Recently Workday upgraded customers to Update 20 and briefed analysts on the release. Workday keeps providing these updates on a metronome like pace - which by itself isn't easy and deserves congratulations.
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So what's in Update 20? Here is the breakdown:
- BigData Analytics
The big ticket item is the new BigData Analytics functionality that Workday made available. The functionality was already shared at the Rising conference and the Technology Summit - and I have blogged about it already - so no need to re-iterate.
Just this: Workday is using BigData techniques more to be able to aggregate, mesh 3rd party (or maybe other systems data) and then import it into the Workday object schema for reporting and dashboarding than for insights on the overall Workday and 3rd party data. The very good demo in the briefing call was all about merging sales performance data into a performance review or a sales professional. Sales data, as it looked like from Salesforce.com.
It also is the first item Workday will start charging separately for - till now every major new functionality was included in the basic license price.
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| Screenshot from Workday website |
- NoteBook for iPad
Workday has created a helpful iPad application with Notebooks - a way to make reports and other information easily available, usually for the executive. This ties nicely into the new dashboarding capability gained with BigData Analytics and the two combined creates a great demo and sales pitch tool to executives. That left me at first a little bit disappointed - though to be able to demo well and pitch to executives is a key success factor for any software company as I understand well - but I prefer vendors to put their R&D investments where they move the needle for the majority of users...
But then I remembered the many staff meetings into which an HR manager would sit in - and apart from liaising with the business - would show some key reports or charts. And with that Notebooks is a useful tool not just for briefing an executive - but also for the many HR managers out there in their day to day quest to be closer with the line of business. So with that it's a thumbs up - it will be interesting to see the adoption in a few months. And Workday probably needs a tablet strategy beyond iOS.
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| Screenshot from Workday website |
- New Grid - in Compensation first
With the Update Workday introduces a new grid control, that is more flexible and moves the usability and capability needle of tables closer to the ultimate grid control business users are accustomed to, Microsoft's Excel. It is a welcome upgrade over the previous grid control and looks more 2013. Compensation management with its many inputs and needs to calculate and assess additional information is a great initial showcase. My hope would be, that Workday can roll out a consistent grid experience across its products - maybe with the upcoming UI refresh beyond this Update.
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| Screenshot from Workday website |
- Good Housekeeping
With the Update Workday also provided 207 features and 80 brainstorm items - it wasn't clear if the features include the brainstorm items - but it's good to see Workday listening to customers - we will hear in the coming months from customers how much these have moved the needle in terms of better best practice coverage.
And these features could provide a balance to the more technology focused nature of the update - but Workday has not provided detailed visibility into these.
Equally Workday keeps looking at performance and scalability - with a keen eye on the Big Fin capabilities of its Financials product - but that work will help Workday's products overall.
Coupled with an eye on overall performance and the move to improved code line management, its good to see that Workday practices the good housekeeping principles that SaaS vendors need to live in order to stay on top of the game.
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| Screenshot from DealArchitect blog |
Functional Release Richness still trending down
With Update 19 I provided a quick and dirty assessment of the functional richness of Workday updates in regards of providing more large HCM functional building blocks. And while we all know that recruiting functionality is in the making - and the mobile demos at the Rising conference looked promising - there was no featured HCM business functionality item in this release. The only business functionality Workday highlighted was Endowment Accounting, certainly a key functionality in Financials, but not relevant for the HCM customer base.
Update 15 | Update 16 | Update 17 | Update 18 | Update 19 | Update 20 |
October 2011 | April 2012 | August 2012 | November 2012 | April 2013 | September 2013 |
User Experience - Outlook Integration - Chatter Integration | Mobility HTML5 Support for non IOS devices | Mobility - New modules - Global Support | Workforce Engagement: Team Profile Professional Profile | Headcount Planning | Big Data Analytics |
Talent Management - Talent Reviews - Career Interests - Cornerstone Integration | Onboarding | Time Tracking | Performance Management Enhancements | Android Native Support & iOS Mobile Enhancements | User Experience - Configurable Grids for Compensation |
Payroll - Payroll for Canada - Payroll Connector | Usability Enhancements | Custom Fields | More custom fields | Mobility - Notebooks for iPad | |
Higher Education Functionality | 170 Enhancements | 207 Features / 80 Brainstorm Items |
And while a slow down for large pieces of HCM functionality is to be expected and normal as vendors have provided many of the large functional building blocks - it is a key soft metric to have an eye on - both as a customer and observer of Workday.
On the flipside Workday deserves credit for tackling the common technical debt challenge that arises after being in business for 5+ years with vigor.
Looking ahead
It looks like the investments Workday needs to take on the Financials side, building recruiting and now moving to a new HTML5 interface bind significant development capacity. On top of that, the new Workday Student product for Higher Education will also need to be staffed - though there should be no immediate impact in the near time future as the timetable for this product is quite stretched out.
And while many of technology items are good housekeeping activities, the need for allowing more customization capability can be spun like a red threat across the product releases. With the introduction of custom fields two updates ago, that triggered a more flexible user interface and reporting capability - as users want to see and report on these fields - so new grid controls, new user interface, new dash baording capability come as no surprise, but can be seen as a logical consequence of custom fields.
MyPOV
Workday deserves kudos for delivering another update on track - with the big ticket item of BigData Analytics. With a little different flavor than I would have expected, but Workday is an innovator utilizing Hadoop in the enterprise system space - it remains to be seen how other vendors will interpret and design Hadoop into their analytical capabilities.
At the same time Workday users should have a keen look on the speed of new HCM functionality flowing into the recent and upcoming updates. This maybe a good opportunity for Workday HCM customers to upgrade their internal HR practices to what Workday has already provided in software, but they have not been able to utilize yet. When your vendor invests in technology its a user's opportunity to catch up on best practice implementation.