Key Findings & Highlights:

Ceridian, founded in 1932 as Control Data Corporation (CDC) and headquartered in Minneapolis, Minnesota, is a publicly traded provider of HCM software and services.

In 1992, Ceridian emerged as an information services company after the restructuring of CDC. In November 2007, Ceridian was acquired by Thomas H. Lee Partners and Fidelity National Bank for $5.3bn.

Ceridian began partnering with Dayforce in February 2011, a SaaS-based HCM provider, and in April 2012 it acquired Dayforce. Following the Dayforce acquisition, Ceridian separated its HCM and payments business. In December 2014, Ceridian divested its electronic payment services organization, Comdata, for $3.45bn to focus on HCM software and services.

In July 2015, Ceridian began to focus on the growth of its HCM cloud solutions business by divesting its benefits administration business to Morneau Shepell, and in March 2016 it entered into a joint venture with WorkAngel and spun off its EAP business, LifeWorks, as a separate entity.

In April 2018, Ceridian completed an initial public offering, becoming a publicly traded company listed on both the New York Stock Exchange and Toronto Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol "CDAY."

Since acquiring Dayforce in 2012, Ceridian has focused almost exclusively on developing Dayforce organically, leveraging its resources and capability.

Today, Ceridian operates as a cloud-based HCM software and services provider; as of May 31, 2019, Ceridian's  Dayforce HCM platform was supporting 3,851 clients and >3.1m active users across 50 countries.

This profile focuses specifically on Ceridian's Dayforce HCM platform technology capability. For a more comprehensive overview of Ceridian's managed payroll services offering, please refer to, Ceridian - Next Generation Payroll Services vendor profile, available to NelsonHall subscribers.

Ceridian's HCM offering centers exclusively on its cloud-based Dayforce HCM platform.  Dayforce currently supports clients in 50 countries and supports >20 languages.

Dayforce HCM includes the following modules and high-level features, including:

• Core HR
• Workforce management
• Payroll
• Benefits
• Talent Management
• Document management
• Analytics.

Other features of Dayforce include:

• Dayforce mobile app (iOS, Android) supporting >1M mobile sessions daily
• Dayforce Assistant: Using NLP, Dayforce Assistant offers a more convenient way to interact with Dayforce through voice and chat support for employee and manager tasks. (New: Q2 2019)
• Dayforce Anywhere: a Microsoft Outlook add-in which allows users to view Dayforce information and perform common activities from Outlook, including requesting and approving time off
• Dayforce Activate: a guided implementation tool for Dayforce HCM which aims to shorten the implementation lifecycle for Dayforce HCM and provide clients with a faster ROI
• Dayforce Software Partner Program (DSPP): Ceridian maintains an open platform approach, providing clients, partners, and 3rd parties the ability to build and connect external solutions, services, and systems to Dayforce through APIs.

Ceridian offers Dayforce as a modular platform, meaning its modules can be adopted separately. Clients can leverage the payroll, and time and attendance modules without adopting core HR, however, core HR is required to adopt its talent management modules, e.g., learning, performance management, compensation, succession planning, etc. 

As of March 31, 2019, Dayforce, supported 3,851k clients; although Ceridian does not disclose its module adoption, NelsonHall estimates ~95% of Dayforce clients leverage its core HR, payroll, and time and attendance modules; ~5% leverage just one module (most commonly payroll and time and attendance). In 2018, ~20% of Dayforce sales were for add-on features by existing clients.

As of December 31, 2018, Ceridian had ~4.5k employees; NelsonHall estimates ~50% is focused on delivering its Dayforce technology. ~85% are located across North America, Europe, and Australia, with ~15% dedicated to its delivery center in Mauritius.

Through its Dayforce Software Partner Program (DSPP), Ceridian maintains an open platform approach, providing clients, partners, and 3rd parties the ability to build and connect external solutions, services, and systems to Dayforce through API's. Ceridian also provides Dayforce integration via prebuilt interfaces to leading cloud-based HCM platforms: Workday, SAP/SuccessFactors, and Oracle.

Ceridian maintains partners across a wide set of focus areas, including software, consulting, advisors, brokers, and private equity firms. Example partners include DocuSign, HireRight, Cornerstone OnDemand; Wage Works; Equifax, Wise Consulting; Sability, etc. 

Ceridian targets mid to large sized organizations for its Dayforce platform and services. Dayforce is capable of scaling and has clients ranging in size from ~100 to >100k employees across multiple industries.

Ceridian primarily targets North American based multinational corporations for Dayforce and its managed services; however, with its configuration for U.K. and Australian payroll, Ceridian is actively re-targeting the U.K. and broader European and APAC markets as well.

While Ceridian does not go to market with industry-specific versions or templates of Dayforce, it is capable of supporting a wide set of client industries; its top verticals for Dayforce include manufacturing, retail, hospitality, human services/healthcare, and financial services. 

Its client examples include Blue Man Group, Denver Broncos, Polaris Alpha, Second City, and ATI Physical Therapy.