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Here are 1-3 brief analogies for Workday:

• Salesforce for HR and finance software
• A modern, cloud-based Oracle or SAP for human resources and finance

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• Workday Human Capital Management (HCM): A cloud-based suite for managing the full spectrum of HR functions, including recruitment, payroll, talent management, and time tracking.
• Workday Financial Management: An enterprise resource planning (ERP) suite focused on financial processes, such as general ledger, accounts payable/receivable, financial planning, and reporting.
• Workday Adaptive Planning: A cloud-based solution for budgeting, forecasting, and financial planning, enabling organizations to model and analyze various business scenarios.
• Workday Spend Management: Software designed for managing the entire procurement process, from sourcing and contracts to purchasing and supplier management.

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Major Customers of Workday (WDAY)

Workday primarily sells its cloud-based financial management, human capital management (HCM), and planning software to other companies, operating on a Business-to-Business (B2B) model. It does not primarily sell to individuals.

Workday serves thousands of large and medium-sized enterprises across various industries globally. While specific revenue contributions from individual customers are not typically disclosed, here are some prominent public companies that are known to be major Workday customers, often highlighted in Workday's own materials and case studies:

• Netflix (Symbol: NFLX)
• Target Corporation (Symbol: TGT)
• Bank of America Corporation (Symbol: BAC)
• Amazon.com, Inc. (Symbol: AMZN)
• IBM (Symbol: IBM)

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• Amazon Web Services (AWS) - Parent Company: Amazon.com, Inc. (AMZN)

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Carl Eschenbach, Chief Executive Officer

Carl Eschenbach has over 35 years of experience leading and scaling technology companies. He joined Workday in December 2022 as Co-CEO and transitioned to sole CEO in February 2024. Prior to Workday, he spent over six years as a general partner at the venture capital firm Sequoia Capital. He also spent 14 years at VMware, Inc., holding various leadership roles including president, chief operating officer, acting chief financial officer, and executive vice president of worldwide field operations. VMware was acquired by Dell as part of the EMC acquisition in 2016. Eschenbach has served on the boards of directors for several technology companies, including Palo Alto Networks, Aurora Innovation, Snowflake, UiPath, and Zoom Video Communications.

Zane Rowe, Chief Financial Officer

Zane Rowe joined Workday as Chief Financial Officer in June 2023. He previously served as Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer of VMware, Inc. from 2016 to 2023, and held the interim CEO role from February to May 2021. Before VMware, Rowe was Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer of EMC Corporation from 2014 to 2016. EMC Corporation was acquired by Dell Inc. in 2016. His career also includes serving as Vice President of North American Sales for Apple Inc. from 2012 to 2014, and executive positions, including CFO, at United Continental Holdings, Inc. and Continental Airlines.

Aneel Bhusri, Co-Founder and Executive Chair

Aneel Bhusri co-founded Workday in 2005 with David Duffield. He currently serves as the Executive Chair of Workday. Bhusri previously held roles as CEO of Workday from 2014–2020 and co-CEO from 2009–2014 and 2020–2024. He has been a partner at Greylock Partners, a venture capital firm, since 1999. Before co-founding Workday, Bhusri held several leadership positions at PeopleSoft, including senior vice president and vice chairman of the board, until its acquisition by Oracle in 2004.

David Duffield, Co-Founder and CEO Emeritus

David Duffield is a co-founder of Workday, which he established in 2005 with Aneel Bhusri. He currently holds the title of CEO Emeritus at Workday. Duffield also founded PeopleSoft in 1987, where he served as CEO and board chairman. PeopleSoft was acquired by Oracle Corporation in January 2005. Earlier in his career, Duffield founded other software companies, including Information Associates, which developed university exam scheduling software, and Integral Systems, a human resources management systems vendor. He is also the founder and co-CEO of Ridgeline, Inc.

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Key Risks to Workday (WDAY)

Workday, Inc. (WDAY), a leading provider of cloud-based finance and human resources software, faces several key risks to its business, primarily stemming from intense market competition, the rapidly evolving artificial intelligence landscape, and the inherent sensitivities of its subscription-based revenue model to economic fluctuations.

