Innovation in Financial Management. How Workday is Breaking the Barriers of Legacy ERP

Transcription

1 Innovation in Financial Management How Workday is Breaking the Barriers of Legacy ERP

2 Innovation in Financial Management How Workday Is Breaking the Barriers of Legacy ERP Contents Innovation from the Ground Up 2 5 Steps to a Better Financial Management Solution Step 1: Rethink How Business Behaves 3 Step 2: Respect the Basics 6 Step 3: Repackage Into a Holistic, Unified System 6 Step 4: Rebuild on the Latest Architecture 8 Step 5: Replace Costly Delivery Model with a More Cost-Efficient One 10 How Workday Fundamentally Improves Enterprise Finance 10 Summary 11 Innovation from the Ground Up Today we are in the midst of unprecedented technology innovation. Between mobile devices with interactive touch screens, 3D effects in movies and television, and almost ubiquitous Internet access from anywhere in the world, it seems there is a new technology solution for almost everything. in no vate (verb): Make changes in something established, esp. by introducing new methods, ideas, or products Why then, within the ERP space, has innovation had difficulty getting traction? While the general public becomes more savvy at getting information through the Internet and various devices become easier to use, business executives are still struggling to get timely and accurate information about the financial status of their organizations, even though all of the data they need is captured right in their own systems. SAP Releases R/2 Windows 1.0 GUI First commercial Fall of Berlin Wall; World Wide Web Reengineering the The Balanced Scorecard ERP is born hits the mainstream (Eudora) introduced Outsourcing / Off- (WWW) is invented Corporation by by Kaplan and Norton shoring strategies Hammer & Champy starts the Business emerge. creates demand for Performance Management business process (BPM) market agility Hong Kong reverts to Chinese control; The Sarbanes-Oxley Commercialization of WWW sets the stage for ebusiness First XBRL prototype presented to AICPA SaaS concept introduced Act ushers in a new era of corporate governance SEC proposes allowing IFRS statements Today 2

3 The truth is that ERP systems, while innovative in their day, have difficulty keeping up with the evolving business landscape. Although financial systems can still crank out journal entries and Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP) reports, the ERP technology model has struggled to provide the agility, visibility, and controls needed beyond basic accounting. New requirements such as the need for internal governance and controls, rapid globalization, changing reporting standards like IFRS and XBRL, and several new accounting trends have all been haphazardly appended onto the rigid, unyielding ERP core. The result is excessively large, complex, and expensive ERP solutions that monopolize the time and energy of IT departments just to keep the lights on. Why can t ERP do this well? The short answer is because ERP was designed before these problems became problems. The requirements that would be needed in the future simply could not be anticipated, and when ERP vendors tried to adapt, they couldn t. If anything, ERP solutions have become their own worst enemies when it comes to their ability to meet the needs of modern business. What is the solution then? Innovation and agility, of course. ERP solved the original problem of doing the accounting, but a new system is needed to address the problems of today as well as those that will come tomorrow. We are long overdue for another paradigm shift in the enterprise business system industry...the functionality has expanded, and the technology has gotten more sophisticated, but ERP systems are still largely the same as when Gartner defined the category in This white paper tells the story of a revolutionary approach to financial management and accounting systems. It explains how Workday has built a solution that is relevant to today s challenges and opportunities by re-thinking, re-architecting, and re-building a financial management and accounting solution that leverages the best today s technologies have to offer. Founded by the industry leaders who created PeopleSoft, Workday Financial Management addresses the technical and business shortcomings of aging ERP systems. Read on to find out more about the extraordinary benefits that CFOs and their companies can realize by considering Workday as an alternative to traditional ERP/financial software products. 5 Steps to a Better Financial Management Solution Step 1: Rethink How Business Behaves Executives, managers, and knowledge workers need information far beyond financial accounting data. They need to be able to see and understand a full view of the business the who, what, where, when, and why of business events and their impact on the enterprise. In today s climate of constant change, increasing regulatory oversight, and instant information access, business people need to have faster access to real information about what is really going on with their business. Without this information, they will not be able to change or adapt as quickly as the market increasingly demands. So why can t traditional systems adequately meet these needs? More Than Debits and Credits Traditional ERP systems were built primarily to address financial accounting requirements, not provide a full view of the business. As a result, these systems are based on the concepts of debits and credits, journal entries, the chart of accounts, and the general ledger. While this allows ERP finance systems to adequately deliver financial reports to external parties (investors and regulators) according to GAAP, they fail miserably in serving the business people of the organization. Jim Shepherd, Gartner Analyst 1 Jim Shepherd, What Comes After ERP? (Gartner Commentary) August 1,

