Workday

Dave Duffield's new venture, Workday, is starting to get more visible, including a recent presentation at IHRIM and a keynote discussion at HRTech last week.  HR Technology Discussion Board recently posted a great summary of the company's short history.  Well, here are some additional thoughts:

• Dave's track record -- building solutions such as Integral Systems (mainframe), Peoplesoft (client-server) that match next-generation technology with world-class functionality -- is unmatched.  Workday (web services) is destined to be the "next-generation" solution that carries on his legacy.
• Workday sounds like they are in process of finding a "marquee" customer to build their HR-based functionality.  Google recently evaluated Workday but determined, in typical Google fashion, to build it themselves (did you read recently that Google actually has a live-in dentist). Look for a more formal product announcement in Spring 2006.
• The HR/payroll market is rife with competition including many that focus on the mid-market.  Although Dave Duffield brings immediate credibility, a strong personal network, and an undisputed reputation, he will be facing heavy competition from traditional ERP vendors (Oracle, SAP), HR-specific vendors (Ultimate, ADP) and on-demand upstarts (NetSuite, OpenERP).

In a side note, Dave is literally in the process of building a castle the size of Bill Gates and Larry Ellison's houses...combined.