Workday

Workday, Inc. is a company offering financial management and human capital management services via an on-demand cloud-based service. Workday is a payroll program that also allows for more granular detail relating to a workforce. Using the program, a user is able to locate members of the team, identify their skills, cost, and performance, and thereby handle complex financial modelling tasks. Ultimately, this allows companies to ensure they are best spending their resources, to identify talent gaps, and to ensure the satisfaction of their team. Workday was founded by David Duffield in 2005.

In October 2012, Workday launched a highly successful IPO that valued it at $9.5 billion. The company now brings in over $2 billion annually, employing over 8,000 people globally.

Although it is a relatively new business, it has been growing rapidly and has already made a number of notable acquisitions, including SkipFlag, which created an AI knowledge base that builds itself from a company's internal communications.

Using the Software as a Service business model, Workday managed to achieve an annual revenue exceeding $1 billion in its first fiscal year. Workday generates revenue by selling subscriptions to its online services, rather than directly selling software. This model allows the company to generate a recurring and reliable income, while providing a relatively hands-off service to its customers. That, in turn, frees the business up to work on its core value propositions, rather than simply fulfilling orders.