The Growth of Workday® Financials: What does this mean for you?

Workday® have several finance solutions available to customers, and they’re currently winning a lot of big business. Companies such as American Financial Group, Federal National Mortgage Association, Nuffield Health, Genpact Limited and SS&C Technologies have all deployed Workday®’s financial offerings in the fourth quarter of the financial year 2022. In fact, there were a record number of deployments for core finance modules during this period. This rapid growth could be interesting for employers and candidates. If your organisation is implementing Workday ® financials, you may need to consider how to find the right staff to deal with this, and candidates may need to reassess their skill sets to incorporate finance modules.  

In general, Workday® are entering the 2023 financial year in a strong position; their revenue is up 19% for the year, with 26% growth in their fourth quarter. So why the sudden rush to deploy finance solutions, and what does this mean for you as an employer or a candidate?

During the COVID-19 pandemic, organisations tended to put a freeze on long-term projects, often including those in the office of the CFO. It’s likely that we’re seeing a rush in the uptake of new cloud-based finance solutions as part of the post-pandemic recovery, with frozen projects back in the forefront of businesses’ minds.  

Workday® have also accelerated their finance solutions in terms of what they can offer customers, which now includes their core modules: 

• Workday® Financial Management 
• Workday® Adaptive Planning 
• Workday® Strategic Sourcing 

And incorporating other functions to give more comprehensive solutions for finance processes: 

• Workday® Accounting Centre 
• Workday® Prism Analytics 
• Workday® Spend Management 

There are some new innovations and features that could also be contributing to the increase in deployments. Workday® have highlighted the functionality of their intelligent data core. Workday Accounting Centre allows customers to blend operational and transactional data into a single accounting source.  In an interview with Cloud Wars’ Bob Evans in March 2022, Aneel Bhasri (Co-CEO and founder) discussed how important it is for companies to consider their data (or their customers’ data) when using technical solutions. Workday® act as a data processor, but any data inputted into a Workday® system still belongs to the customer. This keeps the process simple and secure, as opposed to social media companies, for example, where the data is then owned by that company and things become more complex.  

Workday® Adaptive Planning allows for collaborative forecasting and budgeting, powered by machine learning. Workday® are investing heavily in machine learning to offer customers a way to continuously track and plan across their organisations, making them more adaptable to change. 

They’ve incorporated machine learning into other modules as well, such as Financial Management and Spend Management. The technology is capable of automating processes to allow finance teams more time and efficiency, so they can focus on more significant tasks and projects. 

There is an encouraging move within organisations to get projects back up and running and move innovations within their companies forward. This should give employers a positive outlook and increased confidence in the economic climate.  

Is your organisation deploying Workday® Financial solutions, or considering it?  

With the growth of financial module uptakes, this will inevitably lead to a growth in demand for Workday® professionals that have acquired the correct skills to implement and use this technology. Getting in touch with a specialist Workday® recruitment consultancy, like Focus on WD, sooner rather than later can ensure you beat the rush and secure the talent you need to progress your organisation’s plans forward. 

As a candidate, now would be a great time to add some new strings to your bow, if you aren’t skilled in the core finance modules already. You are already in demand, but we will likely see a rise in the demand for these skills in particular as a result of the increased deployments of Workday®’s financial offerings within new business. 

If you’re interested in discussing what opportunities might be available to you, or you’re looking for Workday® talent, get in touch with one of our specialist consultants.