Workday 14 puts HCM data in easier context

Workday, Inc. has already generated a lot of excitement around its software-as-a-service HR and financials application, but the recent release of Workday 14 should earn the company even more fans. With the upgrade, Workday 14 offers embedded intelligence, and enhancements to its human capital management, financial management, and spend management features – all of which make decision-making and data-slicing easier and based on broader context.

Impressive enough, but Workday says there are no fewer than 140 new features with the Workday upgrade, all of which are available to existing customers as part of a normal upgrade at no extra charge.

The most exciting aspect of Workday 14 is definitely the embedded intelligence, and it is that feature that has grabbed most of the early attention. As a devoted advocate of “context,” I see where this will really wow a lot of HR execs and line managers.

There is no need to navigate to another part of the application to access this information. This quick at-your-fingertips approach to getting at all sorts of related data should really propel Workday in this space.

Embedded intelligence actually made its debut in Workday 12, which included a landing page and a series of Worklet reports which uses could pick and choose. Workday 13 enabled users to begin building their own Worklets. With Workday 14, users can now embed Worklets in the context of business processes.

Users can open windows at any time that offer related information to a task they are attempting or forecast they are calculating. The application enables managers to adjust compensation rates -- or a variety of other HCM measures, --for any individual while putting them in context with related workers. The associated Worklet will automatically recalculate all context data for any changes you make.

Workday is taking a very aggressive approach to rethinking a lot of traditional talent management systems. And it is targeting some very large customers. With the announcement of the Workday 14 release, the company also announced it had acquired Thomson Reuters as a customer. Thomson Reuters has more than 55,000 employees in 100 countries. It will now use Workday’s HCM and payroll tools to manage compensation, performance and related HCM activities.