Workday Adaptive Planning

Workday, Inc.

File:Workday logo.svg Workday logo
Company type	Public
Industry	Software
Founded	March 2005 (2005-03)
Founder	David Duffield, Aneel Bhusri
Headquarters	Pleasanton, California , United States
Area served	Worldwide
Key people	Aneel Bhusri (Executive Chair), Carl Eschenbach (CEO), Chano Fernandez (former co-CEO)
Products	Cloud-hosted software solutions for financial management, human capital management, student information systems
Number of employees	(not specified)
Website	workday.com

Workday, Inc. is a U.S.-based provider of cloud-hosted software solutions specializing in financial management, human capital management, and student information systems. Established in 2005 by David Duffield—who previously founded and led the ERP firm PeopleSoft—and Aneel Bhusri, the former chief strategist at PeopleSoft, Workday emerged following Oracle’s acquisition of PeopleSoft.

The company went public in October 2012, with its initial public offering valuing Workday at approximately $9.5 billion. Its primary market rivals include SAP SuccessFactors, Dayforce, UKG, and Oracle.

In 2020, Fortune magazine ranked Workday fifth on its Top 100 Companies to Work For list, reflecting high levels of employee satisfaction.

2005–2015

Workday was established in March 2005 and officially launched its services in November 2006, initially financed by David Duffield and Greylock Partners, a venture capital firm. In December 2008, the company moved its headquarters from Walnut Creek to Pleasanton, California, the former location of Duffield’s PeopleSoft operations.

On February 6, 2008, Workday announced the acquisition of Cape Clear Software. By May of the same year, it secured a significant contract with Flextronics for human capital management software solutions. Among its notable clientele are Aviva and Chiquita Brands.

On April 29, 2009, Workday raised $75 million in funding led by New Enterprise Associates with contributions from Greylock and CEO Duffield. Later, on October 24, 2011, it garnered an additional $85 million from investors such as T. Rowe Price, Morgan Stanley Investment Management, Janus Capital Group, and Bezos Expeditions, bringing total investment to $250 million. By early 2012, Workday’s customer base had grown to over 310 organizations ranging from mid-sized companies to Fortune 500 enterprises.

Workday’s IPO took place in October 2012 on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol WDAY. The shares were initially priced at $28 each but closed at $48.69 on the first trading day, resulting in a market capitalization near $9.5 billion when including unexercised stock options. The offering raised $637 million through the sale of 22.75 million Class A shares and was noted as the largest technology IPO in the United States since Facebook’s $16 billion offering earlier that year. This event underscored strong investor appetite for cloud computing businesses.

2015–present

In 2016, Workday broadened its product suite by introducing a cloud-based student information system alongside its existing financial and human capital management offerings. In 2018, the company acquired Stories.bi, a startup founded by Filip Doušek.

Aneel Bhusri served as CEO from the company’s inception until 2020 when Chano Fernandez was elevated to co-CEO alongside him. Dave Duffield held the chairman position until April 2022 when Bhusri assumed that role. In November 2021, Workday purchased VNDLY—a firm specializing in external workforce management—for $510 million.

December 2022 saw Sequoia Capital partner Carl Eschenbach replace Fernandez as co-CEO; Eschenbach is slated to become sole CEO after March 2024 while Bhusri will transition to executive chair. In February 2025, amid a subdued macroeconomic climate, Workday announced an 8.5% reduction in its workforce to refocus investments on artificial intelligence technologies.

Adaptive Insights

Adaptive Insights originated as a SaaS enterprise established in 2003 in Palo Alto, California, focusing on delivering budgeting, forecasting, and reporting tools designed to replace spreadsheet-based planning and conventional on-premises software. The company was an early adopter of the SaaS approach for corporate performance management and business intelligence. Initially launched as Visus Technology and later renamed Adaptive Planning, it was nurtured within Onset Ventures.

In 2009, Adaptive Insights formed a strategic alliance with NetSuite and later integrated with additional cloud ERP systems such as Sage Intacct and Microsoft. Its partnership network extended internationally, covering regions including Australia, Canada, Europe, India, Japan, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, and the United States.

