For the fourth consecutive year, Inc. magazine ranked The Planet Group as one of the fastest-growing private companies in America. The company, which offers staffing and digital consulting services for clients worldwide, averages about three acquisitions a year.
The Planet Group wanted to simplify and unify operations across the various finance and HR systems it inherited from these newly acquired companies. An added challenge involved overcoming employees’ natural resistance to change during the acquisition process. “We had to make sure change felt acceptable to our employees,” says Jon Whiley, chief technology officer.
To solve these challenges, The Planet Group chose the Workday platform and its suite of HR and finance products. The company uses Workday to manage the complexities of M&A under a unified core system that lets The Planet Group scale and grow globally.
Automation drives efficiency.
The Planet Group uses Workday Orchestrate, a low-code, drag-and-drop development tool that enables real-time, event-driven API integrations. Employees log in to the Workday developer site to access Workday Orchestrate. (It doesn’t require downloading IDEs to get started.)
Employees automate various processes with Workday Orchestrate, saving time and resources. “We’ve used Workday Orchestrate for about seven or eight projects so far and it’s fantastic,” Whiley says.
Employees also save time using Workday Orchestrate to automatically place exchange rates in a flat file instead of manually, which is time-consuming and error-prone. “That’s 30 minutes of time freed up weekly because we don’t need to confirm exchange rates are correct for billing,” Whiley says. “That doesn’t sound like a lot. But that time saved adds up.”
Workday Orchestrate means we no longer access multiple systems and download spreadsheets. The time we save is fantastic.
Chief Technology Officer
Fast and accurate reports and insights.
In the past, The Planet Group manually exported data into spreadsheets for budgeting and forecasting. The company now uses Workday Adaptive Planning and its AI-driven insights, advanced data visualization, and powerful reporting tools.
The Planet Group also automates and streamlines plans, budgets, and forecasts with Workday Adaptive Planning, enabling the alignment of headcount, sales, and operational goals.
Whiley says the organization used to spend four to six hours compiling financial records from multiple sources. “Now, we can see it refreshing in real time,” Whiley says. Executive leaders use time-sensitive financial reports to make quicker decisions, such as prioritizing sales team goals and identifying talent gaps and resources. Whiley says it helps keep the company agile and responsive to market changes.
Data used to be weeks old depending on when financial reports were pulled. Now it refreshes instantly and we see data in real time.
Chief Technology Officer
Higher employee engagement.
Whiley says employees and consultants onboard new hires faster with Workday Human Capital Management (HCM). The Planet Group automatically updates and sends offer letters and assigns learning and development training to new hires based on their role. That saves employees time spent manually creating emails.
Onboarding is easier because completed forms are automatically distributed to employees. “Managers and employees like that they’re getting accurate information about payroll and other key HR functions,” Whiley says.
A unified platform also saves employees time tracking down information. “They don’t have to look in several systems to find their benefits, payroll, or expenses,” Whiley says. “It’s nice to have all that on one platform.” Staff members also save time using the mobile app to make last-minute PTO requests from just about anywhere, for example. “They can do everything in the app,” Whiley says. “That’s been great for employees.”
As The Planet Group grows, Whiley says leaders want to take advantage of the latest Workday products available. “Like us, Workday continues to evolve, and that’s what we love about this partnership,” Whiley says.