4 Accounting is a requirement of business, but it s not the reason for doing business. Business is about commerce. Mark Nittler, VP of Applications Strategy, Workday Workday realized that it needed to capture a much broader foundation of information beyond debits and credits in order to adequately satisfy the needs of the business user. To do so, Workday has modeled the building blocks of business information: The resources acquired and used to support workers and deliver value to customers The people (workers and business entities) with which an organization does business The activities or events (buy, sell, hire, fire) businesses engage in to achieve their objectives Understanding this information provides breadth (across all types of transactions,) as well as depth of detail (by ensuring all appropriate information is captured when each transaction takes place) that gives color to the who, what, where, when, and why questions that may arise later. This data is stored in what Workday calls the Business Event Repository and forms the foundation for Workday s approach to reporting as well as accounting. Thanks to the completeness of information captured, bolt-on data warehouses are no longer necessary. The next step was to design a way to access and group the data that makes it meaningful to the many types of business users out there, from accountants to executives to operational managers. Unlocking the Chains of the Code Block Workday took a long, hard look at what was inhibiting traditional ERP systems from effectively delivering both financial and operational reporting and insight. Traditional Solutions Workday Business Event What event occurred Who initiated the event When did it happen How much was it For which company For which cost center For other Worktags For other Worktags Journal Based Business Event/Object Based 4

5 Traditional systems are structured entirely around a GL code block the central core structure that defines the chart of accounts and drives the accounting for the business. Unfortunately, the code block is notoriously inflexible; expanding it to capture information beyond financial accounting is expensive and difficult for a number of reasons: The code block is tied to physical data storage, so any additional field or dimension would drive significant (and expensive) system overhead. The code block is defined at the top of the enterprise, so everyone using the system faces the same set of fields. It is impossible to limit the fields seen by individuals, and impractical to add department-specific code block fields. Once implemented, the code block is figuratively set in concrete, meaning the accounting system cannot easily or economically accommodate change. This rigidity results in the proliferation of spreadsheets and bolt-on reporting solutions that engulf ERP financial systems today. Clearly, the limitations of the code block approach will not support a system targeted at the broader set of data needed to support the full business. To replace the code block, Workday created the concept of Worktags. Strongly inspired by the Web 2.0 concept of tagging 2, a Worktag is an attribute assigned (i.e., tagged) to a business event, thus helping to describe the event and enabling multi-dimensional aggregation, reporting, The difference between a Worktag and a typical tag is that rather than being merely nominal, Worktags actually link events to specific business objects. For example, when an employee creates a purchase order or expense report, some Worktags can be automatically added to the transaction, such as the employee s name, his department, and his cost center. However, the employee could also add additional Worktags, such as a customer (if the purchase is for a customer project) or an initiative that his team is working on. Each of these things (business objects) is represented in Workday, so they are all available immediately to be added as Worktags. Once Worktags have been added to transactions, reporting becomes a matter of finding all of the events that relate to the specific business object and presenting the data together. For instance, if you want to see Spend by Department (say the Marketing department), Workday simply gathers all events that were tagged with the Marketing Worktag. If you want to see spend by cost center, employee, or even a customer, you can get that information very easily out of Workday as well. Worktags are far more agile than traditional code block fields. Rather than being completely reliant on a preconceived, hard-to-change code block, Worktags can evolve as business needs evolve. Each time a new employee, customer, project, or organization is created, they are immediately available to be used as Worktags. And if there is something not yet tracked by Workday, new Worktags can be easily added to the system for better insight into financial and operational data. and analysis of business information. 2 In Web 2.0 parlance, a tag is a keyword associated with or assigned to a piece of information, thus describing the item and enabling tag-based classification and information search. Tagging is easier and more powerful than fitting information into limited, preconceived categories or folders. 5