1. Intense Competitive Pressure and Market Saturation: Workday operates in a highly competitive cloud enterprise application market. The company faces significant competition from established enterprise software giants such as SAP and Oracle, as well as a growing number of newer cloud-native providers including ADP, Rippling, and Ceridian Dayforce. This intensifying competition can lead to pricing pressures and challenge Workday's premium pricing model, especially as the broader cloud sector experiences a slowdown. Maintaining market share and attracting new customers in this crowded environment requires continuous innovation and significant investment.
2. Unpredictable Nature of the AI Race and Integration Complexities: While Workday is actively integrating artificial intelligence (AI) across its platform, the unpredictable nature of the AI race presents both substantial opportunities and considerable risks. Developing and maintaining advanced AI tools demands significant research and development investments, which can impact the company's operating margins. Furthermore, ensuring the effective integration and adoption of new AI-driven features is crucial, especially as competitors like SAP are also aggressively advancing their AI capabilities. The extensibility of Workday's AI Assistant Studio also carries risks regarding the functionality of interfaces and the ease for vendors to build integrated applications.
3. Economic Sensitivity and Reliance on Subscription Revenue: Workday's business model is heavily reliant on subscription-based revenue, which makes it particularly vulnerable to economic downturns and shifts in customer spending behaviors. In a slowing economy, companies may reduce or freeze hiring, which directly impacts Workday's revenue that is often tied to Full-Service Equivalent (FSE) counts, potentially squeezing margins. Changes in customer spending patterns or a broader economic contraction could directly affect Workday's growth prospects and profitability.

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One clear emerging threat for Workday is the increasing expansion of ServiceNow into enterprise employee workflow and HR Service Delivery (HRSD). While Workday is the system of record for Human Capital Management (HCM) and Financial Management (FIN), ServiceNow is aggressively positioning itself as the "system of engagement" for employees across various enterprise functions, including HR. ServiceNow's HRSD modules are becoming the preferred front-end for many organizations for employee self-service, case management, and broader workflow automation. This means that for a growing number of employees, their primary interaction point for HR-related tasks, inquiries, and processes is shifting from Workday's native user interface to ServiceNow's platform. This development could diminish Workday's direct engagement with employees and its perceived value as a comprehensive employee experience platform, potentially relegating it more to a backend data repository rather than the primary interface for employee interaction.

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Workday (WDAY) operates in several large addressable markets with its suite of cloud-based enterprise applications for financial management and human capital management.

Here are the estimated addressable market sizes for Workday's main products and services:

• Human Capital Management (HCM) Service Software: The global market size for Workday Human Capital Management (HCM) service software was valued at USD 5.2 billion in 2023 and is estimated to reach USD 43.3 billion by 2031, growing at a Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 11.2% from 2024 to 2031. North America is a dominant region in this market. More broadly, the global HCM software market was $58.7 billion in 2024 and is expected to grow to $81.1 billion by 2029. Workday holds a 9.8% market share in the global HCM market as of 2024. The Workday Human Capital Management (HCM) consulting services market is estimated at $5 billion globally in 2025.
• Financial Management: The Workday Financial Management Service market is estimated to be between $8 billion and $12 billion globally in 2025, with projections to exceed $25 billion to $40 billion by 2033. The market shows a concentration in North America and Europe. Workday Accounting and Finance has a 6.04% market share in the financial management market. The Workday Financial Management Consulting Services market is estimated at $2.5 billion globally in 2025, with a projected CAGR of 15% from 2025 to 2033.
• Planning (Workday Adaptive Planning): The Workday Planning Consulting Services market is estimated at $2.5 billion globally in 2025, with a projected growth to approximately $7.8 billion by 2033 at a CAGR of 15%. Another estimate for the Workday Planning consulting service market size is approximately USD 1.14 billion in 2024, expected to reach USD 3.42 billion by 2033 with a CAGR of about 12% from 2025 to 2033. North America dominates this consulting market. Workday Adaptive Planning holds a 12.13% market share in the financial planning market. The broader Financial Planning Software Market is expected to reach USD 18.2 billion by 2033.
• Payroll: Workday was identified as a market leader in the combined HCM and payroll applications market, holding a 20.5% market share in 2022. In the payroll-and-benefits market specifically, Workday Payroll has a market share of 3.61% globally in 2025.
• Spend Management: Workday Spend Management has a 0.64% market share in the expense management market globally in 2025. Workday Expenses, a component, holds a 0.40% market share in the expense management market globally in 2025.
• Workday Extend: Workday Extend is a platform that empowers customers to build, deploy, and manage new business capabilities for finance and HR on the Workday platform. No specific addressable market size for Workday Extend as a standalone product was found.
• Analytics & Reporting: Workday's products include analytics and reporting capabilities across their HR and finance offerings. No specific addressable market size for Workday Analytics & Reporting as a standalone product was found.

