Advances in Managing Data Create New Levels of Insight and Performance Accountability for Today’s Agile Organizations
SINGAPORE
– Media OutReach – 30
October 2020 – Workday
Inc.
(NASDAQ: WDAY), a leader in enterprise cloud applications for finance and human resources, today announced availability of Workday Accounting Center and machine learning (ML)-driven predictive forecasts for Workday Adaptive Planning, as well as additional functionality across its finance
offerings, to drive insights, agility, and efficiency. These innovations
transform the way customers engage with data, bringing new levels of visibility
and control to the office of the Chief Financial Officer (CFO).
Today’s finance teams are challenged to achieve greater agility
amidst the ever-changing business landscape heightened by the pandemic.
Real-time data and insights are key to agility, yet many finance organizations
have disconnected data sources and legacy accounting systems, which can no
longer keep pace in today’s changing world. Valuable time is spent collecting,
reconciling, and validating data instead of delivering trusted insights to the
organization. To address these critical challenges, Workday continues to
advance its cloud planning and financial management solutions with ML and data
management capabilities.
Creating Agility with an
Intelligent Data Foundation
Workday is going beyond the boundaries of traditional ERP
systems to solve a problem that has plagued the industry for decades–keeping up
with the ever-increasing volume of operational data and turning it into
accounting and insight faster and more efficiently. Now commercially available, with early
adopters such as CNA and Shelter Insurance currently in
production, Workday Accounting Center represents a fundamental change in the
way finance manages operational data.
Workday Accounting Center enables customers to ingest operational data, enrich it with
meaningful attributes, and transform it into accounting. This allows customers
to manage operational and financial data from multiple sources with a single
point of control across the enterprise.
For
example, with Workday Accounting Center, an insurance company is able to load
its operational transactions–such as claims or policy data–into the system,
create accounting (journal) entries for those transactions, and then report and
analyze on those transactions with full drill down and visibility into the source transactions, which
is called data lineage. This eliminates the need for finance teams to rely on
information technology (IT), with cost savings estimated to be upwards of 50
percent to maintain accounting rules. Combining Workday Prism Analytics and Workday Financial Management creates an intelligent data foundation
that also fuels ML-enabled transactions and processes.
Machine
Learning Powers Intelligent Planning, Delivers Predictive Forecasts
Planning has become even more critical for organizations
managing through the pandemic, with forecasting activity increasing up to 30X from pre-pandemic operations. To enable forecasting with even
greater accuracy, Workday continues to evolve its intelligent planning
capabilities, which allows planning without limits and anticipates what’s next
with greater accuracy and confidence, harnessing ML at the core.
Using time series prediction–the process of modeling events over
a period of time to make more accurate predictions–Workday applies the power of
ML to enable predictive analytics with Workday Adaptive Planning. The ML
algorithms use historical and current data to predict likely outcomes for
revenue, expenses, and other critical business variables creating a predictive
forecast. Predictive forecasts are created based on thousands or even hundreds
of thousands of data points aggregated from across the enterprise, including
sales, HR, marketing, and manufacturing data, for example. Using anomaly
detection in Workday Adaptive Planning, anomalies are identified and
automatically flag a planner about a potential issue. New reporting
capabilities make it easy to compare an ML-driven forecast against a planner’s
forecast to detect potential problems before either forecast is acted on, so
organizations can make better decisions with confidence.
With predictive forecasting embedded in the analytics engine of
Workday Adaptive Planning, it will continue to learn over time, and the more
data is added, even greater insights will be gained. The predictive forecasting
capability is available now to all Workday Adaptive Planning customers.
Continuous Innovation for the Office of Finance
The latest release from Workday also includes key advances
for customers in the office of the CFO focused on enabling deeper insight and
accountability for performance. Notable advancements include:
-
Embedded ad hoc analysis on real-time
data. The
availability of Discovery Boards reflects Workday’s enduring focus on embedding
analytics in core finance applications. With Discovery Boards, accounting and
finance teams are able to easily see and analyze data in real time on live
Workday transactions–all in one system. With access to nearly
200 data sources across core financial management and spend management,
customers can easily and securely perform ad-hoc analysis with an embedded
drag-and-drop visualization tool.
-
Unified planning and execution. Workday customers can now publish plans
from Workday Adaptive Planning directly to Workday Financial Management and
vice versa, making it easy to compare actuals to plan in the same system,
further streamlining finance processes. This provides easier access for
real-time analysis and compresses the planning and execution cycle for greater
agility.
Comments on the News
“We continue to deliver on our vision for the changing world of
finance by expanding data management, self-service analyses, and machine learning-fueled
processes to help finance leaders better navigate continuous disruption and
change,” said Barbara Larson, general manager, Workday Financial Management.
“These innovations unlock the power of data in new ways, empowering customers
with eye-opening insights that were previously difficult–or even
impossible–to glean. Together with our customers we’re creating frictionless
finance processes and best practices that deliver greater value to the
organization.”
“With Workday Accounting Center, we’ve been able to retire our
custom legacy accounting hub solution and have simplified our technology
environment, improved flexibility and scalability, and provided greater
business ownership and control of software to our accounting and finance team,”
said Bharat Shahdadpuri, AVP, Workday Finance & Data Management, CNA, one
of the largest U.S. commercial property and casualty insurance companies. “Now, financial data is provided to accountants using business
language, without the need for technical interpretation. Financial reporting is
done in Workday, and we’ve been able to improve the systems used for financial
analysis, data lineage, and error correction. And, we’re pleased that we’ve
already reduced our cost of ownership while also being able to introduce new
capabilities faster.”
“CFOs and CIOs recognize that they must embrace new digital
technologies in order to manage the ever-increasing volume and sources of data
required today,” said R “Ray” Wang, founder and principal analyst, Constellation
Research, Inc. “And because it’s so challenging
to move off of legacy systems, leading companies recognize that they need a
solution that can scale and evolve over the next decade and beyond. Intelligent
data, machine learning, and a robust ecosystem are critical factors for
companies when choosing their next partner for financial management systems.”
Additional Information
Forward-Looking Statements
This press release contains forward-looking statements
including, among other things, statements regarding the expected performance
and benefits of Workday’s offerings. The words “believe,” “may,” “will,”
“estimate,” “continue,” “anticipate,” “intend,” “expect,” “seek,” “plan,”
“project,” and similar expressions are intended to identify forward-looking
statements. These forward-looking statements are subject to risks,
uncertainties, and assumptions. If the risks materialize or assumptions prove
incorrect, actual results could differ materially from the results implied by
these forward-looking statements. Risks include, but are not limited to, risks
described in our filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC),
including Form 10-Q for the fiscal quarter ended July 31, 2020 and our future
reports that we may file with the SEC from time to time, which could cause
actual results to vary from expectations. Workday assumes no obligation to, and
does not currently intend to, update any such forward-looking statements after
the date of this release.
Any unreleased services, features, or functions referenced in
this document, our website, or other press releases or public statements that
are not currently available are subject to change at Workday’s discretion and
may not be delivered as planned or at all. Customers who purchase Workday, Inc.
services should make their purchase decisions based upon services, features,
and functions that are currently available.
© 2020 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.
About Workday
Workday is a leading provider of
enterprise cloud applications for finance and human resources. Founded in 2005, Workday
delivers financial management, human capital management, planning, and
analytics applications designed for the world‘s largest companies, educational institutions, and government
agencies. Organizations ranging from medium-sized businesses to Fortune 50 enterprises have selected
Workday.
