It’s no secret that having a strong data management strategy that can withstand change is an important key to success…

Luckily for you, Workday’s functional ecosystem offers the Enterprise Interface Builder (EIB) tool to help you keep your data organized and up-to-date so nothing slips through the cracks. Workday EIBs allow users to mass load data and extract it from your Workday system to be transferred elsewhere in your organization and beyond.

Read on to learn more about Workday EIBs and how you can use them to maximize your business processes.

What is a Workday EIB?

Workday EIB is a guided and graphical no-code integration tool designed to help customers extract and transfer mass amounts of Workday data with ease. By leveraging Workday EIB tools, experienced Workday users can facilitate inbound and outbound integrations between data sources and generate XML templates to outline required text fields more efficiently.

What Does EIB Stand for in Workday?

Workday EIB, or Enterprise Interface Builder, is a guided and graphical no-code interface that’s great for inbound and outbound integrations. An outbound EIB extracts data from a specific source, using FTPs to transfer data, while inbound EIBs export data directly. Using Workday EIB, you can transport information through SFTP, email, WebDav, SOAP, and REST (among other options). If you do decide to use SFTP, you can secure your EIB data in Workday ERP with digital signatures and PGP encryption.

Using EIB to feed data through the Web Service allows you to access different security settings than that of the browser-based inputs.

In addition to its other benefits, Workday EIB can also generate filenames in sequence for multi-file jobs, saving you a lot of time and effort (not to mention reducing the chance of misnaming an important file). This Workday EIB guide covers all of the basics of getting started with Workday enterprise interface builder. For further assistance on complex integration solutions, check out our Workday Studio guide.

It’s no secret that having a strong data management strategy that can withstand change is an important key to success. Luckily for you, Workday’s functional ecosystem offers the Enterprise Interface Builder tool to help you keep your data organized and up-to-date so nothing slips through the cracks. Workday EIBs allow users to mass load data and extract it from your Workday system to be transferred elsewhere in your organization and beyond.

What’s the Difference Between Inbound EIBs and Outbound EIBs?

The Workday Enterprise Interface Builder can be an important tool to have in your data management toolbox. But, how do you know whether inbound or outbound EIBs will be more beneficial in fulfilling your organizational needs? Let’s dive into the differences.

Outbound Integrations with Workday EIB

Outbound EIBs are most commonly used within organizations to send data from your Workday system to external endpoints elsewhere by using Workday’s integration capabilities. They are typically used for more simple integrations with only one data source that can be extracted from custom reports in Workday and transformed with a single custom transformation before being exported.

Some cases where you might use an outbound EIB include:

 Inbound Integrations with Workday EIB

Inbound EIBs are a little more complex, and their increased functionality can be used to load large amounts of data into your system without using up too much of your time and effort. Your data will be loaded into your Workday system by using the custom Enterprise Interface Builder (EIB) template, making it a simpler process to add and transform larger amounts of data from an external point, like an FTP or SFTP.

You should consider using inbound EIBs if you need to:

  • System migrations and conversions
  • Updating over 100 employee profiles
  • Implementing new benefit plans
  • Importing a large number of new hires into the system

Ready to Get the Most Out of Workday’s EIB?

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Tips for Using Workday EIBs

Business Process EIB Loads

When loading an EIB, be sure to double-check your business process definitions. If your organization’s business process requires a specific step, you cannot skip the same step in your EIB. In other words, if the optional box is unchecked, the step must be in your EIB. Failure to include the step will result in your EIB getting stuck.

Retroactively Check Data

Thoroughly check the data in your Workday system after uploading an EIB. Even if the system indicates that there are no errors, it is possible that some records may not have been updated properly. Always ensure that the spreadsheet key and number fields have been populated correctly. If you encounter any issues while reviewing your data, use the “Mass Cancel Business Process” report to check if any loaded records are still in progress. If any are still in progress, the culprit is likely a stuck business process.

Take Additional Security Measures

Always use an Integration System User (ISU) and Integration System Security Group (ISSG) when performing outbound integrations. Using an ISU and ISSG allows you to run the integration on a specified schedule without human intervention.

 

 

How Do You Run an EIB in Workday?

