Runs like well-oiled machine.
Software Version
18
Modules Used
- Human Capital Management
- Integration Cloud
Overall Satisfaction with Workday Human Capital Management
- The application runs fast and the design make the application intuitive; very similar to your favorite consumer website. If you can use Google, Amazon, or Zappos; you can use Workday. The End User Experience is the best that I have seen in any HRMS or Financials software. There are several visual dashboards that have graphs/charts that you can even take action on by drilling into the data. The user interface is very simple, even for those not technical savvy. The ability to make a change (Related Action) of almost any data object on one screen is very impressive.
- Mobile - The mobile experience for iPad and iPhone is amazing. Development is done with the mantra, "mobile first" to give end users the best experience.
- Integrations - Workday has made it possible to leverage out-of-the-box integrations for many third party vendors using Cloud Connect technology. This makes it more of an exercise of mapping the data and making configurations as opposed to full blown development efforts. Workday also supports Big Data which is very attractive to companies.
- Audit Trail Functionality: A very intuitive audit trail feature that does not require setup. Every single transaction is tracked.
- The Community: The Workday Community listens to its customers - whether it is a customer asking for advice or a "how-to" question or it is submitting a new idea to be added in one of the two major feature releases (updates) a year. Workday also allows customers to post solutions (integration builds, how-to guides, reports, creative solutions) to the Solution Catalog that other customers can leverage. Through the Community Q&A Forums, customers can interact with other end users and even partner consultants to help with an issue.
- Two updates a year with minimal downtime. The updates take place during a weekend and with the last update, there was only about 4 hours and 7 minutes of downtime. Workday is continuously adding new features that can be turned on by the customer discretion and over the last few updates, Workday has added over 250 new features based on customer input alone from the Community Brainstorms.
- And finally, a single version across all customers is key in a real SaaS solution. Long gone are the days of asking another company what version they are on.
- One of the opportunities that I see as an Implementation Partner is to offer additional training for reporting. While the reporting tool, with proper knowledge transfer and training, can be easy to use - most customers do not have the time to focus on this during the original implementation. I would recommend that your implementation partner spend time with the Subject Matter Expert showing the basics of Reporting and assisting on writing a few key and critical reports to give adequate knowledge transfer. Take advantage of the BIRT Reporting tool. In addition, enable the various Dashboards for your management team and executives. .
- With the SaaS implementation, since everything is "documented" in the tenant; customers sometimes cannot adjust to less documentation. The documentation is typically no where close to traditional ERP Implementations that includes things like As-Is and To-Be process flows and the "implementation binder."
- Workday has moved to 2 updates a year, with that being said, customers have to update their internal training documents to adopt changes every 6 months that can be burdensome for some customers. Workday does provide customers an updated tenant 5 weeks in advance of the Update weekend in order to have adequate time to test and make any necessary changes to documentation.
- Security: Workday Security setup and configuration can be very complex. I would recommend that Security Administrators attend Workday Training during the initial deployment.
Workday HCM Feature Ratings
Using Workday Human Capital Management
Typically, there are several roles on a Project and Post Go-Live as follows:
The Business Analyst is responsible for identifying data to be converted, cleansing data, validating the data conversion, testing business processes/configuration in Workday, and developing customer-specific training and documentation. They are responsible for providing functional knowledge and expertise on customer requirements such as HCM business processes, data mapping, jobs, organizations, compensation, performance setup, etc. They also escalate issues to the project manager that may impact the project timeline.
Integration Analysts are responsible for providing technical knowledge and expertise related to the customer's integration and data conversion requirements.
Workday Administrator/Support Contact is responsible for the Workday solution when it is in Production. They typically provide "Tier 1" support to the customer organization and serve as a point-of-contact for the Workday Production Support team. They coordinate and ensure updates are planned and executed properly.
Workday Application Security Administrator that is responsible for the Workday application and security once it is in production. They typically provide security configuration support to the customer organization, and serve as a point-of-contact for the Workday Production Support team. They look for ways to optimize and improve the use of configurable security.
The Business Analyst is responsible for identifying data to be converted, cleansing data, validating the data conversion, testing business processes/configuration in Workday, and developing customer-specific training and documentation. They are responsible for providing functional knowledge and expertise on customer requirements such as HCM business processes, data mapping, jobs, organizations, compensation, performance setup, etc. They also escalate issues to the project manager that may impact the project timeline.
Integration Analysts are responsible for providing technical knowledge and expertise related to the customer's integration and data conversion requirements.
