Data Sources for eDiscovery Professionals
Workday
Company Snapshot
Workday, Inc. (NASDAQ: WDAY) delivers cloud‑native human capital management (HCM), finance, and planning applications to more than 10,000 organizations worldwide. In its Q1 FY 2026 earnings release (May 22 2025), Workday reported $2.24 billion in total revenue (subscription revenue $2.06 billion), up ≈ 12.6 % year‑over‑year, with a 24‑month subscription backlog of $18.3 billion.
Origin
Workday was founded in March 2005 by PeopleSoft veterans Dave Duffield and Aneel Bhusri after Oracle’s hostile takeover of PeopleSoft. Over breakfast at a Nevada‑California diner, they sketched the vision for a pure‑cloud ERP suite that would “put people at the center of enterprise software.” The first HCM customers went live in 2006, and Workday completed a landmark IPO in 2012 at a $9.5 billion valuation.
The Workday Platform
Workday runs on a single‑tenant‑logical / multi‑tenant‑physical architecture where every customer is always on the same codeline and data model. Key attributes relevant to eDiscovery:
- Object‑oriented data model (“Business Objects”) with automatic effective‑dated history (auditability).
- “Report Writer” and Prism Analytics expose every field—including custom objects—without additional ETL.
- Enterprise Interface Builder (EIB) for bulk outbound/inbound data in CSV, XML, or JSON.
- Comprehensive SOAP & REST APIs secured via OAuth 2.0 and WSDL‑based service definitions.
- Attachments & Drive store original files (PDFs, scans) linked to transactions with SHA‑1 content hashing.
Extracting Workday Data for Investigation
| Method | What you get | Typical Volume | Pro Tips |
| Custom Report ▶ Report‑as‑a‑Service (RaaS) | Any reportable field in XML, CSV, or JSON via HTTPS endpoint | Low → High | Include WID (Workday ID) & Effective Start/End for defensible timeline; version with ?format=csv. |
| Enterprise Interface Builder (EIB) | Scheduled full‑table extracts or delta files (CSV/JSON) | High | Use Change Detection to pull only inserts/updates; sign and hash payloads. |
| Prism Analytics Data Hub | Curated data sets blended with external sources; export to S3/Parquet | Variable | Great for cross‑system investigations; maintains column‑level lineage. |
| SOAP/REST APIs | Real‑time transactional pulls (JSON/XML) | Low → Medium | Filter by lastModifiedDateTime; throttle to 100 req/min default limits. |
| Attachments API / Workday Drive | Binary documents linked to business objects | Low | Collect with ?location=drive to preserve folder context. |
Preservation Tip: Workday retains audit snapshots indefinitely but purge rules may delete Change Log entries after 24 months. Issue legal hold or clone tenant for “HOLD_2025Q2” to ensure data immutability.
Common eDiscovery & Investigation Use Cases
- Employment disputes & wage‑and‑hour litigation – Export payroll registers, time‑tracking, and worker history.
- Discrimination & harassment claims – Analyze employee relations cases, feedback, and talent reviews.
- SOX & financial audits – Pull journal entries, approval chains, and Adaptive Planning workbooks.
- M&A due diligence – Validate workforce composition, retention metrics, and compensation structures.
- Third‑party contractor compliance – Combine Worker (Contingent), VNDLY vendor data, and Scout Sourcing events.
Related Technologies in the Workday Portfolio
- Adaptive Insights (Workday Adaptive Planning) – Enterprise FP&A & planning
- Scout RFP (Workday Strategic Sourcing) – Procurement & sourcing workflows
- Peakon (Workday Employee Voice) – Employee sentiment & engagement analytics
- VNDLY – Vendor & contractor management
- Zimit – Quote‑to‑cash CPQ for services