Workday Rising is Workday’s annual conference, where customers, partners, and industry leaders gather to learn about the latest innovations, network with peers, and explore how Workday’s solutions can drive their organizations forward. Workday Extend is a platform (see Figure 1 below) that enables organizations to develop, deploy, and manage custom applications seamlessly integrated with Workday’s core human capital management and financial systems. RobustCloud met with Ed Duda of Cushman and Wakefield at Workday Rising in Las Vegas to discuss the organizations’ experience using Workday Extend.
Large organizations face operational hurdles in today’s dynamic business landscape. Cushman & Wakefield, a leader in commercial real estate services, is an example. With over 52,000 employees across 400 offices, Cushman & Wakefield was challenged to streamline processes and improve accountability. This blog post describes how Cushman & Wakefield addressed the challenges by leveraging Workday Extend, followed by why they chose the product and advice for other customers.
Challenges Faced
Improving Ease of Doing Business
Recognizing the need for a streamlined approach, Cushman & Wakefield embarked on a journey to simplify its business processes. This was not just a matter of choice but a necessity to meet the stringent regulatory requirements of a publicly traded company. With a sprawling workforce operating from numerous locations, standardizing operations became crucial to enhancing efficiency and accountability.
Navigating Complex Systems
Employees faced significant challenges when finding and navigating the systems intended to align the global organization with Workday. The absence of a unified system created obstacles for teams, making it hard for them to collaborate effectively and access the necessary information promptly.
Aligning Diverse Service Lines
Cushman & Wakefield operates multiple service lines, including property management and facility services. The organization faced challenges due to non-linear and siloed operations, with each division functioning independently. This decentralized structure made aligning the entire organization in a unified direction difficult.
Leveraging Workday Extend
Connecting Siloed Businesses
Cushman & Wakefield faced a significant challenge integrating their separate business units and tailoring Workday to fit their specific requirements. By utilizing Workday Extend, they created personalized solutions, allowing Cushman & Wakefield to seamlessly link different systems and processes.
Enhancing Labor Billing Accuracy
One critical use case was the inaccuracy in recording labor billing and assigning proper project codes. With millions of transactions annually, errors led to incorrect invoices and significant time spent on corrections. By developing a Workday Extend application, Cushman & Wakefield targeted reducing the time and effort required to rectify these errors, ensuring accurate financial statements and compliance with regulatory reporting requirements.
Choosing Workday Extend
Addressing Operational Inefficiencies
Cushman & Wakefield’s day-to-day activities depended on allocating workers to different projects, each assigned a code according to the level of demand. The frequent shuffling of labor led to errors in the coding, which in turn required tickets to rectify the invoicing mistakes. To address this issue, a specialized team of twelve contractors devoted 45 minutes per ticket to resolve these issues. C&W implemented Workday Extend to speed up this process.
Partnering for Success
To navigate the nuances of Workday Extend during the design, build, and deployment phases, Cushman & Wakefield partnered with Intercrowd, a systems integration expert. Despite integration challenges, this collaboration accelerated the deployment process, implementing the labor billing correction solution within six months.
Achieving Results
Post-deployment, Cushman & Wakefield witnessed remarkable improvements within 45 days. The contractor headcount was reduced from twelve to five, saving the company a million dollars annually. The average time to handle a ticket decreased from 45 minutes to four minutes and eventually down to two minutes, showcasing the efficiency of the Workday Extend solution.
Advice for Workday Users
With the experience of Cushman & Wakefield’s journey with Workday Extend, Ed Duda offered the following valuable lessons for other organizations considering similar solutions:
- Focus on Small Wins: Ed advises against overhauling everything at once and instead recommends focusing on specific areas that deliver immediate value.
- Leverage Expert Partnerships: For organizations new to Workday Extend, the best practice is to collaborate with experienced partners to navigate the initial complexities effectively.
- Develop Internal Expertise: To build long-term capabilities, organizations should invest in developing internal skills to manage ongoing projects independently.
- Embrace Continuous Learning: Workday resources allow users to gain hands-on experience to maximize the platform’s potential. This is a valuable way to build an internal Workday development practice within an organization.
Conclusion
Cushman & Wakefield’s experience demonstrates that customized solutions can deliver value to complex organizations. By addressing unique operational challenges, improving efficiency, and encouraging collaboration, Cushman & Wakefield gained an immediate return on investment. The Workday Extend project contributed to savings while setting the stage for sustained progress and compliance. Cushman & Wakefield’s focus on targeted improvements, leveraging partnerships, and building internal capabilities is an excellent example of leveraging Workday Extend.