Genie and Workday Extend
Updated: Jun 7
I remember taking Workday HCM classes years ago and having the instructor try to explain the difference between configurable (Workday) and customizable (SAP or Peoplesoft in the olden days). The instructor said Workday was like renting an apartment. You could certainly bring in your own furniture and rugs and in some cases, they might even let you paint a room BUT you could not knock out a wall or build an extension. You could configure it to your taste and needs but at a certain point, your 3-bedroom 2 bath apartment was the same as everyone else’s. Now let’s say this was an apartment complex and they added tennis courts and a pool (Workday release!). Everyone benefits from that right?
That is if you have the money to hire folks or the expertise to do it yourself. It was explained to all of us that configurable was better than customizable. It was easier to go through releases and regression testing, it was less onerous to maintain. At a certain point, the instructor joked back in the past that Peoplesoft at Boeing had become more Boeing-soft and was exceptionally difficult to maintain.
With Workday’s widespread adoption by a large number of Fortune 50 through 500 companies in many different countries all over the world it appears the configure vs customize argument has been decided but there are plenty of times we all wish we could do something in Workday that was unique to our organization and that we were not constrained by only being able to configure.
Workday Extend is the answer to this desire. With Workday Extend, custom apps run on Workday, render custom pages that follow the Workday UI standards, and interact with Workday data and external data sources. Custom apps can store data as unique business objects and contain specialized business processes and security domains. Apps can launch event-driven and automated processes across Workday and third-party systems. Apps can also be external applications that run outside the tenant and directly access Workday data.
Want your employees to be able to request a company credit card in Workday? Try Workday Extend. Want to set up a charitable giving menu and portal structure-look no further than Workday Extend. Want to prep for the next pandemic and vaccine rollout? You can probably build what you need with Workday Extend.
Now that you are building your own integrated apps you are still going to need to thoroughly test each build and re-test when Workday has a new release. You are going to need to audit some of the apps if they include access to or distribution of PII. Maybe these new apps need to be included in your Segregation of Duties audit as well. If you have not worked with a testing or audit automation tool before you are in for a delightful surprise. Workday is hard enough by itself (without any new Extend apps) to test and audit and log and document those tests and audits. Wouldn’t it be nice to have a powerful, efficient, and effective testing and audit automation tool?
If you’ve been reading our blogs, you probably have some idea of where I am going here…yup…it’s Genie time! Genie’s Testing Automation Tool and the Genie Audit Intelligence are just as necessary and just as helpful with Workday Extend applications as they are with delivered Workday processes, domains, and transactions!
Genie’s skilled engineers can work with you to develop testing scripts and audit controls that include your newly created apps. If you have developed or are in the process of developing some Workday Extend applications, you need to think about how Genie can help. We look forward to you visiting us at https://www.ricgenie.com/ to schedule a product demonstration or send us an email discussing your needs. Our helpful Genie engineers will be in touch!
Genie and Workday Extend…it doesn’t get any better than that!