The Workday EIB tool makes it easy for users to load or extract data in mass right from Workday. The EIB tool generates an XML Excel template from your Workday that populates all the required fields that require data for you. Generating and uploading an EIB using Workday is straightforward and can save users a lot of time doing what would otherwise be tedious tasks, but there are a few things to keep in mind as you use the EIB tool.

Using the EIB tool can help streamline business processes, but it’s crucial to review every detail before loading an EIB. For example, if a required step is left unchecked in your business process EIB, then the Workday EIB tool will get stuck and fail to load your process definitions.

On the other hand, checking your EIB after loading is equally vital. In many instances, an EIB with no errors doesn’t necessarily mean it successfully loaded all the data into your Workday system. Sometimes, Workday will “successfully update” your EIB while your business processes and system remain unchanged. If this happens, verify that your spreadsheet key and all row number fields populate correctly in your EIB XML file. In any case, if you notice any errors in your Workday system while reviewing the data, use the “Mass Cancel Business Process.” This feature lets users see if their loaded records are “In progress” resulting from erroneous business processes.

What is XML?

The EIB tool works by generating an XML Excel template from your Workday system that includes all the data information necessary for extraction and/or transfer.

XML stands for “eXtensible Markup Language.” A data type that’s used by EIB, XML describes data and looks a bit like this:

  • What is this thing in column 1? We call it “Employee ID”.
  • What kind of data is it? It’s a text field.
  • What is the data value for this record? The value is “1050234”.
  • What is this thing in column 2? We call it “Legal First Name”.
  • What kind of data is it? It’s a text field.
  • What is the data value for this record? The value is “Elizabeth”.
  • What’s this next thing in column 3? We call it “Preferred First Name”.
  • What kind of data is it? It’s a text field.
  • What is the data value for this record?” The value is “Beth”.

Of course, that’s not actually what an XML file looks like, but that is what it’s doing. It essentially “self-describes” the data source, and then shows the data value itself.

The XML standard is a flexible way to create information formats and electronically share structured data via the public internet, as well as through corporate networks. Technically speaking, Enterprise Interface Builder files are text files formatted to follow the XML rules. Most often, those XML files are used as inputs to a Workday-delivered web service that updates the database object (for example, Insert, Update, and sometimes Delete).

What Can Workday EIB Be Used for?

There are plenty of ways to use Workday EIBs to save yourself time and effort and optimize your business process. Here’s one: if you need to pay commissions to hundreds of salespeople on a monthly or maybe even a quarterly basis, there’s no need to have Sales Operations enter each commission to each salesperson separately. You could simply create an EIB module using the “Create EIB” command in Workday and then create the XML file that goes with the newly created Workday EIB module. Salesforce management plays a big role in the retail business, if you’re in the industry and looking for a solution, consider Surety Systems.

Here are a few more examples of ways to use EIB in Workday:

  • Importing one-off payments like commissions, annual bonuses, or spot-bonuses.
  • Mass creating job requisitions and hires, such as for a corporate acquisition or seasonal mass hires (holiday season temp workers, start of the school year, etc.)
  • Mass compensation increases (such as annual merit increases)—although these won’t be necessary if you’ve implemented Workday’s “Advanced Compensation” module.

An important thing to remember about building Enterprise Interface Builder XML files: while they’re similar to creating a file in Excel, the process isn’t quite as easy. So if there are 20 or fewer records to add/change or delete in Workday, you’ll probably find it faster to just do those updates manually. And, that’s just a taste of what Workday EIB can do for you

For an even closer look at how to make the most of everything Workday has to offer, our senior-level Workday consultants have the experience, advice, and Workday EIB tutorials you need to succeed. To help give you a better idea of how our consultants can help you with all of your Enterprise Interface Builder or integration needs, we’ve included an example profile of one of our top Workday EIB consultants.

Surety Senior EIB Consultant

  • 10+ years of Workday experience
  • Extensive EIB and Reporting experience
  • Previous experience with CCBs, Studio, and HCM integrations
  • Considered an expert with data conversion/mapping

Get in touch with us today!

Questions about Workday EIB

Why Use Workday EIB?

As a supplemental development tool, Workday EIB can load data into Workday without the hassle of writing complex programs.

How is Workday EIB different from other integration tools?

Workday EIB can be used without having to make major changes to the code.

How can Surety Systems help with Workday EIB implementation?

Surety can provide senior level Workday integration consultants to assist with any Workday EIB project requests you have.