When Workday unveiled new global payroll integrations at the start of this summer, a highly coveted race began within the global payroll industry. As part of Workday’s plans to unify the experience between Workday and global payroll providers, Workday announced Global Payroll Connect, a set of features designed to maximize the experience for customers and enable greater command and control within Workday.
Seven leading global payroll providers were invited to take on the challenge of implementing five, next-gen integrations within Workday’s Global Payroll Connect platform. The biggest challenge of all? Building and implementing the integrations before Workday’s annual Workday Rising conference in September 2024.
From day one, Safeguard Pay embraced this challenge, the Race to Rising, knowing that success would mean delivering even more innovative and seamless solutions for our clients. Only two of the seven global payroll providers made it to the finish line – and we’re proud to be one of them. Keep reading to discover how we achieved this milestone in just two months!
Why do these new integrations matter?
These API-driven integrations are all designed to provide greater connectivity between Workday and payroll systems, increasing efficiency and eliminating reliance on manual spreadsheets. Here is a high-level view of each integration in Global Payroll Connect:
- Global Payroll Hub: Enables Workday customers to obtain payroll process status visibility within Workday, without the need to look at global payroll partner systems (for partners that have status tracking capabilities).
- Additional Payroll Data (APD) and Event-Driven Integration (EDI): Capturing local payroll data required for processing pay and producing tax filings has always been an offline process. Now, customers can automatically request additional data needed for new employees from within Workday, reducing manual processes and errors, and finally eliminating spreadsheets from the process.
- Data Changes on Demand (DCOD): Replacing previous ETL/ file-based integrations, DCOD enables payroll providers to connect to a customer Workday tenant and pull down the data for a given pay run, reducing the maintenance overhead on previous integration methods.
- External Payroll Results (ExPR): Simplifies the communication of payroll results between Workday and Safeguard Pay, enabling customers to analyze their global payroll expense alongside their HR data, all within their Workday tenant.
- External Payslip and Documents (ExPD): Ensures that payslips and documents are more readily available for Workday clients and employees.
Together, these next-gen API integrations revolutionize payroll and HR processes by delivering more automation, easier access to accurate data, and less maintenance. You don’t have to imagine a world without spreadsheets anymore – it's already here.
Five integrations and one expert team
With only eight weeks to implement these new integrations, the Safeguard Pay product team encountered several challenges leading up to Workday Rising. To win the race, we not only had to implement the integrations technologically, but we also had to deploy them successfully with a Workday customer. “It was quite a complex task with an even tighter deadline, but we knew our clients wanted tighter integrations with Workday,” says Tristan Woods, Chief Product Officer at Safeguard Pay. “As Workday’s original global payroll partner, we know that creating simpler payroll processes resulting in a better experience for our clients is what we get up every day for. I had zero doubt my fantastic team would rise to the occasion; they never fail to deliver.”
Nevertheless, the sheer dedication and synergy of the Safeguard Pay product team drove the project forward. Ion Robu, Product Owner at Safeguard Pay, shares that “one of the main challenges we encountered was ensuring seamless data synchronization between Workday and Safeguard Pay systems. To solve this, we worked closely with our engineering teams, developing a solid plan and implementing a robust testing framework.” Alejandro Uzcategui, Product Owner at Safeguard Pay, also reflects on the process of implementing these integrations. He shares that the team worked in “a dynamic environment where we had to be prepared to quickly pivot our approach or implement new features along the way, even if that meant a small change from our normal process.” But even in the midst of this new challenge, Alejandro applauds his team’s work ethic and support for each other by sharing, “We regularly reflect on our processes and outcomes, celebrating our successes and learning from our experiences, which makes it a very positive environment that motivates us to do our best work.”
"Like many fast-paced industries, unexpected changes are inevitable and problem solving on the go is a key part of the job. Our Guardians recognize that timely payroll is vital, and a delayed or late delivery isn’t an option. Implementing these integrations was no exception, and the relentless drive of our Guardians to provide a superior experience to our clients led us to the finish line with fully functioning, next-gen integrations," Tristan adds.
Ion reflects on this achievement, attributing it to strong teamwork and Safeguard Pay’s dedication to clients. “What really made a difference was our collaborative culture. Everyone was encouraged to share ideas, and that led to faster, high-quality implementations. Additionally, regular meetings with the Workday team helped us proactively address potential blockers, keeping our implementation on track. We have always been focused on the client experience, anticipating needs and providing value, which has played a key role in our success.”
When asked to reflect on this incredible achievement, Tristan Woods speaks about his team proudly. “It makes a significant difference to work with a team that truly cares about people and delivering a well-designed product that will ensure people get paid accurately, compliantly and on time. Alongside new integrations and innovative technology, payroll will always have some sort of human touch to it, and our people are one of our greatest strengths. Every day, I remind myself how blessed I am to have such a fantastic team. They’re smart, and they work hard, but they’re also great people. In business, that matters more than many might realize.”
Integrate your HR and payroll processes with Safeguard Pay and Workday
At Safeguard Pay, we’re passionate about global pay. We’re built for it, and we’ve been doing it longer than anyone. If you’re looking for a global payroll provider that manages, accelerates and scales payroll for organizations globally, we’re here to deliver that through a community of local payroll experts, partners, and a single, agile platform. Global payroll is complex; we make it less complicated.
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