Workday Administrator/Support Contact is responsible for the Workday solution when it is in Production. They typically provide "Tier 1" support to the customer organization and serve as a point-of-contact for the Workday Production Support team. They coordinate and ensure updates are planned and executed properly.
Workday Application Security Administrator that is responsible for the Workday application and security once it is in production. They typically provide security configuration support to the customer organization, and serve as a point-of-contact for the Workday Production Support team. They look for ways to optimize and improve the use of configurable security.
- Human Capital Management - including Staffing, Absence, Benefits, Performance, Compensation, and Development
- Payroll - manage payroll calculation rules, and pay employees according to their organizational, policy and reporting needs - integrate with 3rd Party Vendors for tax reporting
- Financial Management - Workday delivers all the core financial management processes including Financial Accounting and reporting, Resource Management, supplier accounts, customer accounts, cash management, and revenue accounts
- Global at the Core with many countries and translatable business objects
- Mobile, mobile, mobile
- Many customers are now considering implementing Recruiting
Evaluating Workday Human Capital Management and Competitors
My previous experience was with Oracle E-Business Suite HRMS and Payroll (11i and R12).
- Product Features
- Product Usability
- Product Reputation
- Vendor Reputation
- Analyst Reports
N/A
Workday Human Capital Management Implementation
- Don't know
N/A
Yes - Often times, customers do roll out functionality in phases. They often stabilize on Core Human Capital Management with Employee Service and Manager Self-Service and then add functionality over time; often dependent on their HR Business Events Calendar. For example, it is ideal to go-live with Payroll at the start of the Quarter. One customer brought up HCM two months before going live with Payroll. While it certainly led to some dual entry to process legacy payroll, the customer was able to manage the process effectively and efficiently. Be sure to consider the timing of the Workday Updates when looking at the calendar.
By deploying in phases, it also leads to additional knowledge gained in-house to effectively manage the later phases and at times, reduce the amount of effort for your implementation partner (less money for you).
I would highly recommend that customers proceed with rolling adoption; start with the foundation and build upon it. Continuously optimize and build.
Please note this review is written by an Implementation Partner of Workday.
The views and opinions expressed here are my own only and in no way represent the views, positions or opinions - expressed or implied - of my employer (present and past)
By deploying in phases, it also leads to additional knowledge gained in-house to effectively manage the later phases and at times, reduce the amount of effort for your implementation partner (less money for you).
I would highly recommend that customers proceed with rolling adoption; start with the foundation and build upon it. Continuously optimize and build.
Please note this review is written by an Implementation Partner of Workday.
The views and opinions expressed here are my own only and in no way represent the views, positions or opinions - expressed or implied - of my employer (present and past)
Not sure -
- Change Management is often a responsibility of the customer; however, Workday Partners usually do have various service offerings for Change Management during an implementation. In addition, Workday has some tools and packages that can be used for some change management initiatives including the Adoption Kit that provides easy to use desktop guides and "how to" videos for rolling out Workday functionality.
- Consider a soft launch for HR prior to opening up the system to the masses
- Test, test, test and train, train, train - Start Training on Day One - consider a train the trainer approach
- Do not underestimate the amount of time the project will take - consider back-filling for your SME's
- Involve IT - while most customers do not need a great deal of time from IT compared to traditional ERP Project - involve them from the technology side early.
- Ensure that all of your functional SME's are involved in the design, build and testing of integrations
- Be sure to remember that customers can leverage the Workday Solution Catalog in Community
- 3rd Party Vendors: When conducting lessons learned at the end of the project, we often find that customers wish that they had worked with the key 3rd party vendors earlier in the process. There are some vendors that cannot work at the pace of the Workday Implementation. I would urge all customers to work with 3rd party vendors very early in the process and be sure that you have an assigned contact at the company. One customer had weekly status calls with the vendor to ensure everyone was on the same page and communicated key testing milestones frequently.
- Reporting: One area that tends to be overlooked during an initial implementation is the reporting. I would urge customers to take a reporting course through Workday training (or delivered by your implementation partner). As an implementer, we typically provide an overview of report writing and then sit side-by-side with a customer resource and help them write both easy and complex reports using Calculated Fields. Reporting can be easy in Workday given the proper time and education. The Workday Report Writer does have some very to use features, but one must be able to get to the right object.
- Data: Focus on the Legacy Data Extraction early in the process. Discuss the timing of the loads and associated due dates with Workday or your implementation partner. Ensure that you are aware of the timing of the final build, the data freeze, and any catch up transactions that may take place in the system.