The firm expanded its capabilities by acquiring myDIALS in 2012 and secured $45 million in funding by 2013, with Salesforce among its backers. The company rebranded to Adaptive Insights in 2014 and introduced a refreshed software version featuring an updated user interface. In 2015, Tom Bogan, formerly chairman at Citrix, took over as CEO. That same year, Adaptive Insights raised $75 million from investors including Norwest Venture Partners and Bessemer Venture Partners.

By April 2018, Adaptive Insights had amassed more than 3,700 global customers. Workday completed its acquisition of Adaptive Insights for $1.55 billion in August 2018, integrating it as a Workday subsidiary. The product was rebranded as Workday Adaptive Planning in May 2020.

Business model

Workday operates on a subscription revenue model, recognizing income over the duration of multiyear agreements while incurring associated costs upfront. The company surpassed $1 billion in annual revenue during fiscal year 2016.

Corporate governance

Founders Duffield and Bhusri collectively control 67% of voting shares, valued at approximately $3.4 billion and $1.3 billion respectively, which acts as a deterrent against hostile acquisition attempts.

Product

Workday provides comprehensive software solutions for finance and human capital management that include:

• Management of global workforce recruitment supported by real-time analytics.
• Financial management capabilities such as accounting, expense monitoring, and planning.
• Employee self-service features including onboarding processes and time tracking.

In 2014, Workday acquired Identified to enhance its AI-driven Insight Apps. By 2017, it entered the Platform as a Service (PaaS) arena by opening its platform to external developers and partners for custom application development.

The acquisition of SkipFlag in 2018 bolstered Workday’s machine learning portfolio with an AI knowledge base derived from internal corporate communications.

As of September 2022, Workday has delivered 39 product updates with key releases occurring biannually in March and September.

Workday maintains data centers located in Ashburn (Virginia), Lithia Springs (Georgia), Portland (Oregon), Dublin (Ireland), Amsterdam (Netherlands), and utilizes Amazon Web Services to facilitate its international growth.

Workday Adaptive Planning

Workday Adaptive Planning is a cloud-native software solution designed to assist organizations with financial planning, budgeting, forecasting, and reporting activities. It forms part of Workday’s extensive enterprise suite that integrates human resources, finance, sales, and operations planning solutions. The platform offers capabilities such as planning, consolidation, analytics, and reporting through its Business Planning Cloud. It streamlines data consolidation from multiple sources and supports collaborative workflows with real-time updates enabled by its SaaS architecture.

Acquisitions

Acquisition number	Acquired company	Acquisition date	Location	Specialty
19	Evisort	September 2024	USA	Contract management through document intelligence
18	HiredScore	February 2024	USA	AI-powered recruitment solutions
17	VNDLY	November 2021	Ohio, USA	Management of contractors and external workforce
16	Zimit	September 2021	Florida, USA	Software for managing quotations
15	Peakon	March 2021	Copenhagen, Denmark	Platform for employee engagement
14	Scout RFP	December 2019	California, USA & Riga, Latvia	Sourcing and procurement software
13	TrustedKey	July 2019	Washington, USA	Identity management solutions
12	Stories.bi	July 2018	Prague, Czech Republic	Enhanced analytics tools
11	Adaptive Insights	June 2018	California, USA	Business planning applications
10	Rallyteam	June 2018	California, USA	Platform for talent agility
9	SkipFlag	January 2018	California, USA	Artificial intelligence and machine learning
8	Pattern	August 2017	California, USA	Tools for team collaboration
7	Platfora	July 2016	California, USA	Analytics platform solutions
6	Zaption	June 2016	California, USA	Content management systems
5	Mediacore	October 2015	British Columbia, Canada	Learning management systems
4	Upshot	July 2015	California, USA	Talent management software
3	Gridcraft	April 2015	Colorado, USA	Software for planning processes
2	Identified	February 2014	California, USA	Recruitment technology platforms
1	CapeClear	February 2008	Dublin, Ireland	Integration of web services

Sponsorship

In May 2021, Workday entered into a sponsorship agreement with Formula One, becoming the regional enterprise partner for finance and human resources in the UK and Germany. This collaboration was extended and broadened in 2022 into a multiyear regional partnership.

By March 2023, Workday secured a multiyear sponsorship with McLaren as an official partner, enhancing its engagement within the Formula One community.

See also

• Cloud computing
• Corporate performance management