>"Curious - do you see price as being the only differentiator?"

Perhaps it's an approach unique to me, but pretty much, yeah. If I can define exactly what I need in a service, and the service provider can assure me they can meet those demands, it's all about price.

Which was my point with regards to ADP. It may be clunky and unpretty, but it does what I need it to do: pay my employees, accurately and on time (disclaimer: I hope, still in implementation!). Flash and prettiness is nice, but if it's superfluous, it has to be free.

I'd be very interested to hear how you feel after you get out of implementation. Maybe we can share war stories (see my email in my profile if you're interested in catching up).

Price is most definitely not the only differentiator for us, though we do see it as one of main benefits of using us, especially for smaller businesses. One of our main differentiators is having much more intuitive, simpler, and beautiful payroll software.

I think if you are banking on something being simpler and "beautiful" as your key differentiator then you are not in a good place. A lot of solutions on the market are not hard to use and they are very entrenched. Sure, they don't look great but at the end of the day you need to realize this is payroll software. People don't live in these systems like they do with Apple products. Not to mention, most of the current companies will have a trained tech setup your account. You really don't have to do much. All customers want is:

a) Flexible. Can handle my current and future employee payroll needs. b) Accurate. c) Reliable d) Great customer support. This includes people who are very knowledgeable with what Congress is up to, taxes, etc, and can make sure I am always in compliance.

I agree with a lot of the comments above. I am not sure with the ROI is from your system vs. PayChex or ADP.

Just to heed a warning...be very careful with design being a differentiator when it comes to large enterprise (as the article insinuates). The person buying the software may not be the one actually using it, so therefore this is not as much of a USP as you may hope.

Good luck and happy to give some direction on the challenges of dealing with the enterprises area. Contact details in profile.