- Over-Engineering: Please focus on Core Processes and Keep it Simple: We urge customers to start with a basic framework and keep it simple. By adding too many notifications, and/or approval steps for a basic change; it will clutter an inbox and may impact user adoption. Ask yourself if you need to see that transaction every time. With the Workday Lifecycle Deployment Program approach, customers can take advantage of out-of-the-box business processes that can speed up the design and build phase (think of factory defaults). These are truly best practices built into the software.
Workday Human Capital Management Training
- Online training
- In-person training
- Self-taught
All Customers are highly advised to attend training prior to the Onsite Project Kick-Off.
User Adoption increases and the customer is able to add value immediately to the project with training ahead of time. Workday is very easy to use, but the object based system can be difficult for some users to adjust to if they came from a traditional ERP menu-based system. Workday also offers an Adoption Kit that can be utilized that provides "How To Guides" and "Instructional Videos" that can also be altered to meet the customer needs.
Finally, depending on the implementation approach and size of company, the customer may actually be required to review on-demand videos throughout the first phase of the project. Workday provides customers with a training matrix that outlines what on-demand courses they should be taking and when through the implementation.
User Adoption increases and the customer is able to add value immediately to the project with training ahead of time. Workday is very easy to use, but the object based system can be difficult for some users to adjust to if they came from a traditional ERP menu-based system. Workday also offers an Adoption Kit that can be utilized that provides "How To Guides" and "Instructional Videos" that can also be altered to meet the customer needs.
Finally, depending on the implementation approach and size of company, the customer may actually be required to review on-demand videos throughout the first phase of the project. Workday provides customers with a training matrix that outlines what on-demand courses they should be taking and when through the implementation.
Configuring Workday Human Capital Management
My recommendations are to:
- "Keep it Simple." Do not go overboard on the notifications and emails. There is a reason why Workday has delivered and developed many business processes based on best practices. Focus on Core Processes only and what is necessary on day one to operate.
- Do not code integrations for exceptions. Use it as an opportunity to improve internal processes and procedures. Make sure your functional team is involved in integration discussions (including testing)
- Start reviewing your test cases and test scenarios early in the process
- For Global implementations, start scrubbing and preparing the data now. Go through the proper channels for Global Compliance and Safe Harbor/Data Protection
Some - we have done small customizations to the interface - Safe Harbor Statement: Workday will soon allow personalizations to the UI
No - the product does not support adding custom code
Workday is very configurable. The Security Administration can be daunting though. It is important to make sure your team has a plan in place for support after going live to support the system. There are a few implementation partners that offer Post Production Support via a Help Desk. Make sure your team is set up for success with a proper support structure in place.
Workday Human Capital Management Support
Pros | Cons |
---|---|
Quick Resolution Good followup Knowledgeable team Problems get solved Kept well informed No escalation required Immediate help available Support understands my problem Support cares about my success Quick Initial Response | None |
No - Not applicable. This review was written by an Implementation Partner of Workday. As a Certified Engagement Manager, there are times that I have to log cases on behalf of customers. The Workday Customer Support is very timely in their responses and they are quick to offer resolution or align you with the correct Product Lead or Developer.
Yes - During an implementation, we did run into an issue that I had to log with Workday. Workday verified it was a bug and the update was applied to the weekly patch that was delivered on that Friday. Workday works effectively with Product Management and the Field Readiness team to address any potential issues and blockers. While some bugs may not be resolved as timely as what I experienced, Workday does prioritize them and roll them out accordingly.
One of my customers encountered some problems with their E-Verify Integration. This customer onboards many employees on the same day; sometimes as many as 200 employees a week. Integrating to E-Verify is an important process for them. After a critical and high priority ticket was created, quickly thereafter, the Workday customer called the consultant and customer. They set up a phone conference and next thing you know, the Product Management and Development teams were on the phone to quickly resolve the issue.
Using Workday Human Capital Management
Pros | Cons |
---|---|
Like to use Relatively simple Easy to use Well integrated Consistent Quick to learn Convenient Feel confident using | Requires technical support |
- Navigation and Usability. This is by far the easiest system to navigate. Essentially you can drill into any object without a traditional menu driven system by clicking on a link (or related action (or even preview what is available). The Self-Service capability is empowering for employees. Workday has focused the Visual Redesign built on HTML5 to make it simpler (reduce clutter and enhance usability, to make it faster (to increase efficiency and enhance self-service interaction) and to make it smarter (make applications consistent and functionality more intuitive).
