, including salary review data.
• Reduces the cost of using employment lawyers all the time for policy updating and other advice.
• It's like a one-stop shop that enables the user to find everything they need on a multitude of topics with extensive information that requires minimal time by the user, but to search for that information individually would take hours, if not days, in some cases.

Incentivized

• More accurate payroll processing
• More accurate tax payments and reporting