Pros
The retirement record keeping industry, which is their primary business, has potential to increase greatly as the baby boomer generation retires in mass numbers.
Kontras
Inexperienced CIO and naive CEO. The CIO prevents real software development by crippling the development team with obsolete hardware. For example, to develop software that can run in a cluster, one needs a development system that is cluster capable, not a weak laptop from 5 years ago. The CIO also does not know technology well enough to tell which technologies to implement based on business requirements and also does not validate business requirements nor does he even check to see if they have been documented. The CIO also does not have CIO level experience. For example, he chose to implement Microsoft Analysis Services for a company with more than 12 billion unique transnational records. He did not understand the technology nor its limitations. The Analysis Services Tabular Database had had a limit of two billion uniquely identified records even before it was used for Analysis Services over 40 years ago. After spending over 3 million dollars, the system failed to load more than a few million transactions. Although the documentation clearly states the limit and that performance would degrade far below the theoretical limit, the CIO had no idea the limit existed, which shows a lack of experience. The CIO also does not know basic data architecture design which mandates multi-platform compatibility, scaleability, high availability, and encryption security. Ascensus has implemented a single platform system, with no scaleability, no high availability, and no encryption. The company is extremely dishonest about its policies and intentions. It provides strict diversity and non-discrimination training on the first day, but does not enforce the policies. Employees from low level to management are openly racist and practice age discrimination in person, on conference calls, and even in email with no fear of being fired. Their behavior is accepted by management even when it causes failures and loss of funds by preventing people of certain ages and ethnicity from doing their jobs. Benefits are expensive but provide the least coverage possible. Business Analysts and several other key positions are staffed by fake resources. For example, their business analysts NEVER produce business requirements documents nor complete any analysis as mandated by their policies for SDLC. Project Managers never publish a project plan and are unfamiliar with SDLC. Most are in their positions by nepotism, privilege, and favors instead of merit. Despite the work/life balance policies, incompetent managers are forcing people to work nights and weekends for free to cover up their incompetence. Managers enforce polices that are neither real nor written upon minorities and women only. Ascensus does not have the technology is claims to have and poorly manages data using manual processes.