Workday shares jumped 5% yesterday to close on 183.53 after news circulated that it might have signed up Accenture as a customer. Seeking Alpha referenced a William Blair note from Briefing.com and has further evidence that the deal may be taking place.
Accenture has 469,000 employees according to its website and would be in the top five customers for Workday. It will also be a major undertaking for Accenture though one that will enable it to train consultants. Though in the short term it will limit the availability of their expertise on the Workday platform.
Any deal is likely to be for the HCM portion of solution. If it also includes Finance and the professional services vertical then it will be a huge endorsement of Workday.
Enterprise Times What Does this mean
The news, if validated will be a snub to SAP SuccessFactors and Oracle HCM. Accenture delivers professional services for all three products. However, Accenture was always likely to select one of the big three to deploy. It is nonetheless an endorsement of Workday and once complete will place Accenture as an even more important partner going forward. It will have a larger cadre of experienced Workday consultants that will help boost its Workday delivery capability.
