I’ve been reading Vinnie Mirchandani's excellent book SAP Nation recently. It points out that the economy (what software folks rather oddly like to call an ecosystem) around SAP is about the equivalent in size to the Republic of Ireland. Quite a few SAP customers have contributed to the book, directly or otherwise.
I don’t know how Workday compares and I have neither the time, the resources nor the inclination to find out. What is certain is that whatever the size of the Workday economy, they (Workday) have a very significant slice of it.
Very little detail of the detail of the contents of Workday applications leaks out - it’s quite remarkable in comparison to other software and services vendors.
At one level this is entirely understandable.
It’s a fierce world out there in enterprise sales - competitors will seize any chance they can to point out a lack of functionality or a customer who would prefer something added or something to work in a different way. Less scrupulous competition will even bend the truth and try to sow fear and uncertainty.
On the other hand, almost every other vendor has an active community beyond the bounds of its own websites and social media where people swap frank opinions about various aspects of software and services.
There are a few independent voices, Matthew Heminger, Ahmed Liman are two, but they are part of a rare but slowly growing breed of professionals operating in connection with Workday but remaining outside the tightly controlled world of Workday and their partners.
Time will tell whether the “grey market” in Workday Talent will become significant. What is certain is that ambitious and industrious folk in various parts of India are gaining Workday expertise through some official and some very unofficial means. For those of us who have been around long enough to remember PeopleSoft, this is a familiar picture.
Workday continues to restrict implementation access to those who have officially certified training - and outside of Workday this means partner employees only. Since becoming a partner is way beyond the reach of an individual or even a small company, this effectively rules out self-employed contract workers from working on implementations.
Again this is understandable from a Workday perspective - much has been made of the “Wild West” that exists in talent available for projects involving other vendors and Workday avoids this by the tight controls.
What is clear is that it's not just the approach to software that Workday does very differently.
Whether customers benefit from the official "partner only" lockdown depends upon who you talk to of course.