6 Step 2: Respect the Basics In reinventing enterprise finance solutions, Workday s primary focus was to ensure the system provided excellent support for the basics. No amount of innovation will make up for a system that cannot pay suppliers, receive payments from customers, or close the books. A top priority for Workday Financial Management is to support the basic transaction processing and accounting functions of the Finance department. With the foundation of data in the Business Event Repository, Workday identifies which transactions have a financial impact and can create the resulting accounting easily. Since all activities are captured within the system, accounting becomes a natural, seamless outcome of managing the business. In this way, Workday Financial Management includes the functionality the enterprise has come to expect in the way of general ledger accounting, accounts payable, accounts receivable, and the like. An additional benefit that Workday gains from taking an event-driven approach is that it can also accommodate multiple types of accounting principles such as U.S. GAAP, IFRS, cash, or specific regulatory schemes. Any accounting standard you choose can be derived from the same source of data for accuracy and consistency across your entire business. Step 3: Repackage Into a Holistic, Unified System Traditional ERP systems have evolved into a Frankenstein s monster of software. To keep these systems functioning, vendors (and customers) wrap the old systems with multiple layers of compensating bolt-on technology (e.g., integration platforms, mobile platforms, reporting systems, etc.). This strategy adds weight, complexity, and cost to systems that are already too heavy, too complex, and too expensive. Because Workday started from scratch, capabilities available in traditional ERP only through these technology wrappers and bolt-ons have been built directly into the core of the Workday solution. 6

7 This improvement over legacy financial systems is analogous to a similar design challenge conquered in the automotive world: how to incorporate use of a wide range of personal technology innovations, including CDs, MP3 players, cell phones, and satellite navigation systems into the car s user interface, typically the dashboard console. Initially, these new technologies were accommodated with one-off adapters, which typically plugged into a car s cigarette lighter. However, in late-model cars from innovative manufacturers, the bolt-on functions have been repackaged into a completely redesigned dashboard console. For example, an Apple ipod can be plugged in and operated with the radio controls. If the driver s cell phone rings, the sound system s volume lowers. Workday brings the same level of fundamental improvement to the way enterprise financial systems support their users. Features and functions built into Workday that are typically wrappers or bolt-ons in traditional systems include: Natural Workspace Orientation: Through a native web user interface, Workday is accessible from any device with a browser and Internet connection. Enhanced experiences for specific applications and devices (such as Microsoft Outlook or the Apple ipad and iphone ) also are available. Role-Based Security: Permissions, management approvals, and transaction limits are all built into the fabric of the system and share the same core structure as Workday Human Capital Management for seamless and effortless security and controls management. Workflow: The Workday system incorporates built-in workflow. All processes are defined and orchestrated using the built-in Workday Business Process Framework. Business Intelligence: Embedded and actionable business insight is included as part of the core system. E-commerce: New e-commerce standards are easily leveraged, providing collaborative payments to and from the business. Services Procurement: Workday avoids the limitations of manufacturing-driven procurement; the capability to purchase services, including contract labor, is built in at the core. Governance and Compliance: Internal control, month-end close, and auditability are built into the fabric of the system. Integration Technology: Workday reduces the burden of building and maintaining integrations by delivering integration technology as part of the foundation of the system. Building these capabilities into the core of the system reduces complexity and cost while making them much easier to use and manage. iphone and ipad are registered trademarks of Apple, Inc. 7

