Names in Workday

We're starting to get into the data analysis phase here in Europe.  Something new I learned about Workday today--names are not configurable per country.  To put it another way:  if WD defines that country xyz has name format (first last) and country abc has name format (first middle last), then that is what you get.

Understanding WD is defining a global solution based on name requirements around the world, as they understand them.

Also sitting here looking at the analysis done by one of my analysts to compare our current PeopleSoft names data to the Workday global matrix (a helpful resource that lists out per country the various fields available for items such as names).

We have a mismatch in a number of countries.  :-(

So now, we'll need to look closer, per country, to figure out what to do with our current data.  A few options, of course:

• Delete the middle names from PS.  Don't store going forward.
• Concatenate into the first name field in WD.  Then, get smart coding that parses out the middle name part depending on the country/interface.  Deal with the fallout if Middle Names (located in the first name field) are pulled into a report by an analyst and distributed further.
• Put middle names into another solution such as a Custom Object.  Then build rules that 'if country is xyz, then concatenate this field with First Name when sending the data to downstream system 123.  Force the report analysts to reference it as well.

In a perfect world, WD would make this a configurable item for me, so that I could use checkboxes to select which name types apply to a country.  Just sayin'.

Once we start making the conversion decisions, I'll give you an update about how it all turned out...