8/2/2016

Workday vs. PeopleSoft - TechnologyAdvice

Workday vs. PeopleSoft - TechnologyAdvice

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Hundreds of vendors are at war for a piece of the HR software market. Of the companies that aspire to rule your
vast and complex human resources technology, perhaps the most epic battle persists between Peoplesoft and
Workday.
Both are strong choices with a loyal customer base. Both companies provide solid, global, horizontal HR and ERP
solutions for enterprises. Both help large businesses standardize processes to increase organizational efciency.
It turns out these similarities are more than just the result of competitive strategy.
The Offer PeopleSoft Couldnt Refuse
The two vendors arent just erce adversaries. PeopleSoft and Workday are actually siblings both were started
by David Dufeld.
So how did they become rivals?
Founded in 1987, PeopleSoft existed as an independent company, providing an alphabet soup of management
suites. These included HR, FMS, CRM, and ERP. Through these offerings, PeopleSoft grew to be the worlds
second-largest application software company.
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Fast forward to 2003 and technology heavyweight Oracle launched a hostile bid for control of PeopleSoft.
PeopleSoft rejected the initial bid, and the Department of Justice even stepped in to sue Oracle in hopes of
stopping any potential merger. The Justice Departments lawsuit was eventually dismissed by a federal judge
however, and 18 months later Dufeld bowed to shareholders and sold PeopleSoft to Oracle for $10.3 billion.
According to Forbes, this only served to heighten existing negative sentiment, as Oracles original bid was $13
billion. Oracle then went on to re 6,000 of PeopleSofts 11,000 employees immediately after the acquisition.
Dufeld Gets SaaS-y
Dufeld didnt stay away from the enterprise software market for long though. In March 2005, Dufeld and Aneel
Bhusri the former chief strategist at PeopleSoft founded the cloud-based HR and nancial software company
that became Workday. Using the buyout as an opportunity for a fresh start, they set out to develop next-generation
enterprise-grade technology.
Historically, global enterprises required large suites of on-premise applications in order to manage complex and
dynamic operating environments. Workday was designed from the ground up as a SaaS alternative to these
systems, eliminating the up-front investment and annual maintenance fees inherent in traditional software
implementations.
Workdayvs.PeopleSoft
Anyone facing a potential enterprise software upgrade must ensure that the costs dont outweigh the benets. If
your PeopleSoft implementation is particularly large and complex, you may nd yourself at a fork in the road when
contemplating your next upgrade.
You are not alone.
One Morgan Stanley poll found 10 percent of Oracle users plan to switch to Workday for managing employees
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and another 29 percent said they want to take a closer look at their offerings.
But is the change worth it, or is this just an overhyped battle? How different are the two systems, really?
How Theyre Similar
Both PeopleSoft and Workday are strong players in the HR market. PeopleSoft is backed by a global technology
leader, and their focus on integrated systems has made them one of the most modern and comprehensive
providers of business software in the world. Although Workday is recognized as a leader in the HR software
industry, theyre still ghting for a larger piece of the ERP market.
Though the names are varied, both vendors provide a wide variety of similar suites and functionality for large
businesses. The following comparison chart shows their primary offerings.

How Theyre Different

There are a few applications exclusive to PeopleSoft, as well as several internal differentiators that arent
addressed on the surface. Lets examine them below.
Deployment
One of the fundamental differences between PeopleSoft and Workday is their deployment options. Workday is
entirely engineered for cloud deployment, which means every user is always on the latest version since
functionality upgrades are automatically released. There is also the potential for a lower total cost of ownership,
because Workday doesnt require any on-premise hardware or infrastructure.
PeopleSoft also provides cloud deployment, but can be purchased in an on-premise and private cloud
implementation as well. They also offer PeopleTools, an application that allows businesses to tailor their system to
industry-specic needs. These customizations provide thousands of installation options, but also added levels of
complexity which means changing, updating, or eliminating older systems can be an expensive process.
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The vast difference in deployment options often leads the conversation to conguration and customization. Some
companies believe that a pure SaaS solution can never be congured to t their business needs, and eliminate
any solution that does not offer intense customization. But as Naomi Bloom, HRM expert and technology thought
leader, explains in the video above, conguration varies from vendor to vendor. You may be surprised to learn
about the powerful conguration capabilities a good SaaS vendor can tailor to the specic requirements of your
business.
CRM
Oracle offers PeopleSoft CRM, a set of customer service relationship management applications. Their CRM is
tightly integrated with the rest of the PeopleSoft platform, and can be tailored to t sales, marketing, or service
industries.
Currently, Workday does not offer a native CRM application. Instead, theyve forged a partnership with cloud
computing pioneer Salesforce, and offer native integrations.
LMS
Another application exclusive to Peoplesoft is enterprise learning management. Learning management is an
integral part of employee engagement and successful performance management, which is why its surprising to
learn that Workday does not offer an LMS.
However, whats less surprising is Workdays seamless integration with LMS industry leaders Cornerstone
OnDemand and Saba. Not only does Workday continually evolve to release new features, but they focus on
providing partnerships to bridge gaps in their offerings.
When you look at the way the pieces t together, you start to see an Apple strategy emerge. Workday is
so well integrated and functionally consistent (all the modules function very similarly, unlike products
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which are acquired and integrated), that one could say that the whole is greater than the sum of its
parts.Josh Bersin, HR Technology Analyst
User Interface

One area where Workday shines is their intuitive design. Workday was built on modern architecture, and provides
a consumer UI built for the web.

In just two years, their iPhone app has received ve feature updates and a complete UI refresh. This level of
change is the standard for innovative consumer technology, but mostly unheard of in enterprise software.
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Though Peoplesoft has made signicant upgrades to their offerings, their design and UI essentially remain
retrotted for the web.
Final Thoughts
Workday is marketed as an Alternative to ERP for HR and Financial Management and thats a pretty apt
description. Workday is an innovative platform built for the modern workforce, and their technology aligns with the
current trends in IT. Their beginning as an HCM platform provides human resources professionals with a system
designed with the workforce and nancials in mind, while their continuous updates and enterprise focus makes
them a viable choice for a variety of companies.
PeopleSoft, on the other hand, is designed to address the most complex business requirements. This certainly
makes them the leader in terms of market presence and end-to-end functionality, but can also makes installations
a very complex process.
While many businesses are moving to Workday, Oracle continues to offer functionality found in cloud applications
to their on-premise enterprise suite:
The most impressive endorsement for how far Oracle has come with PeopleSoft 9.2 came from a
customer I had a conversation with last week. Two years ago they replaced PeopleSoft HCM with
Workday and they are currently upgrading their PeopleSoft Financials and Supply Chain applications to
9.2. Commenting on how impressed they were with PeopleSoft 9.2 they said, Had we known what
features and functionally 9.2 had to offer two years ago, we never would have switched to Workday.
PeopleSoft 9.2 is a great product.Jeff Micallef, co-founder of MIPRO Consulting
So while others ip op between the two options, what are you to do?
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The rst step is to dene your business goals and strategy, then pinpoint the requirements necessary to achieve
them. Which vendor satises your business needs and provides business value? Which vendors roadmap and
strategy syncs with your ERP or HR strategy?
Forget what company is choosing which vendoryou want to pinpoint the specic congurations that are
relevant to your business. Consider your goal, and choose the technology that helps you achieve it.

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