PeopleSoft vs Workday - Old vs New

ROME

While in the Eternal City to evangelize European HR leaders on the joys of a modern HR system at a Talent and Mobility Conference, I was asked by the Head of HR of an Italian bank  running PeopleSoft and considering alternatives to present  to their board of directors the pros and cons of PeopleSoft versus Workday. Here is the takeaway I left the board members with at the end of my presentation:

PeopleSoft has thousands of customers − Workday a few dozens.

PeopleSoft runs the whole gamut of HCM − Workday has yet to plug some big holes in its product scope (global payroll, recruiting, learning.)

When PeopleSoft grew and went international, it took Europe by storm − Workday is taking much longer to establish itself in the US and even longer overseas.

To run PeopleSoft will cost you several hundred dollars per year per user − Workday will cost you a fraction of that.

When you meet a fellow PeopleSoft user and discuss your respective projects, you are comparing apples and oranges as many are either on Release 7.5, or 8.3 or 9.0 − Workday customers can have a more meaningful discussion as they all are on the same product release.

You buy PeopleSoft − you rent Workday.

You install PeopleSoft on your computers − you access Workday over the internet.

To meet your requirements you can (and sometimes have to) customize PeopleSoft to your heart’s content - and your system integrator’s great financial satisfaction − configuring Workday may be enough.

You upgrade PeopleSoft every two years − you get a regular update from Workday several times a year.

PeopleSoft HCM is part of an ERP offering itself just another of several other business applications belonging to Oracle whose sprawling portfolio includes hardware and its flagship database system − Workday is first and foremost an HCM system branching out into the ERP world.

Both PeopleSoft and Workday are the brainchild of one of our industry’s legendary and visionary leaders, Dave Duffield − he built the former in his middle age and the latter as he nears his sunset years.

PeopleSoft is the past; Workday is the future.

A slide from my presentation summarizing the pros and

cons of a traditional, on-premise system versus

a modern "cloud"-based software delivered as a service