Workday is a cloud-based software vendor that is commonly used for human capital management (HCM), enterprise resource management (ERP), and financial management solutions. It’s also a Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) application used to optimize human resources initiatives across your entire organization.
The Workday Integration Cloud is key to managing all integrations to and from Workday. It enables connections to non-Workday platforms and devices to curate custom integrations. To manage all of these integrations, Workday needed a defined set of integration tools…
This is where Workday Web Services (WWS) comes in!
Workday Web Services is the core integration tool in Workday’s Architecture, and they work in tandem with Workday Integrations to provide public web service support. Read on to learn more about Workday Web Services and the ways they can improve business process efficiency, as well as where our team of Workday consultants can come in to help!
What are Workday Web Services?
When you choose Workday, you’ll see that there are numerous options for integrating data with different services, systems, and platforms. Workday Web Services (WWS) provides public web services that can assist a Workday user with all of their business management needs. All the data you put into the Workday application goes through Workday Web Services, so ultimately, the service you pick is up to your individual needs.
All of Workday’s integration tools leverage two main AP’s: SOAP and REST. They promote program interoperability and efficient and secure exchanges of information between Workday and non-Workday systems. Workday APIs are also “fully versioned”, meaning that your integrations will maintain functionality across the future Workday updates.
Here’s a look at some Workday APIs:
Workday SOAP API
Workday SOAP API requests allow users to input and retrieve data from Workday. When using Workday’s SOAP API to enter and gather data, this API supports numerous transactions and leverages a singular set of user credentials to improve connections across the entire Workday system. Users can also leverage the SOAP API to create and manage a GET request to improve report filters and retrieval services across teams.
Workday REST API
Workday’s REST API, also known as REST(ful) API, supports the secure and reliable transfer of information. It’s important to note that Workday REST API is not available in an “out the box” configuration and will most likely require some Workday Custom Development. With REST API’s, Workday users can improve and enhance coordination between Workday and the target application.
How to Use Workday API Services
Here’s a look at typical API services included in the Workday system:
Business Services:
This is the primary way to directly connect with Workday and can reach areas like staffing, benefits, and talent management. Business services revolve around Workday events and objectives, and with Workday APIs, data sets can be retrieved from these services in an XML or JSON format.
Reporting Services:
Reporting Services, also known as Report-as-a-Service (RaaS), produces formulas to build and gather standard Workday reports and custom reports across the organization. These reporting services consist of calculated fields and can provide data by either REST API (JSON) or SOAP API-based messages with a click of a checkbox.
Outbound Messaging Services:
These messaging services are used to provide accurate notifications to other systems where Workday stores and executes business events. For example, the “Hire” event in Workday can create an outbound message to a third-party system. After receiving the notification, the system can notify Workday, with the use of the public API, to gather details about the “Hire” and take the necessary actions to complete the task.
Monitoring Services:
Monitoring services provide the tools needed for external systems to see Workday integration groundworks statuses, allowing for integration improvements across systems. For instance, external systems can see the execution of integration events that occur within Workday, helping users to visualize when and how data will come from Workday before the events occur.
Workday Studio Integrations:
Workday Studio leverages Workday Web Services to create reports, integrations, customizations, and transformations across the enterprise. With this tool, companies are enabled to build out complex integrations in their Workday applications to improve functionality and agility across the board.
How We Can Help
Whether you need help deciding which Workday Web Service is the right fit for you or just getting started with Workday as a whole, we can help with that. Our team at Surety Systems can help you deploy a new Workday system or optimize Workday integrations with ease.
Our senior-level Workday consultants have the knowledge and experience to help you get to where you need to go and support your internal teams and business objectives along the way.
Contact Us
Ready to get started on your Workday journey?
Contact us today to learn where our expert Workday consultants can fit in your organization!
