Kronos Incorporated was an American multinational

workforce management Workforce management (WFM) is an institutional process that maximizes performance levels and competency for an organization. The process includes all the activities needed to maintain a productive workforce, such as field service management, human ...

and

human capital management Humans (''Homo sapiens'') are the most abundant and widespread species of primate, characterized by bipedalism and exceptional cognitive skills due to a large and complex brain. This has enabled the development of advanced tools, culture, an ...

cloud provider headquartered in

Lowell, Massachusetts Lowell () is a city in Massachusetts, in the United States. Alongside Cambridge, It is one of two traditional seats of Middlesex County. With an estimated population of 115,554 in 2020, it was the fifth most populous city in Massachusetts as of ...

, United States, which employed more than 6,000 people worldwide. In February 2020, the company announced a

merger Mergers and acquisitions (M&A) are business transactions in which the ownership of companies, other business organizations, or their operating units are transferred to or consolidated with another company or business organization. As an aspect ...

with

Ultimate Software Ultimate Software was an American multinational technology company that developed and sold UltiPro, a cloud-based human capital management (HCM) software system for businesses. Headquartered in Weston, Florida, the company was founded in 1990 by ...

and that the combined company would be led by Aron Ain and be called Ultimate Kronos Group. The merger was officially completed on April 1, 2020.

History

Kronos was founded in 1977 by

Massachusetts Institute of Technology The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a private land-grant research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Established in 1861, MIT has played a key role in the development of modern technology and science, and is one of the ...

(MIT) and Simon Business School alumnus Mark S. Ain. Under Mark Ain's leadership, Kronos sustained one of the longest records of growth and profitability as a public company in software industry history. In 1979, Kronos delivered the world's first

microprocessor A microprocessor is a computer processor where the data processing logic and control is included on a single integrated circuit, or a small number of integrated circuits. The microprocessor contains the arithmetic, logic, and control circu ...

-based

time clock A time clock, sometimes known as a clock card machine or punch clock or time recorder, is a device that records start and end times for hourly employees (or those on flexi-time) at a place of business. In mechanical time clocks, this was accompl ...

and, in 1985, delivered its first PC-based time and attendance product. In 1992, Kronos became a publicly-traded company on

NASDAQ The Nasdaq Stock Market () (National Association of Securities Dealers Automated Quotations Stock Market) is an American stock exchange based in New York City. It is the most active stock trading venue in the US by volume, and ranked second ...

. Aron Ain, succeeded his brother Mark Ain as chief executive officer in 2005. In March 2007, Kronos went private again, bought out for US$1.74 billion by the lead investor

Hellman & Friedman Hellman & Friedman LLC (H&F) is an American private equity firm, founded in 1984 by Warren Hellman and Tully Friedman, that makes investments primarily through leveraged buyouts as well as growth capital investments. H&F has focused its efforts o ...

and the secondary investor JMI Equity. In 2012, the

Third Circuit Court of Appeals The United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit (in case citations, 3d Cir.) is a federal court with appellate jurisdiction over the district courts for the following districts: * District of Delaware * District of New Jersey * East ...

enforced a subpoena seeking production of documents by Kronos, Inc., in an administrative charge before the

EEOC The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) is a federal agency that was established via the Civil Rights Act of 1964 to administer and enforce civil rights laws against workplace discrimination. The EEOC investigates discrimination ...

alleging disability discrimination. The charge was brought by an individual job applicant against Kroger Food Co., who did not hire the job applicant and used a Kronos assessment as part of its hiring process. Kronos, which was not a party to the litigation, objected to the EEOC's subpoena on the basis that the information requested was irrelevant, and production would require Kronos to disclose protected trade secret information. In 2014, private equity firms Blackstone and GIC invested in Kronos alongside

and JMI Equity. In the transaction, Kronos was valued at $4.5 billion. This was the first year that the company achieved $1 billion in annual revenue. In 2017, Kronos moved its corporate headquarters from the nearby town of

Chelmsford Chelmsford () is a city in the City of Chelmsford district in the county of Essex, England. It is the county town of Essex and one of three cities in the county, along with Southend-on-Sea and Colchester. It is located north-east of London a ...

to the Cross Point Towers in

, consolidating multiple offices under one roof. In February 2020, the company announced a merger with

and that the combined company will be led by Aron Ain. In April 2020, as a response to the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identif ...

, Kronos introduced an automated report-generating tool to aid

contact tracing In public health, contact tracing is the process of identifying persons who may have been exposed to an infected person ("contacts") and subsequent collection of further data to assess transmission. By tracing the contacts of infected individua ...

. The tool analyzes work and attendance records of employees who test positive (or presumed positive) for

COVID-19 Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a contagious disease caused by a virus, the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The first known case was COVID-19 pandemic in Hubei, identified in Wuhan, China, in December ...

to generate a report of potentially affected co-workers. On December 13, 2021, Kronos announced that, on December 11, it was discovered that Kronos had been subject to a ransomware attack which disabled the functionality of the Kronos Private Cloud software for "up to several weeks". This breach forced many Kronos customers including municipalities, universities, and private employers to resort to alternative methods, including issuance of paper checks, to properly pay their employees.

Products

Originally a manufacturer of

s, the majority of Kronos' revenue is now derived from software and services. The company provides

cloud applications In meteorology, a cloud is an aerosol consisting of a visible mass of miniature liquid droplets, frozen crystals, or other particles suspended in the atmosphere of a planetary body or similar space. Water or various other chemicals may compo ...

for workforce management and human capital management, as well as consulting, education, and support services to its customers.

Acquisitions

Kronos has conducted a number of acquisitions, with some of the most notable including: * Principal Decision Systems International (PDSI) * The Workforce Solutions software division of SimplexGrinnell * Stromberg * 3i Systems * SaaS''hr''.com * Time Link International Corporation (TimeLink) * Empower Software Solutions * Financial Management Solutions, Inc. (FMSI) * Digital Instinct Pty. Limited * OptiLink

References

External links

* {{authority control Business software companies Software companies based in Massachusetts Companies based in Lowell, Massachusetts Software companies established in 1977 Human resource management software Cloud computing providers Multinational companies headquartered in the United States Privately held companies based in Massachusetts 1977 establishments in Massachusetts American companies established in 1977 1992 initial public offerings 2007 mergers and acquisitions 2020 mergers and acquisitions Private equity portfolio companies Software companies of the United States