Tuesday, 7 November 2006

PeopleSoft Cofounder, David Duffield, Launches Workday ERP Software

Workday, founded in March 2005 by Dave Duffield has unveiled Workday Enterprise Business Services and the general availability of its first suite, Workday Human Capital Management. The company aims to provide mid- to large-sized companies with an alternative...

Workday, founded in March 2005 by Dave Duffield has unveiled Workday Enterprise Business Services and the general availability of its first suite, Workday Human Capital Management. The company aims to provide mid- to large-sized companies with an alternative to traditional enterprise software.

Workday will take on the ERP market with hosted applications using a subscription-based licensing model. It will offer human capital management applications initially, with finance management tools due next year, and resource management and supply-chain applications to follow. It's a business model that Salesforce.com turned into a fast-growth strategy in CRM, and that software vendors such as Microsoft, Oracle, and SAP have only selectively employed. But the complexity of ERP will likely make this area a tougher sell than salesforce-management and customer information application, he said.

"The combination of today’s dynamic business environment and major technology advancements has offered us a great opportunity to create a new breed of ERP—one that is not beholden to aging technologies and business models", said Dave Duffield, CEO and co-founder. "In addition to the initial availability of Workday Human Capital Management, we are pleased to be announcing our first two production customers and an important set of strategic partnerships."

The Need for Workday Enterprise Business Services

According to the company, Workday Enterprise Business Services are comprised of four suites of services, the first of which, Human Capital Management. The subsequent suites—Workday Financial Management, Workday Resource Management and Workday Revenue Management—will be rolled out beginning in 2007. All of the Workday Enterprise Business Services share a common foundation:

• On demand: offers web-based delivery, multi-tenant architecture, 24x7x365 availability, and enhanced security
• Agile and Global: quickly adapts to meet your changing business needs
• Intuitive: built for today’s generation of information workers; offers native reporting and analytical tools to help businesses make more timely and informed decisions
• Built-in Auditing: enables tracking of all changes for governance/compliance purposes
• Web Services Integration: offers out-of-the-box, standards-based integration capabilities, minimising complexity and implementation time

• Microsoft: Strategic Development Partner: Workday and Microsoft have begun the efforts to provide integration of Microsoft Office with Workday solutions. The initial focus will be on integration with Microsoft Office Outlook, Microsoft Exchange Server and Microsoft Office SharePoint Server and will be available in 2007.
• Accenture: Preferred Integration Partner: Workday and Accenture are teaming to implement Workday Enterprise Business Services for customers looking for Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) solutions. As such, Accenture has begun training its technology consultants on Workday products and technology.
• ADP: Interface Partner: ADP and Workday have collaborated to build a web services-based integration between Workday HCM and ADP’s PayForcesm payroll offering. These integrations are in production and will be packaged for use by future customers.
• Cape Clear: Technology Partner: Workday has chosen to embed Cape Clear’s open, standards-based Enterprise Service Bus (ESB) Platform, enabling customers to quickly and seamlessly integrate Workday with third party applications using services and SOA technologies.