VOL. XCIV, NO. 247
★ MOAT STOCKS & COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGES ★
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Tuesday, December 23, 2025
Workday, Inc.
WDAY · NASDAQ
Weighted average of segment moat scores, combining moat strength, durability, confidence, market structure, pricing power, and market share.
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Overview
Workday, Inc. provides enterprise cloud applications for financial management, spend management, human capital management, planning, and analytics on the Workday platform. Subscription services account for about 91% of FY2025 revenue and benefit from high switching costs driven by organization-wide deployments, integrated workflows/data, and multi-year, generally noncancelable contracts with ~98% gross revenue retention. A growing partner ecosystem and the Workday Marketplace add complements and integrations that increase platform utility. Key risks include intense competition from large enterprise software vendors and the possibility that implementation/migration tooling reduces switching costs over time.
Primary segment
Subscription services (Workday cloud applications + platform)
Market structure
Oligopoly
Market share
—
HHI: —
Coverage
2 segments · 8 tags
Updated 2025-12-23
Segments
Subscription services (Workday cloud applications + platform)
Enterprise cloud applications for managing people and money (HCM, financial management, spend, planning & analytics)
Revenue
91.4%
Structure
Oligopoly
Pricing
moderate
Share
—
Peers
Professional services (deployment, optimization, training)
Implementation, deployment, integration, and training services for Workday customers
Revenue
8.6%
Structure
Competitive
Pricing
weak
Share
—
Peers
Moat Claims
Subscription services (Workday cloud applications + platform)
Enterprise cloud applications for managing people and money (HCM, financial management, spend, planning & analytics)
Revenue split from FY2025 Form 10-K (year ended 2025-01-31): subscription services $7,718M of total $8,446M.
Training Org Change Costs
Demand
Training Org Change Costs
Strength: 4/5 · Durability: durable · Confidence: 4/5 · 2 evidence
Implementations touch complex HR/finance processes and integrations across large organizations, creating high change-management and deployment costs that slow vendor switching once live.
Erosion risks
- Improved migration/implementation tooling reduces change costs
- Standardized APIs and middleware reduce integration friction
- Enterprises adopt modular best-of-breed point solutions instead of suite replacements
Leading indicators
- Average implementation duration and cost trend
- Customer go-live success and satisfaction metrics
- Attach rate of additional modules post go-live
Counterarguments
- Large system integrators can implement multiple vendors and reduce vendor-specific advantage
- Once an enterprise funds a transformation program, switching vendors is feasible despite the pain
Data Workflow Lockin
Demand
Data Workflow Lockin
Strength: 5/5 · Durability: durable · Confidence: 4/5 · 2 evidence
Workday becomes a system-of-record for workforce and financial processes; multi-year, generally noncancelable subscriptions and high retention indicate strong embedded workflow/data lock-in.
Erosion risks
- Data portability requirements or buyer demands reduce lock-in
- Competitors bundle broader suites with aggressive pricing to displace incumbents
- Security incidents or outages trigger re-platforming decisions
Leading indicators
- Gross revenue retention rate
- Renewal rate and renewal term length
- Subscription backlog and 12-month backlog growth
Counterarguments
- ERP/HCM replacement cycles still happen, especially after M&A or major reorgs
- C-suite-driven standardization decisions can override end-user inertia
Suite Bundling
Demand
Suite Bundling
Strength: 3/5 · Durability: medium · Confidence: 4/5 · 2 evidence
Multiple modules on one platform enable land-and-expand and reduce buyer appetite for point solutions, but enterprises can still mix suites across vendors.
Erosion risks
- Best-of-breed point solutions outperform suite modules
- Procurement pushes unbundling to reduce vendor concentration
- Competitor suites (Oracle/SAP/Microsoft) price aggressively
Leading indicators
- Net expansion within existing customers
- Attach rate of additional applications per customer
- Competitive win/loss rates in core HCM and finance deals
Counterarguments
- Large enterprises often run heterogeneous stacks; suite bundling is not decisive
- Bundling can backfire if customers perceive modules as weaker than specialists
Ecosystem Complements
Network
Ecosystem Complements
Strength: 4/5 · Durability: medium · Confidence: 4/5 · 2 evidence
A growing partner ecosystem plus a marketplace of certified integrations and Built on Workday apps increases platform usefulness and lowers adoption friction for new functionality.
Erosion risks
- Partners build for multiple ecosystems; complements are not exclusive
- Security/compliance constraints limit third-party app adoption
- Platform changes that break integrations reduce ecosystem trust
Leading indicators
- Number of marketplace listings and certified integrations
- Partner-sourced pipeline contribution
- Customer adoption of Built on Workday apps and Industry Accelerators
Counterarguments
- Enterprise software ecosystems are weaker than consumer platforms; customers can integrate regardless of vendor
- Major competitors also have deep partner networks and marketplaces
Professional services (deployment, optimization, training)
Implementation, deployment, integration, and training services for Workday customers
Revenue split from FY2025 Form 10-K (year ended 2025-01-31): professional services $728M of total $8,446M.
Workday implementation expertise
Demand
Workday implementation expertise
Strength: 2/5 · Durability: fragile · Confidence: 3/5 · 1 evidence
Workday's in-house services team has product-specific implementation playbooks and access to product experts, but much delivery is performed by third-party service partners and is largely substitutable.
Implementations require skilled professionals; third parties provide a majority of deployment services, limiting sustainable differentiation for Workday-delivered services.
Erosion risks
- System integrators and partners take a larger share of deployments
- Standardization and tooling reduces billable complexity
- Price competition from large global consulting firms
Leading indicators
- Professional services gross margin trend
- Mix shift to partner-led deployments
- Implementation NPS/customer satisfaction on deployments
Counterarguments
- Implementation expertise is learnable and not protected by IP
- Large SIs can scale delivery faster and offer broader transformation programs
Evidence
Implementation ... may be technically complicated ... integrate data from a ... range of workflows and systems.
Supports the claim that deployments are complex and organization-wide, raising switching and re-implementation costs.
customers ... need access to highly skilled and trained service professionals.
Shows specialized implementation skill requirements, reinforcing organizational change costs.
subscription contracts typically have a term of three years or longer and are generally noncancelable.
Directly supports contractual lock-in that reduces churn and increases switching friction.
gross revenue retention rate of approximately 98% as of January 31, 2025.
High retention is consistent with high switching costs for a core enterprise system.
cloud applications for financial management, spend management, human capital management, planning, and analytics.
Shows breadth of suite sold as subscription services on a single platform.
Showing 5 of 9 sources.
Risks & Indicators
Erosion risks
- Improved migration/implementation tooling reduces change costs
- Standardized APIs and middleware reduce integration friction
- Enterprises adopt modular best-of-breed point solutions instead of suite replacements
- Data portability requirements or buyer demands reduce lock-in
- Competitors bundle broader suites with aggressive pricing to displace incumbents
- Security incidents or outages trigger re-platforming decisions
Leading indicators
- Average implementation duration and cost trend
- Customer go-live success and satisfaction metrics
- Attach rate of additional modules post go-live
- Gross revenue retention rate
- Renewal rate and renewal term length
- Subscription backlog and 12-month backlog growth
Curation & Accuracy
This directory blends AI‑assisted discovery with human curation. Entries are reviewed, edited, and organized with the goal of expanding coverage and sharpening quality over time. Your feedback helps steer improvements (because no single human can capture everything all at once).
Details change. Pricing, features, and availability may be incomplete or out of date. Treat listings as a starting point and verify on the provider’s site before making decisions. If you spot an error or a gap, send a quick note and I’ll adjust.