HR is one of the most important departments in any company, as it is responsible for training, recruitment, onboarding new employees, payroll, leave management, and more. Until recently, a vast majority of HR tasks were performed manually, but now the process of interfacing HR applications has come to simplify and organize the work of human resources. In this article, we will delve into the topic of connecting ERPs and Workday via IPaaS, specifically looking at the case of our client; a European giant in the distribution and sale of travel services who understood that connecting its applications to its ERP is undoubtedly the solution to remain competitive in the market and offer a scalable solution to the company and its employees. Our client chose us and trusted us to accompany them throughout the evolution of their IS. Let's dive in to find out what are the benefits of this connectivity? And why is IPaaS (Integration Platform as a Service) a key factor in the success of this project?
Workday: benefits and ERP interfacing
What is Workday?
Workday is a human resource and financial management software marketed as SaaS (Software as a Service). It's an entirely online, cloud-based solution offering all the essential functionalities needed for managing our client's HR tasks.
If the Workday software solution is so successful and used by many organizations, it's because it offers numerous advantages; it activates and deploys quickly, simultaneously eliminating the workload associated with managing the IT infrastructure needed to run it. Not to forget, its HTML5 web interface provides complete transparency and accessibility at any time and from any device (PC, tablet, and Android and iOS smartphones).
Workday is the application used by our client in this use case for managing and organizing the company's data and human capital. Let's now turn our attention to the reasons behind the interfacing.
Why is Workday's connection with ERPs (Oracle, SAP, Salesforce) crucial for effective HR data management?
Interfacing Workday with a company's ERP systems is crucial for effective and efficient data management within the company. Indeed, this interfacing allows for the sharing of data between the company's various systems while ensuring their quality. This also contributes to improving productivity by automating processes and reducing costs and delays by avoiding redundant data entry and facilitating coordination between the different departments of the company.
In addition, Workday's interfacing with ERP systems enables better decision-making by providing real-time information and using consolidated data. It also helps meet compliance and regulatory requirements by guaranteeing data security and adhering to industry standards.
Among the most used ERPs in the market are SAP, Salesforce, and Oracle. There are different types of integration between Workday and these ERPs. In this article, we will focus on the following use case; synchronizing employee management data, employee-related information, such as basic information, payroll information, and career information, between Workday systems and MDM (Master Data Management, an ERP provided by Oracle).
To achieve this, it is important to choose a suitable tool for carrying out this interfacing, such as Boomi's IPaaS, in order to ensure the quality and reliability of the exchanged data. Added to this is the no-code aspect of IPaaS, which greatly facilitates the implementation and maintenance of interfaces.
Boomi: the key solution for effective connectivity between Workday and MDM
What is Boomi?
Boomi is an integration platform, also known as IPaaS, based in the cloud, allowing businesses to easily integrate applications, databases, partners, and customers.
Data flows are created from the platform using a visual module that utilizes point-and-click and drag-and-drop techniques. Connections and process diagrams are already created by the community and ready to be used. Each component of the flow can be reused by other processes.
Once the data flow is constructed, it is deployed on a Boomi Atom. Atoms are deployed in the cloud or on a local server. They contain the various integration processes that can be executed as many times as necessary.
The architecture of Boomi Atoms allows for the centralization of all integrations from the same platform, regardless of where they are deployed or the number of processes deployed.
Successful interfacing and support with We Are Beebay
Now that we have thoroughly covered the topic of interfacing Workday with MDM and integration using Boomi, let's focus on our use case and the architecture of the flows used; Workday here encompasses the raw data of employees previously entered by HR, which will be processed by Boomi and finally transmitted to the ERP for updating statuses and distributing full access to employees.
Data retrieval and insertion into Landing tables
In this initial diagram, employee data originates from the Workday application. Connectivity and integration are achieved through IPaaS and our business logics. The goal of this first step is to extract the Data (the raw Workday data previously entered by HR), prepare a Payload through Boomi, and place it on the "Landing" tables to subsequently process the same Data for Business purposes.
Second Flow: Send data to staging tables and Master Data Management
The second step is the most important, where Boomi retrieves the data from the Landing tables to prepare it for the "staging" tables; applying functional logic (e.g., updating leave dates, employee statuses; active, inactive, dismissed, retired...) ready to be sent to MDM (Master Data Management), which centralizes the Workforce Data to propagate the information to other applications. Practically, this means communicating to each employee their own access, allowing them to organize themselves, have visibility on their status within the company in real time, and access all the applications used by the company (in this case, for example, Jira, e-learning, outlook...).
The advantages of choosing Boomi for your interfacing and We Are Beebay for your support:
You've understood it well, and so has our client: interfacing Workday with ERPs is crucial for effective and efficient management of the company's data.
Starting from there, Boomi is an ideal tool for performing this interfacing because it offers pre-built native connectors for Workday and MDM. This facilitates the connection of the two systems and helps to reduce the costs and time required to implement the interface.
Using Boomi, data can be synchronized in real-time or on demand, which allows for real-time monitoring of employee activities within the company (contact details, training, statuses, development, etc.). Boomi also offers customization options to tailor integrations to the specific needs of each company, allowing for bespoke integrations. This includes support for different file formats, such as XML, JSON, flat file, EDI, as well as the possibility to use custom libraries to manage other less commonly used file types in integration (like Excel or PDF), the ability to map (transform/mapping) data, implement functional rules (Business rules), control the format of messages or exchanged data, and send alerts and notifications as needed.
With Boomi's data tracking and analysis features (process reporting), companies can monitor the performance of their integrations between Workday and MDM in real-time. This allows for the quick identification of potential issues and the resolution of errors before they can cause more significant damage. Businesses can also use tracking data to optimize the performance of their integrations and improve overall efficiency.
Choosing Boomi for your integration project ensures the reliability and scalability of the interface, guarantees the quality of data transferred between systems, and the capacity to handle the growing needs of the business. This allows our client in this use case, and all companies that have used it, to focus on their core activities knowing their interface is reliable and scalable.
An integration project can indeed be particularly time-consuming and difficult, especially if your teams are not supported and advised by Data Integration experts. What is important to remember is:
- Interfacing improves productivity by automating processes and reducing costs and time by avoiding redundant data entries and facilitating coordination between the different departments of the company.
- Connecting Workday to the ERP enables the synchronization of employee management data, employee-related information, such as personal information, payroll information, and career information.
- IPaaS is undeniably the tool every company needs for a successful digital transformation.
- End-to-end support from a team of expert consultants is the key to project success.
We're here to assist and support you as you accelerate your digital transformation. Don't hesitate to contact us to find out more about what we can build together!
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