- Cloud Connect Integrations (essentially a plug and play technology that reduces the time to deploy an integration)
- Retrieving Data in Real-Time to allow customers to focus on analytics and provide dashboards for the management team with various KPI's. You get the actionable business intelligence at your fingertips.
- Audit Trail Capability - this is embedded in the application. Every little change or transaction is tracked and can be reported upon.
- History from a Previous System Form - Workday has provided customers an easy way to import data into a form that contains fields for history from a prior system that can easily be reported on.
- Always on the Same Version - the Pace of Innovation that Workday releases updates. There is so much value for customers to be on the same version; it allows for additional brainstorming and knowledge sharing. In fact, during the Workday 22 Upgrade, 347 new features came out and over 70 of those came from customer's ideas.
- There are no customizations in Workday; therefore, enhancements may not be available when the customer wants a capability. It should be noted that Workday does allow you to create custom fields and objects.
- Working with Blocker Issues; bug fixes are released to customers on a scheduled basis which could have an impact on the deployment timelines
Yes - The iOS and Android applications make it very easy for those on the move to view their team, view basic reports, view paystubs, make approvals, punch in and out for time tracking. With the release of Workday Recruiting (22), employees can view data on their device and provide instant feedback on interviews. The mobile applications have improved since the original release and they will continue to be developed from a mobile first perspective.
Workday Human Capital Management Reliability
Integrating Workday Human Capital Management
- Workday is very flexible and can integrate to most third parties. I have been involved in many integrations including to/from traditional ERP systems such as Oracle E-Business Suite and SAP, Banking files, General Ledger, Benefit Vendors, Learning Systems, Retirement Savings Vendors, Tax Filing companies, Time Clocks and many more.
- Integration Cloud Connect. This is a catalog of pre-built integrations to common applications and service providers that extend Workday's functionality. The integrations span the entire range of Workday applications including Human Capital Management, Payroll, Payroll interface, Financial Management, and Spend Management. All integrations are hosted and maintained by Workday. These packaged integrations are kept up to date by Workday in regard to the latest compliance and latest tooling and infrastructure. Workday works directly with the 3rd Party Vendor to manage a joint road map to ensure the integration is kept up to date as the 3rd party application evolves. It should be noted that while these are "pre-packaged" solutions that there is still time needed to do the various mapping, troubleshoot, test and deploy the solution.
- Cloud Connect for Benefits (Medical, Dental, Vision, Flexible Spending Accounts, Life and AD&D Insurance, COBRA, Retirement Plans, and Disability) - Contains more than 260 offerings and is constantly growing.
- Cloud Connect for HCM (for example, Account Provisioning, AngelPoints, Cornerstone OnDemand, E-Verify, Kronos, Lumesse, TalentLink, Salesforce.com as well as core connectors for locations, requisitions, and various other organizational attributes)
- Cloud Connect for Payroll (for example, ADP Check Print, Service Canada ROE, Tax Filing including ADP and Ceridian as well as Canada T4, T4A, and RL-1, Worksite Reporting and connectors for Payroll Interface, Payroll Interface External Results Inbound, and Generic Country Specific Payroll Interface). In addition, Cloud Connect for third party payroll to providers such as SafeGuard span the globe. Safeguard is live in over 50 countries
- Cloud Connect for Financials (for example, Electronic Payments, Customer Credit Card Payments, Bank Account Statement Load, Payment Acknowledgment, EDI Check Print Service)
- Cloud Connect for Expenses (for example, American Express, Bank of America Visa, Citibank Visa (CCF) as well as connectors for Supplier Network (Punchout, Purchase Order and invoice))
- Enterprise Interface Builder (EIB): You can create and use Enterprise Interface Builders (EIB) to build simple integrations with Workday. EIB gives you a framework to build your own inbound or outbound integrations based on unique business requirements. For example, you can import data into Workday from an Excel spreadsheet to perform a high volume business process, such as hiring a group of employees or requesting mass compensation changes. You can create an outbound export of data that will contain all active employees from Workday in an Excel Spreadsheet to send it to E*Trade Equity Edge via SFTP. The transport of the data can be via email, SFTP, FTP/SSL or FPT as well as HTTP/SSL. There is also an easier-to-use Wizard Design Method for creating the inbound or outbound integrations.
- Workday Studio is an Integrated Development Enviornment that you or your services partner will use to create complex hosted integrations. Workday Studio Custom Integration are the most complex integrations. Using the application on your desktop, you create the aspects of the integration system and deploy it to the Cloud, where it can then be used via the Production Tenant.
