A complete suite of business management services:
•Human Capital Management
•Payroll
•Financial Management
•Procurement
•Resource management
•Business Intelligence
Delivery Model – only over the internet
Intended users: employees, managers, back office.
Workday offers Employee/Manager Self-Service
“Under the hood”: SAAS, multi-tenant architecture – can support all of its customers in a single instance of the database
Integration Model
Workday offers hosted, packaged integration built on natively generated web services and delivered using embedded enterprise service bus (ESB) technology. Object Management Server, the core of the solution, speaks only XML. UI servers convert XML into files according to client’s needs – PDF, Excel, etc.
Workday allows universal, standards-based connectivity for virtually all types of business applications, information and processes.
Security
Database security:
Encryption Strength: AES cipher, 256-bit key
Workday encrypts every single attribute value before it is written in the database. The database sees only encrypted values, so backup files and log files contain only encrypted values. This is not possible with the conventional database schema, but workdays’ database architecture makes this possible.
Security for Communications - TLS (SSL 3.0): strong key sizes, no weak cipher suites, secure session keys to prevent hijacking.
Web Services Security: WS-Security support, Communication uses TLS (SSL 3.0)
Internet Data Centers Security:
Redundant power, HVAC, Internet connectivity, Backup Power
Physically secure
Workday owns and operates all servers
OMS guarantees one consistent approach for secured access. Robust set of password rules, multiple levels of authentication control.
Authorization: users have traditional and derived roles. Derived roles - based on the information in the database (system of record for jobs, so Workday can determine who has access to what). For example, if the manger has moved to another department, s/he automatically gains/ loses access to the department’s information.
Configuration vs. Customization
•The application is highly flexible
•The system is built with the philosophy that shortcuts should be everywhere and that power users should be able to support business change without involving IT.
Reporting/Metrics/Dashboards
Built-in Business Intelligence: Workday provides more than 1200 operational reports that deliver the information executives, managers, HR specialists, employees, and auditors need. These reports are available in a browser, as PDFs or as Excel spreadsheets. Custom report writing is available as well.
Dashboard – Workday users have personalized “My Workday” pages that present the tasks that need to be accomplished. Tailored to fit 3 types of users: casual users, managers and power users.
Upgrade Model - Workday provides updates
Global Functionality:
Workday is designed to support multi: -language, -currency, -business entity, etc. in a single global instance, enabling users to track and manage business activity locally while providing a view of your organization as a single consistent entity.
Audit Reports
Non-destructive data updates – application data is never over-written; rather the new value is recorded and can see a history of value at any point in time. Audit reports can be by user or by object.
Data transfer covered by contract acceptable to EU (“Model Contract”). Workday achieved EU Safe Harbor certification in 2007.
Cost Model – subscription fee based model
Support Model - Saas is customer driven. Saas puts the customer in a driver’s seat. It eliminates really expensive IT items: servers, database software, operating systems, people who have to support it, etc. Saas can really shrink the overall costs of supporting a large customer base. This allows the company to focus on one product – one instance instead of wasting time on products installed at the customers’ premises. The company can throw all its resources to make that version superb.
