Dive Brief:
- Workday announced it plans to buy Big Data analysis startup Platfora earlier this month, but the deal left some wondering how the two companies will align.
- Workday customers will benefit from better data analysis capabilities, said Mike Frandsen, Workday EVP of Products, Support and Delivery, according to a conversation with Constellation Research, which appeared on ZDNet.
- Platfora customers will lose the on-premises and public cloud software deployment option, according to Peter Schlampp, Platfora VP of Products.
Dive Insight:
Platfora specializes in operational analytics and "data discovery" services that can analyze data from a broad range of sources. Those analytics capabilities are critical to Workday's growth strategy because they "act as a bridge from HR to financials," according to the report.
While Workday introduced its own Hadoop-based Big Data capability in 2013, only about 40 customers are currently using it, and the company said the service is limited because data can’t be examined at a deep level.
Platfora’s software will enable companies using Workday’s application suite to generate "richer operational metrics," Frandsen said in a blog post. "Our customers have made it clear that they want to bring more data into Workday.”
Workday, which makes software to manage employee performance, payroll and expense has struggled recently. Last fall, the company’s revenue missed analysts' estimates after reporting a bigger net loss for the third quarter.
Since then, the company has made a renewed effort to pitch its financial management applications, while CEO Aneel Bhusri revamped the company’s sales organization. More recently, Workday has been giving Oracle a run for its money in the software space.
