Kronos – Transformation from rising as foremost publicly held software firm to the private firm as Ultimate Kronos Group

Every industry whether it is manufacturing, healthcare, banking, entertainment, or any other demands skilled personnel. Why not so? To grow the business, it is necessary to have a capable workforce. Else, hiring unqualified people can cause a huge loss in terms of business and ultimately to the economy of the country. The solution to this problem is a better workforce and human capital management. Workforce Management helps to get the right workers in the right workplace at a right time. Thus, improvising the efficiency of the workforce as well, lower the cost of the unnecessary workforce. While in this modern world, the modern solution is needed to deal with this as Kronos does.

Kronos Incorporated headquartered in Lowell was known for providing cloud-based workforce management services. It has done excellent work in this field as well; it has developed several other innovative products. However, it has merged with Ultimate software in April 2020. Since then, it is known as Ultimate Kronos Group. At the time when it was an individual firm, Kronos employed 6000+ job seekers all across the world.

Backstory of Kronos

Best known as an American multinational company, it primarily offers cloud-based workforce management and human capital management. Kronos Incorporated was established in 1977. It was founded by Mark S. Ain, who was MIT and Simon Business School’s student. He served as a CEO for a long time, thereafter, his brother Aron Ain stepped up a CEO in 2005.

Just after two years of establishment, the firm has designed the world’s first-ever time clock using a microprocessor. Apart from that, it has created a Pc-based attendance product in 1985. As a matter of fact, Kronos set the record to earn profit and sustainable growth for long period, in spite of being publicly held firm in the history of the software industry. In 1992, it has offered a public listing on NASDAQ. 

Kronos Journey from being Public to Private firm

Started as a private firm, Kronos started public offering in 1992. Since then, it has operated as a public listed firm. However, in the middle of 2007, Kronos got investment from Hellman & Friedman, and JMI Equity. Thus, helped it to become a private firm. Again in 2014, GIC and Blackstone, well-known private equities also offered investment in the firm. From that time, it has started to generate over 1-billion-dollar annual revenue.

Apart from the public to private changes, Kronos also prefer to shift the headquarters to Cross Point Town in Massachusetts. The purpose behind the location change was to combine multiple offices under a single roof. Recently, the firm has merged with Ultimate Software causing the name change to Ultimate Kronos Group. Though the whole company will be directed by Aron Ain.

Product and services

The firm entered the market by manufacturing Time Clocks using a microprocessor. But presently, it is mostly focused on software development and offers related services. This software is design for the human workforce and capital management. Apart from that, it offers cloud applications in a similar field.  As well, Kronos offers other support services, consulting, and training to its clients.

Aron Ain- CEO

He is presently leading the Ultimate Kronos Group, born out of the merger of Ultimate software and Kronos. Apart from being a well-known software technology executive, Aron is a well-known American Author. In 2005, he became CEO at Kronos after his brother’s retirement. Since then, he guided the policies of the firm and explored the business all across continents. Throughout his career, he has been awarded many times. Aron was honored with the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the year award. Moreover, he was included in the list of Top 100 CEO in the U.S. in 2019 (Glassdoor).

Bottom Line

Under both Ain brothers’ policies, Kronos has used an acquisition strategy to explore the business. Acquisition of Principal Decision system international, Stromberg, SaaShr.com is some of the major acquisitions in the company’s history. As well, The Workforce Solution Software division of SimplexGrinnell, Optilink, empower software solution are few noticeable acquisitions made by Kronos.

Recently, the firm was the topic of discussion for its automated report-generating tool. It turned out useful to analyze attendance and work record of Covid-19 positive workers. Thus, it gets easy to detect potentially affected co-workers amid the pandemic.