Item: Workday Adaptive Planning
Rating: 9
Author: Thom Keyes

Overall Satisfaction with Adaptive Suite

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

Here at HireVue we use the Adaptive Suite to address our forecasting and budgeting needs.

Pros and Cons

Pros

I believe that Adaptive's OfficeConnect tool is a leap forward. I can pull data and create reports right in Excel rather than using the web and exporting.
With Adaptive I have been able to move the once-per-year budget process to a monthly forecast process. I would have been unable to accomplish this with Adaptive's planning tool.
The ease of the system and fairly straight-forward UI has enable quick ramping of new users. Making adoption and use of the system more widely utilized and accepted.

Cons

OfficeConnect is a great tool providing an easy way to access the system data. However, it is a pull-only tool. I would love a connection to push and pull data, like Hyperion Planning has.
One concern I have is system upgrade and maintenance. I feel like I have to use the Adaptive Consultant a little too often to accomplish upgrades or large changes to the model or system. There is enough similarity to Excel and/or VBA coding that an power Excel user can accomplish most things but there are a few things that I feel I am forced to use a consultant for to get right. However, that may be my lack of knowledge or unwillingness to try and learn everything.

I used extensively the Hyperion Planning tool use the Essbase technology. Adaptive has several easier to use functionalities and does well compared to that tool. Adaptive, is a cloud-based solution which enables easy access not requiring a vpn connection. Also, being cloud-based you are free from trying to acquire the servers needed to implement and then upgrade the system. We give up some flexibility in using Adaptive but too much flexibility can also by just more rope to hang yourself with. If I had a larger team and could dedicate more resources I would likely choose something with more flexibility but for now Adaptive is a great solution.

Other Software Used

NetSuite

Data Integration

So, we are directly connected to our GL system NetSuite. The integration is great. We do some flat file uploading but minimally at this point. I have found that as long as we are using fairly standard fields on both side of the integration we have almost no problems. I have not tried any other data integrations that are available.

Collaboration and Sharing

I am impressed by the security and the ease of sharing data accross teams. Using another planning tool that claims to be much more robust (Hyperion) I found the scecurity, control and user access easier to use than what I have experienced with other tools. If I need to add a new user it is quick and easy.

Likelihood to Recommend

I highly recommend Adaptive as a starting point moving from Excel planning to a more scalable solution for planning.

Workday Adaptive Planning Feature Ratings

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Adaptive Insights - My thoughts after a year of use.