As a global financial institution with more than 80,000 employees operating in over 40 countries, ING faced the challenge of bringing its complex operations into a unified, agile environment. The company sought a solution that could support a diverse and distributed workforce, enable seamless collaboration between HR and finance, and ensure alignment with complex regulatory requirements. With both Workday Human Capital Management and Workday Financial Management, ING found a trusted partner to help it meet these needs and go far beyond.
“We started our journey with Workday in 2017, rolling out in the Netherlands,” said Than Prabakar, Workday IT chapter lead, director at ING. “Over the last few years, we’ve expanded heavily to other countries. We now support 13 modules and have recently extended into areas such as Workday Advanced Compensation and Workday Learning.”
Having both Workday HCM and Workday Financial Management gives us a unified platform to drive alignment between our people and our operations. This allows us to work more efficiently, adapt faster, and support the business with greater consistency across all regions.
Workday IT Chapter Lead, Director
A global team leading impactful transformation
Before Workday, ING faced limited cross-functional collaboration, particularly between HR and finance. The organisation needed a platform that could not only connect these functions but also support end-to-end governance, compliance and innovation at scale.
Prabakar’s team leads this transformation, overseeing third-line support and over 450 integrations, and managing configuration and change requests across HR, compliance and finance. Prabakar’s team plays a crucial role in ensuring that Workday evolves to meet ING’s local and global needs.
Accelerating innovation with Workday Extend and Kainos
To amplify the value of the platform even further, ING turned to Workday Extend, initially to launch an electronic document management (EDM) solution. “We purchased Workday Extend initially to implement EDM,” shared Prabakar. “We saw it as an opportunity to optimise what we had and continue building within a trusted and secure platform.”
For this initiative, ING partnered with Kainos, a long-standing Workday specialist and marketplace provider. The results were immediate. “From contract signature to go-live, it took just two months. That kind of speed is unprecedented at ING,” noted Prabakar. “In our first wave, we achieved 80% automation. In the second wave, which included Germany with 40 templates and translations, we reached nearly 90% automation. These are excellent results.”
Kainos also supported ING through a structured, phased model designed for sustainability. “Kainos led phase one, we co-developed phase two, and our internal team will take the lead in phase three,” Prabakar mentioned. “It’s been a true partnership, and we’re now exploring new use cases, including potential co-development of benefits apps.”
Each country had its own disjointed document management solution, creating significant manual effort and compliance risks. With Kainos EDM, employees can locate and print documents themselves, eliminating the need to submit requests to HR, aiming to save over 2,000 requests per year.
Workday IT Chapter Lead, Director
One platform, global reach, local flexibility
Building on the success of EDM, ING developed two additional compliance-focused applications on Workday Extend – Gift & Entertainment and Outside Interest. Both are currently being rolled out globally.
Workday Extend allows us to create bespoke solutions that are still fully integrated with our Workday ecosystem. We leverage the same security, governance and business processes, which significantly shortens time to value and enhances the user experience.
Workday IT Chapter Lead, Director
To ensure smart, scalable innovation, ING applies a clear governance model. “We always ask: Is this functionality already delivered by Workday? If it is, we adopt it. If it’s on the roadmap but not imminent, we use Workday Extend, knowing we can decommission the app later,” explained Prabakar. “When requirements are outside of Workday’s scope, we evaluate whether to partner like we did with Kainos, or develop in-house.”
This global-first approach allows ING to design once and scale with consistency. “We want to avoid creating 40 different versions of the same functionality,” said Prabakar. “With Workday Extend, we build for the enterprise and adapt locally only when legally necessary.”
Scaling forward with strategy, governance and vision
To support continued growth, ING is focused on three key priorities: reviewing foundational architecture to ensure long-term scalability, adopting new Workday innovations including AI, and expanding the role of Workday Extend within the HR and finance landscape.
We’re currently defining our AI strategy. Personally, I believe we’ll see growing adoption of machine AI capabilities in the years ahead. First, we need to strike the right balance and establish clear governance so we understand how best to apply it within our business.
Workday IT Chapter Lead, Director
As a long-standing customer, ING’s partnership with Workday continues to deepen. “Workday helped us set up our internal team and supported the global rollout across more than 40 countries. Now, our focus is on maximising the full potential of the platform,” explained Prabakar. “I’m most proud of the internal team we’ve built – highly knowledgeable and supporting 13+ modules and over 450 integrations. That team has been the backbone of our success.”
Through its strong collaboration with Workday, strategic use of Workday Extend and close partnership with Kainos, ING is accelerating innovation and building for the future. With a clear vision focused on scalability, agility and global consistency, the organisation is turning complexity into opportunity, delivering tailored, impactful solutions across its HR and finance landscape.