Workday vs SAP

We've learned in our HR Systems and Technology class that nearly all companies have the same struggle;  choosing between a "best of breed approach to operations, financial and HR software and the ERP approach or "best in suite.  SAP is an industry leader in the best in suite  class, whereas Workday is a one of the most well known HCMs and does not want to be thought of as an ERP.   Watching commercials, one for Workday and the other for SAP, each company does well to play up their advantages over the other.

Workday clearly alludes to the clunky, old school "patched" ERP, and it's true... try to find anyone who has used SAP or Oracle ERP and have them describe it as elegant, user friendly and a breeze to trouble shoot.  You probably won't be able to.  The message that I get from Workday marketing is that they don't necessarily want to replace any organizations ERP; ERPs have their strong points (tracking manufacturing resources for example) but in terms of HR and Finance Workday offers a much more targeted, powerful and analytical tool.  When Human Capitol is likely an organizations largest expense, why would their management trust anything other that the most effective and powerful tool in the box to manage their valuable workforce?

SAP, on the other hand, knows that organizations,  and especially the IS Teams, want and need simple to service, seamless integrations between systems.  The only way to guarantee this is to utilize an ERP and use the ERP to manage all departments, including HR and Talent Management.  The idea is that what you lose in terms of ability to drill deep down and in terms of functionality, you gain in ease of maintenance and overall cost savings.

I can truly appreciate that this is a tough call.  To be honest, I never realized the challenges that IS and Sr. Leaders face when deciding what systems and technology are best for the company both short and long term.  Personally, I love the idea that Workday is in the cloud and is subscription based rather than on premise.  I would hope this means they are a more nimble technology and the wait between upgrades is shorter and happens more frequently.  I've never used Workday but would be very interested in hearing feedback from those who have used it.