Workday Sees Continued Momentum in Retail, Helps Global Retail Organizations Drive Transformation Through Operational Insights

Nearly 50% of the 2021 NRF Top 100 Retailers Are Using Workday to Maximize Their Retail Operations

Workday Inc. , a leader in enterprise cloud applications for finance and human resources, announced continued momentum within the retail industry with nearly 50% of the 2021 NRF Top 100 Retailers having selected Workday. Global retail organizations of all sizes, including Giant Tiger Stores Ltd., Harrods, Jo-Ann Stores, Inc., Life Time, Inc., McCoy’s Building Supply, PUMA, Saks, and more are leveraging Workday to manage and optimize their retail operations, helping to accelerate their digital transformation efforts.

Retail organizations are experiencing significant challenges – from talent shortages among frontline workers, supply chain disruptions, fluctuating consumer demand, and an accelerated shift to e-commerce – all of which are greatly impacting how retailers plan and prepare for the future. To keep pace with evolving market conditions, while ensuring business and organizational agility, retailers are increasingly adopting Workday to attract and retain talent, improve planning processes, and expand revenue opportunities.

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The Digital Backbone for Retail Organizations

The disconnect between the back office and front office makes it difficult for retailers to gain a comprehensive view of their overall operations, which can lead to misaligned priorities, limited collaboration, and operational silos that negatively impact the employee and customer experience. Workday bridges the gap between front office and back office operations by providing finance, HR, and operational leaders with a unified view and insights into the lines of the business that are driving revenue and engaging with customers.

Workday meets retailers where they are in their digital transformation journey by offering a flexible cloud platform that makes it easy for them to adapt and grow based on their evolving business needs.

With Workday, retail organizations can:

• Bring Financial and Operational Data Together for a Single Source of Truth. Workday Financial Management and Workday Human Capital Management (HCM) combine to provide retailers with a single source of truth to manage and optimize their retail operations. Saks, the premier luxury ecommerce platform with more than 1,500 employees, will leverage the intelligent data core from Workday to combine various data sources – procurement inventory, merchandising, invoicing, supply chain systems, transportation, and more – with financial and people data to help its business leaders drive transformation through operational insights.
• Better Plan, Execute, and Analyze. Workday Adaptive Planning provides retailers with scenario planning, data modeling, and forecasting to help them stay agile and support the evolving business mix by channel. For example, retailers can use Workday to more quickly model demand and adjust based on forecasted activities to drive the targeted profitability and margin they’re expecting.
• Optimize the Workforce and Elevate the Employee Experience. With Workday Scheduling and Labor Optimization, retailers can empower frontline workers with flexibility and control for when and how they work, while achieving more precise labor coverage and labor cost-effectiveness with every schedule. For example, McCoy’s Building Supply, a building supply company with nearly 90 retail locations, leverages Workday Scheduling and Labor Optimization to enable its employees to view and manage their schedules, availability, and scheduling preferences – all from their mobile devices – while providing managers new ways to measure and improve productivity and schedule quality. As a result, McCoy’s Building Supply is delivering engaging and productive employee experiences to help attract, support, and retain talent.

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Comments on the News

“The events of the past two years have shaped a very different future for retailers – one where they need to quickly adapt to ever changing consumer, employee, and business needs,” said Indy Bains, vice president, industry solution marketing, Workday. “Workday uniquely meets retailers where they are in their digital transformation journey with a solution that helps unify data across their ecosystems, helping to bridge the gap between the front and back office so retailers have the insights they need to respond to and plan for future demands.”

“We wanted to take ownership of our overall operations and the experiences we’re delivering to both our customers and to our more than 1,500 employees,” said Mike Hite, chief information officer, Saks. “We selected Workday because it will give us visibility into our financial, people, and operational data – and the insights needed to make data-driven decisions – while enabling us to remain agile and adapt to the changing nature of our business.”

“With Workday, we’re able to support our frontline team members by allowing them to manage their schedules right from their mobile device so they can truly own their worker experience,” said Ray Gabriel, vice president of information services, McCoy’s Building Supply. “At the same time, Workday Scheduling and Labor Optimization is a one-stop shop for our managers, enabling them to see and manage time tracking, scheduling, payroll, and absence all in one place. The more time we can give back to our business leaders means more time with our customers, and that’s a priority for McCoy’s Building Supply.”

“Having an agile finance and HR backbone is the foundation for success in digital transformation,” said Leslie Hand, group vice president, IDC Retail and Financial Insights. “According to IDC’s 2021 Retail Survey, retailers report that data visibility across the value chain is the biggest challenge standing in the way of driving employee experiences that result in higher business profitability and revenue growth. This is one reason we’re seeing retailers increasingly adopt software that transforms workforce experience and radically improves operational agility and performance.”