Ascentis announces general release of HROffice 6.0 and introduces Microsoft SQL Server 2000 Desktop Engine (MSDE) as the HROffice platform for the future. HROffice 6.0 and all future product releases will utilize MSDE and replace Microsoft Access as the backend database.

Mike Hayes, vice president of sales and marketing at Ascentis says, “We continually build on the latest technologies from Microsoft and ensure that our products easily and securely integrate with the tools our customers use every day. With HROffice now based on a MSDE framework, we’re pleased to extend further improved database security, integrity, fault tolerance, and performance to all of our customers.”

New features and functionality of HROffice 6.0:

– HROffice Carrier Connect can be used with HROffice 6.0 to electronically transmit employee benefits enrollment data from HROffice directly to insurance carriers.

– New Report Wizard features have been added such as new EEO-4 and beneficiary reports. A new remittance report has been added to help support consolidated billing.

– HROffice Payroll Connect has a new user interface and through web services can remotely connect with payroll solutions over the Internet.

– Employees can be filtered within various wizards by hire date, termination date, next review date, benefit plans, pay period, and by self-service status.

– COBRA module improvements make it easier to mix Active and COBRA Active Coverage (i.e. a divorce situation).

– The HROffice Help System has been revamped and expanded to provide more detailed information.

– The HROffice Quickstart Import Utility can now import Review History information.

– Additional professional services are available to HROffice 6.0 users.

Current HROffice 6.0 customer George Dorsey, with Dorsey & Associates remarks, “In the past I‚ve worked with a lot of HRMS systems and have found them all to be costly, resource intensive, and cumbersome to use. I‚ve finally found a solution that is the opposite of all this. HROffice is cost and time effective, user-friendly, and provides unlimited features and functionality. Now that HROffice is managing my company‚s HR and employee information, I’ve moved on to strategic planning for my employees and company.”