8 Step 4: Rebuild on the Latest Architecture The complexity, inflexibility, and expense of traditional systems can largely be traced to the dated technology on which those systems were built, including relational databases, PC-based user interfaces, and 3GL development tools. Depending upon these old technologies makes it extremely difficult, if not impossible, for legacy ERP vendors to adapt to today s changes. Workday takes a modern approach to creating enterprise applications by leveraging market-proven, advanced technologies such as object orientation, web services, service-oriented architecture (SOA), Web 2.0 technologies, and an event-driven functional design. All of these new tools allow Workday to address and adapt to the changing needs of today s fast-paced businesses. The significant problems we face today cannot be solved at the same level of thinking we were at when we created them. Albert Einstein Object Orientation The previous generation of enterprise systems were designed around complex, relational database management system (RDBMS) models, consisting of thousands of tables that store fixed relationships between business objects. These systems rely on redundant data for the navigational aids that support data access. Not surprisingly, business systems built upon RDBMS models have become difficult to decipher, complex to manage, inflexible in the face of business change, and expensive to operate. The 30-year-old RDBMS core has become one of the most significant limitations of the systems in predominant use today. Workday solutions are built differently. They embody simplicity, agility, and economy because they are based on an object model that works more like the real world. Workday treats people, organizations, and things as they should be treated i.e., like people, organizations, and things. Object orientation enables dynamic relationships between different types of information, without being locked into a rigid database structure. This is what enables Worktags to be so fluid and accessible from everywhere in the system. It is also what makes supporting multiple accounting standards much easier than in traditional RDBMS-based systems. Modern Web Services and Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA) No business solution is an island, although most legacy ERP applications seem to work that way. Traditional integration strategies such as application programming interfaces (APIs) and middleware have helped, but in the end, it is still the customer s problem to make their systems work together. As technology has improved, however, Workday is taking on more of the burden of integrations rather than foisting the problem of integrations onto the customer. The Workday Integration Cloud 3 provides a comprehensive solution that enables customers and partners to build and deploy integrations to the Workday Cloud without the need for any on-premise middleware. With standardsbased web services APIs, Workday provides complete programmatic access to business operations and processes. Rather than assume that the Workday system is the only and most important system in the world, Workday expects and helps facilitate smooth information flow for more fluid and natural sharing of data. 3 For more information, download the Simplifying Enterprise Integration with the Workday Integration Cloud whitepaper on 8

9 Increasingly, customers want their middleware bundled with the application stack. The less integration work they have to do themselves, the more they like it. Phil Wainewright, ZDNet 4 Web 2.0 Social and Mobile Technologies Workday embodies social computing philosophies and Web 2.0 technologies, making it easy to learn and use, taking the most successful approaches from consumer web sites like Amazon.com and Facebook and applying them to enterprise software. This approach means Workday solutions change the traditional user-system relationship. Rather than having user interfaces that are completely utilitarian and unattractive, Workday prioritizes the user experience for all types of users, from executives to everyday employees. Through the use of colors, icons, links, buttons, and drill-down charts, Workday measures up to modern expectations by providing a user experience that is intuitive, easy to Built-in Business Process Workflow Workday also provides embedded business process management to control and ensure the appropriate workflows, approvals, and reviews. Business process steps are not hardwired; they are a sequence of business events coupled together with workflow. Steps can be added, removed, modified, or made conditional based on specific criteria. Business processes can also be configured for specific organizations (e.g., if different rules were applicable only in specific regions), or inherited for consistency across organizations. This allows business processes to be configured to match your organizations exact needs, even if they differ by organization or region, while being controlled centrally for company-wide control and oversight. In addition to improved control, the business processes are easily adjustable at any time after go-live. That is, if business needs change, governmental regulations become stricter, or expansion into new countries continues, the system can adapt naturally while allowing you to maintain the structure and control you want across your business. learn, and a pleasure to use. 5 Workday naturally extends the modern user interface to the mobile experience for today s technology-savvy users. Workday s simple-to-use philosophy applies easily to smaller, handheld devices such as smartphones, iphones, and ipads. Any device with a web browser and Internet connection can access real-time data in Workday. This accessibility, along with related mobile apps, are all available without an additional mobile technology platform or additional cost. 4 Another ERP buys into middleware, Phil Wainewright, ZDNet, February 6, 2008, ZDNet blog entry. 5 For more information, download The Workday User Experience whitepaper on 9

10 Step 5: Replace Costly Delivery Model with a More Cost Efficient One The traditional ERP business model is heavily rigged in favor of the supplier: make the customer pay for high cost perpetual license, assume all installation and operational risk and cost, pay for consulting and implementation, pay for upgrades, and pay for maintenance. This model benefits the vendor more than the customer, because at each step or change in the market, the vendor can demand more money from the customer to stay up to date. However, a new software delivery model, Software-as-a-Service (SaaS), has become a cost-effective and advantageous way to select and deploy software across an entire organization. SaaS is quickly becoming recognized as the delivery model of choice for business applications thanks to benefits that include faster deployments, more predictable costs, transference of risk to the vendor, reallocation of IT resources, and global accessibility, oversight, and control. How Workday Fundamentally Improves Enterprise Finance rev o lu tion ar y (adj): radical; markedly new; involving or causing a complete or dramatic change; a revolutionary discovery Thanks to the many innovations incorporated into Workday Financial Management, organizations that adopt Workday can expect to transform the enterprise finance function in the following ways: Real-Time Information: Thanks to the objectoriented, in-memory architecture, Workday shatters the well-worn theory that you cannot combine transaction processing and business intelligence in a single system. By effectively capturing business events and dynamically using Worktags, Workday can do exactly that. Not only do you have a more robust base of information, you can access it more quickly even at the point of decision-making to empower and enlighten your business decisions to the benefit of your business. 10