Overall, Workday's management has updated their total addressable market (TAM) size from $142 billion to $160 billion globally. International markets are estimated to represent close to 50% of this TAM.

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Workday (WDAY) is positioned for continued revenue growth over the next 2-3 years, driven by several strategic initiatives and market trends. These drivers leverage its established position in enterprise cloud applications for finance and human resources.

1. AI Innovation and Adoption: Workday is heavily investing in and seeing significant traction with its AI-powered offerings. The company highlights that growing demand for its AI innovations is a key factor in organizations consolidating on the Workday platform. New AI product Annual Contract Value (ACV) has more than doubled year-over-year, with a substantial portion of customer expansions now including AI products. This focus on embedding AI across its best-in-class HR and finance solutions is expected to enhance organizational efficiency and drive platform consolidation, contributing to future revenue.

2. Expansion of Core HR and Finance Solutions (Platform Consolidation): Workday's strategy emphasizes encouraging existing and new customers to adopt a broader range of its integrated financial management and human capital management (HCM) solutions. This includes driving "full-suite penetration," with over 30% of new wins encompassing both HCM and financial offerings, as customers seek to reduce total cost of ownership and simplify operations by consolidating on a unified Workday platform.

3. International Market Expansion: Workday is committed to making international markets a larger contributor to its overall growth. The company has more than doubled its investment in international Tier 1 markets, such as Japan, over the past three years and plans to continue increasing investments in regions like EMEA and APAC. This strategic focus aims to broaden Workday's global reach and capture new customer segments outside its established domestic market.

4. Growth in the Medium Enterprise Market: Workday is actively targeting the medium enterprise segment through initiatives like WorkdayGO, which aims for faster implementations for mid-market customers. This focus on expanding beyond its large enterprise stronghold allows Workday to tap into a significant and growing market segment, further diversifying its customer base and revenue streams.

5. Strengthening Partner Ecosystem: Workday is investing in expanding its partner ecosystem, recognizing its critical role in driving deployments, customer go-lives, referrals, and sales. The partner ecosystem is noted for driving significant pipeline growth and contributing to an increase in new ACV, indicating that a robust partner network is essential for extending Workday's market reach and accelerating customer acquisition.

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Share Repurchases

• In November 2022, Workday's Board of Directors authorized a share repurchase program of up to $500 million of its Class A common stock over an 18-month term.
• During fiscal year 2023, Workday repurchased approximately $75 million of Class A common stock under this program.
• In September 2025, Workday's board approved an additional $4 billion for its stock repurchase program, bringing the total planned repurchases to approximately $5 billion through fiscal year 2027. Workday repurchased $700 million in Class A common stock during fiscal year 2025 and $592 million in the first half of fiscal year 2026.

Share Issuance

• Workday reported proceeds of $152 million from the issuance of common stock from employee equity plans in fiscal year 2023.
• In fiscal year 2022, proceeds from the issuance of common stock from employee equity plans amounted to $148 million.
• As of February 23, 2023, Workday had approximately 204 million shares of Class A common stock and 55 million shares of Class B common stock outstanding.

Inbound Investments

• Activist investor Elliott Investment Management disclosed a stake of more than $2 billion in Workday in September 2025, expressing confidence in the company's growth potential and management.

Outbound Investments

• Workday announced its agreement to acquire Sana, an AI company focused on enterprise knowledge tools, for approximately $1.1 billion in September 2025, with the acquisition completed in November 2025.
• Workday completed its acquisition of Paradox, a conversational AI platform, in November 2025.

Capital Expenditures

• Workday's capital expenditures were approximately $269 million in fiscal year 2025 and $232 million in fiscal year 2024.
• For fiscal year 2024, expected capital expenditures were approximately $340 million, with a focus on investments in office facilities, corporate IT infrastructure, and customer data centers.
• Workday has provided guidance for full-year fiscal 2026 capital expenditures of approximately $250 million.