Best of breed application that is relatively easy to get up and going + maintain
Updated December 14, 2022

Best of breed application that is relatively easy to get up and going + maintain

Anonymous | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User

Overall Satisfaction with Workday Adaptive Planning

We are using Adaptive as our system of record planning and reporting application. The FP&A team is the primary editor of information, but read-only information is widely consumed across the org.

Pros

  • Excellent documentation with articles and videos.
  • Strong implementations network of consultants.
  • Accessible staff for Q&A (like formulas Friday and other weekly sessions).

Cons

  • Being cloud only, occasionally the model may be slow to load or update.
  • Certain features like user assigned sheets are edit only or no access (no read-only access).
  • Dimension level security is coming in a future release (Fall 2019).
  • Cannot have multiple security profiles per user (one profile per account).
  • Reduced our FTE needs by two.
  • Instilled trust in the numbers across the org by providing a highly available, cloud-based access to the system. No more emailing reports.
Both increased the speed to report and model as well as the accuracy. The major lift is getting the model set up in the first place. The maintenance of the model is relatively straightforward thereafter.
For non admins, the experience is fairly similar to Excel. The formula builder and documentation makes it easy for power users.
Adaptive stood out because it seemed on the easier end to implement and has a wide customer base (so it is easier to hire people who have used the system before). The total cost of ownership was competitive and scales with the number of seats.

Do you think Workday Adaptive Planning delivers good value for the price?

Yes

Are you happy with Workday Adaptive Planning's feature set?

Yes

Did Workday Adaptive Planning live up to sales and marketing promises?

Yes

Did implementation of Workday Adaptive Planning go as expected?

Yes

Would you buy Workday Adaptive Planning again?

Yes

Adaptive is great for lining up multiple version (variance analysis) and a nice mix of structure and flexibility. We still maintain some more complex models outside of the system in Excel and application scripts like cohort models.

Workday Adaptive Planning Feature Ratings

7.4
Long-term financial planning
7
Financial budgeting
8
Forecasting
8
Scenario modeling
5
Management reporting
9
7.6
Financial data consolidation
8
Multi-currency management
8
Intercompany Eliminations
Not Rated
Minority Ownership
5
Local and consolidated reporting
8
Detailed Audit Trails
9
9.3
Financial Statement Reporting
9
Management Reporting
9
Excel-based Reporting
10
Automated board and financial reporting
9
9.3
Personalized dashboards
10
Color-coded scorecards
9
KPIs
9
Cost and profitability analysis
Not Rated
Key Performance Indicator setting
Not Rated
Benchmarking with external data
Not Rated
9.0
Flat file integration
9
Excel data integration
9
Direct links to 3rd-party data sources
9
BI Standard Reporting ()
Not Rated
Ad-hoc Reporting ()
Not Rated
Report Output and Scheduling ()
Not Rated
Data Discovery and Visualization ()
Not Rated
Access Control and Security ()
Not Rated
Mobile Capabilities ()
Not Rated

Using Workday Adaptive Planning

50 - Broad use in Finance and Accounting. Executive and P&L owners consume information via reports and dashboards.
4 - 3 person FP&A team and 1 business systems person.
  • Management reporting
  • Long range planning
  • Budgeting
  • Headcount reporting
  • Attrition reporting
  • Sales planning model
  • Adhoc modeling
  • Distributed planning
  • Headcount management
We will evaluate other tools that are newer but will likely renew.

Evaluating Workday Adaptive Planning and Competitors

  • Product Features
  • Product Usability
  • Product Reputation
The product feature set needed to uplevel our prior Excel models.
We would evaluate other newer tools on the market that are aimed at SMB orgs.

Workday Adaptive Planning Implementation

Planning is key. And, it is very important to think about the system you want, not just a porting over of a legacy model/process.
  • Third-party professional services
Alight Carlson
Change management was minimal - Clean chart of accounts and dimension structure is key for a smooth transition of accounting and operational data into the system.
  • Currency conversion
  • Choosing sheet types
  • Learning syntax of new system

Workday Adaptive Planning Training

  • Online Training
Had both synchronous and asynchronous content. This allowed our users to learn according to the styles that fit their personality the best.

Configuring Workday Adaptive Planning

The right amount of structure for us. It comes as a blank database so it is very customizable, almost to its fault.
Try and build for the new system and not recreate the Excel models that you already have.
Some - we have done small customizations to the interface - We added our logo and custom color palette.
No - we have not done any custom code

Workday Adaptive Planning Support

Amazing support. Very responsive and quick to resolve. There is also a strong network of consultants.
ProsCons
Quick Resolution
Good followup
Knowledgeable team
Problems get solved
Kept well informed
Immediate help available
Support understands my problem
Quick Initial Response
None
No we didn’t. It wasn’t an option at our renewal.
We recently needed urgent help with a model restore and the team resolved in the same day.

Using Workday Adaptive Planning

ProsCons
Like to use
Relatively simple
Easy to use
Technical support not required
Well integrated
Consistent
Slow to learn
Lots to learn
  • Reporting
  • Integration set up
  • Permissions
  • Actualizing data
  • Provisioning accounts
  • Changes to the level structure

Workday Adaptive Planning Reliability

I don’t foresee us outgrowing this tool at any point in time.
Their support downtime can be inconvenient. About 1 hour per week.

Integrating Workday Adaptive Planning

The best integration provider we’ve seen in the planning tool market. Great mapping interface.
  • Salesforce
  • Workday
  • AWS
Two way connections for the CRM which is great. It was moderate lift to get set up and relatively easy to maintain.
They have good native and API based connections so you aren’t limited by native connections.
  • File import/export
  • Single Signon
  • API (e.g. SOAP or REST)
Have the ability to manage connections without IT involvement.

Relationship with Workday

Being part of the Workday company now has been frustrating with the higher prices and relentless cross selling.
Support and sales are very responsive.
This is now available in house at Workday which is convenient.
Price by license count.
Good read only seat access

Upgrading Workday Adaptive Planning

Yes - No disruption through any of their semi annual upgrades.
  • Expanded feature set.
  • They don’t announce in advance

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