11 Continued Agility: Workday allows companies to respond to market dynamics much faster and take advantage of business opportunities as soon as they are identified even after implementation and without a major technology overhaul. Workday uniquely imparts three types of postimplementation agility: Organizational Agility: With Workday s flexible organizational model, you can easily and accurately model your organization in real time. Business process will also automatically update, taking into account new reporting relationships between individuals and organizations. This provides better insight and process control throughout your business. Process Agility: Web service-based, eventdriven applications and built-in workflow allow enterprise processes to be easily configured, adapted, and changed. Configure business processes to exactly match your needs for specific organizations, and centrally control them for complete oversight of your business. Informational Agility: Because information in Workday is tagged, not trapped in thousands of RDBMS tables, its availability in the Workday system is determined by need and use, rather than locked in by initial implementation decisions. Add new reporting dimensions whenever necessary and never be constrained by a rigid, immobile code block again. Better Control: To effectively manage risk, governance and control have to be at the core of the solution; they cannot be bolted-on. Workday features configurable and transparent business processes and controls, configurable security, and a comprehensive audit trail built into the fabric of the system. Economic Advantage: Workday replaces highcost traditional enterprise applications with technology that costs less to implement, maintain, and upgrade, thanks to the SaaS delivery model. Overall application cost is lower because many of the bolt-on functions that must be purchased separately for ERP systems are already integrated into Workday. Additionally, at a strategic business level, Workday affords superior upside because it enables the organizational agility required to pursue evolving business opportunities. Summary Businesses today have an alternative to legacy ERP. Workday is leading the charge with revolutionary innovation that can give businesses a real competitive edge by modeling the way that businesses operate and providing the flexibility to fit your unique business requirements today, and, perhaps more importantly, as they change over time. Workday Financial Management combines a comprehensive set of planning, accounting, and business intelligence capabilities to satisfy a wide range of internal and external audiences. In a single, unified system, Workday uniquely delivers: Simplicity: Workday solutions are easy to understand, implement, and use. Agility: Workday solutions easily adapt to business change based on need and use. Insight: Real-time access to core transactional data allows executives and managers to get meaningful information faster than ever before. Confidence: Governance and control, built into the core of the system, provide confidence in the numbers. Economy: SaaS delivery, Web 2.0 usability, and built-in mobile and business intelligence capabilities reduce operating and maintenance costs. 11

12 Today s businesses can no longer afford to be constrained by financial solutions rooted in old technologies that have been surpassed by innovation. CFOs should recognize their aspirations to make a difference in their finance organizations, companies, and the business world will be catalyzed by the proper technology. The right technology significantly enhances the probability of success, while the wrong technology will thwart even the best intentions and efforts. Workday uniquely empowers CFOs and finance organizations with financial management technology that is nothing short of revolutionary, imparting unsurpassed agility, informational access, and economic benefit. About Workday Workday is the leader in enterprise-class, Software-as-a- Service (SaaS) solutions for managing global businesses, combining a lower cost of ownership with an innovative approach to business applications. Founded by PeopleSoft veterans Dave Duffield and Aneel Bhusri, Workday delivers unified Human Capital Management, Payroll, and Financial Management solutions designed for today s organizations and the way people work. Delivered in the cloud leveraging a modern technology platform, Workday offers a fresh alternative to legacy ERP. More than 310 customers, spanning medium-sized organizations to Fortune 50 businesses, have selected Workday. Visit us at Workday, Inc Stoneridge Mall Road Pleasanton, CA United States WORKDAY ( ) Fax: Workday, Inc. All rights reserved. Workday and the Workday logo are registered trademarks of Workday, Inc. All other brand and product names are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective holders. INNOVFINMGMT