- Workday Web Services (WWS) provide customers with a programmatic public API for On-Demand Workday Business Management Services. These Web-Services are implemented using the industry standard web services which encompass WSDL, SOAP, REST and the WS-* standards. WWS are versioned to ensure stability and backwards compatibility.
It varies depending on the technology that is used whether it is a Report, a Cloud Connect, an EIB, a Studio Integration or a combination thereof. Studio integrations are always the most complex to implement and maintain; whereas the Cloud Connect integrations are the most simplest and easy to develop.
- Workday is constantly working with new vendors to develop Cloud Connect Integrations and some partners are Preferred Integration Partners that co-develop the pre-built integrations.
- Workday provides an online community where customers can create or vote on brainstorms for new functionality to be added in future updates.
- Workday provides another area where customers can pull from the Solution Catalog. These are shared solutions donated by members of the Workday Ecosystem and include, but are not limited to a business process definition, calculated field, a custom report definition, an EIB Definition, Security Configuration, a Studio Project, training or launch materials, or basic Workday setup data.
Yes. Workday's certified integrations are fully documented, supported by Workday partners, and are rigorously tested. Ultimately, this means that Workday can reduce the analysis design and build phases of customer implementations.
- File import/export
- Single Signon
- API (e.g. SOAP or REST)
- ETL tools
Communicate EARLY and OFTEN with the 3rd Party Vendors. I cannot stress the importance of this enough when working with my customers. It is very very important to communicate the schedule to the 3rd Party Vendor, discuss high level milestone dates, and set up status calls on a regular cadence during the key testing dates of the project.
Once you have signed with Workday and before you have the Project Kick-Off, be sure to alert the vendors that you are moving to a new system and ask that you get assigned a primary point of contact for the implementation. Set up calls and hold everyone accountable for the successful delivery of the integration.
Often times the project team is ready to test before the vendor can be ready.
Once you have signed with Workday and before you have the Project Kick-Off, be sure to alert the vendors that you are moving to a new system and ask that you get assigned a primary point of contact for the implementation. Set up calls and hold everyone accountable for the successful delivery of the integration.
Often times the project team is ready to test before the vendor can be ready.
Relationship with Workday
Upgrading Workday Human Capital Management
Yes - Workday has recently changed the process for updates; now they are down to two major updates a year. All customers were converted to the latest version over a planned weekend and it went faster than was expected.
Often times customers do ask how to best manage the updates. Workday provides customers in Production a Sandbox Preview Tenant; a tenant that is continuously updated with new features until the 5 weeks prior to a scheduled Workday Release (ie, Workday 24). This allows customers to test new functionality as it becomes available in between the updates. This Sandbox Preview tenant generally contains features that are targeted for the next release, although it is not 100% guaranteed. Workday could undergo changes based on feedback or new desired behavior, or the opposite could happen, and the feature could be retracted completely and never released. Finally, Workday provides customers with in-depth release notes and also checklists for update weekends.
Your implementation partner may also have a service offering to provide various Update Services (ie, recommendations on what to take advantage of)
Often times customers do ask how to best manage the updates. Workday provides customers in Production a Sandbox Preview Tenant; a tenant that is continuously updated with new features until the 5 weeks prior to a scheduled Workday Release (ie, Workday 24). This allows customers to test new functionality as it becomes available in between the updates. This Sandbox Preview tenant generally contains features that are targeted for the next release, although it is not 100% guaranteed. Workday could undergo changes based on feedback or new desired behavior, or the opposite could happen, and the feature could be retracted completely and never released. Finally, Workday provides customers with in-depth release notes and also checklists for update weekends.
Your implementation partner may also have a service offering to provide various Update Services (ie, recommendations on what to take advantage of)
- With the latest update, customers were actually upgraded to the latest visual redesign of Workday. The visual redesign restyled the entire user interface to reduce clutter and increase efficiency. There were significant improvements made to the manager and employee self-service tasks. It definitely made the experience more consistent across all applications and made Workday more intuitive.
- I expect that there will be a lot of enhancements regarding increased usability for various worktags; especially as Workday continues to broaden the Financials footprint. I foresee a lot of activity surrounding the mobile experience and user interface, especially around translations. I believe Workday will be targeting enhancements to Big Data analytics.
- It should be noted that Workday conducts several webinars for customers to interface with the Product Management team. There is also a website within the Workday Community that outlines features that are being updated, including documentation, scheduled maintenance and even the top brainstorm ideas.