Workday Isn’t Over-rated. You Just Might Not Need It

Everyone’s talking about Workday these days. Workday this, Workday that. And for good reason.

As one of the leading Human Capital Management (HCM) software systems, companies using Workday are realizing increased productivity, better insights into company data, greater employee engagement, reduced costs, and improved operational efficiency.

In short, enterprises get more done in less time – all with fewer dollars going out of the door. And that’s possible, in large part, due to how Workday delivers updates and new features. 

Like other Software As A Service (SaaS) applications, Workday releases are delivered to your tenant on a periodic basis and with limited involvement from users and IT teams.  Gone are the days where patches and updates are “applied” to your system and the onus falls on you to make sure business processes still work.

But as wonderful as Workday can be, organizations currently using PeopleSoft for their HCM don’t have to switch to take advantage of a system that’s a single release and continuously updated.  You don’t have to make the costly purchase and devote scarce resources for a full system-wide replacement and implementation, not to mention getting your people up to speed on an entirely new user experience.

You already have the right technology
If PeopleSoft is your current HCM or Finance platform, you’re good to go. You already have access to the same release methodology that Workday provides. All you have to do is start using the PeopleSoft Update Manager (PUM) and view it less like an old -fashioned upgrade and more like a continuous release toolset.

When you use the PUM on a regular basis, you ensure that PeopleSoft features and functionality are always up to date. More so, you guarantee flexibility for your workforce, as different departments and users have changing needs over time.

Regular system updates are essential. When you make it a habit, you’re no longer forced to undergo major upgrades, which can be a drain on your staff’s time and force you to shut down the system – sometimes for hours. That can hurt productivity, sales, profits, you name it.

The beautiful thing is that with PUM, you don’t have to be concerned with installing the dependencies that keep your system up to date. Instead, updates occur cumulatively rather than sequentially, allowing you to get the latest features and functionality in short order. New capabilities get delivered much faster, and you spend less time with testing.

Apply a SaaS mentality to your on-premise system

Many IT leaders don’t perform regular PeopleSoft updates and, instead, apply PUMs infrequently and tackle them as large-scale projects, like the old days. That’s perfectly understandable. You can be understaffed. Perhaps users have never needed – or demanded – more specific functionality to carry out their jobs. Maybe you feel like as long as you’re updating for security and compliance purposes, you’ll be fine. Again, that’s all well and good.

But the last thing you want is to face a mission critical situation and scramble to avoid disaster. That’s why you have to be as current as possible with updates, for all aspects of your system. In fact, regular updates make your life a lot easier. 

You may think that PeopleSoft is an archaic technology, but it actually provides much more modern functionality than you may realize. Using PUM, you can get many of the advantages of SaaS by using your less expensive on-premise system. Yes, you’re good to go.