ESRI unifies finance and HR with Workday and Strada to drive clarity and control across Asia

An interview with Toni Gordon, Chief Financial Officer and John Powe, Workday Implementation Lead, ALS by Anirban Dass 

ESRI Australia and the broader ESRI South Asia group represent a complex, multi‑entity and multi‑currency operation that spans Australia, Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, and Bangladesh. As the organization grew, so did the strain on its finance and HR technology. Teams were relying on inconsistent processes, limited visibility, manual reporting, and a legacy ERP that could not scale with their needs. 

Nine months later, ESRI had re‑engineered its financial operations with Workday Financial Management and Strada creating a unified, cloud‑based foundation for growth across the region. 

ESRI’s transformation needed clarity and control 

Before Workday, ESRI’s finance and HR operations were fragmented. Finance was running on a legacy platform that limited configuration, created process inconsistencies, and could not support their increasingly complex revenue recognition needs. HR was even more fragmented, split across eight different platforms depending on the region. 

Visibility suffered. Data could not be trusted. Even something as basic as headcount reporting required sending emails to multiple regions and compiling Excel spreadsheets manually. 

Revenue recognition was heavily manual and error‑prone, and project reporting for more than 300 delivery staff required stitching together data from S/4, Microsoft Project, Salesforce, and Excel. 

For CFO Toni Gordon, the tipping point was clear. ESRI needed a modern finance system that would standardize operations, simplify revenue recognition, unify their HR data, and give leadership reliable insights for the first time.

“Workday gave us the transparency and drill‑down we desperately needed. For the first time we can see our workforce and our financials in one place and trust the data behind it.”

Toni Gordon Chief Financial Officer, ESRI

Why Workday Financial Management was the answer 

After years of battling inflexibility and manually reconciling gaps, ESRI chose Workday to bring structure, accuracy, and end‑to‑end clarity to its finance operations. Workday’s out‑of‑the‑box capabilities offered three critical advantages: 

• Automated revenue recognition, eliminating manual edits and improving accuracy. 
• Strong project functionality, allowing resource allocation, contract linkage, and project budgeting in one place. 
• A single system of record for HR and finance, supporting multi‑entity and multi‑currency consolidation. 

For the first time, ESRI could standardize processes globally and scale its finance operations with confidence.

Why Strada became the right financial management implementation partner 

Strada’s approach resonated with ESRI from day one. Strada’s flexibility, responsiveness, and willingness to adapt as requirements evolved made a measurable difference throughout the implementation. With a complex, multi-entity environment, ESRI needed more than implementation support. They needed a partner who understood revenue recognition, project accounting, and multi-currency consolidation at scale. 

Whether it was recalibrating scope, stepping in to unblock issues, or providing hands‑on support across Australia and Asia, Strada became a true extension of the ESRI team. Their executive oversight and willingness to have tough conversations early meant no surprises, even during the busiest phases of the programme. 

Strada also provided on‑the‑ground go‑live support in offices in Singapore, Brisbane and other locations a gesture Toni and John repeatedly described as critical in helping teams navigate change. 

“Strada brought flexibility and a real partnership mindset. With multiple countries and tight timelines, we needed a team who could adapt quickly and help defend what the business needed. They did exactly that.”

John Powe Workday Implementation Lead, ESRI

Building a unified foundation through a two‑phase Workday rollout 

ESRI’s transformation rolled out in two significant phases: 

Phase 1: Deploy core Workday HR capabilities in Australia

Delivered HR core functionality, finance modules, expenses, procurement, project billing and customer contracts all within the first half of the year. This phase defined the standard operating model for the group.

Phase 2: Scale Workday to standardize HR across South Asia 

Replicated the standardized operating model across Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, and Bangladesh, enabling one source of truth and a common governance structure across the region. 

The pace was ambitious. ESRI delivered HR, projects, PSA, finance, spend, banking, settlement and revenue in roughly six months then repeated the rollout across four additional countries before year-end. 

Even Strada acknowledged the speed, the team delivered far more than expected within a single year. 

Impact of Workday financial management deployment 

• Unified HR and finance operations across five countries with one consistent operating model. 
• Automated revenue recognition for the first time, reducing manual edits and improving accuracy. 
• Replaced inconsistent, manual processes across entities, delivering strong audit outcomes. 
• Reduced application footprint with estimated ecosystem savings of 35 percent  
• Standardized project reporting for 300 project delivery staff across the group. 

ESRI continues to partner with Strada through AMS support, ensuring ongoing enhancements, issue resolution, and continuous improvement across both finance and HR. As ESRI strengthens its internal capabilities, AMS has become a flexible model that allows the teams to focus on innovation while relying on Strada for expert guidance and complex solutioning when needed. 

How Workday is already reshaping financial operations 

Workday has introduced new discipline and control into ESRI’s finance processes. Teams now follow consistent workflows. Contracts stay balanced. Approvals flow across business lines. End users can execute tasks more efficiently and with fewer errors. 

The automation of back‑to‑back revenue and spend models has been especially transformative for ESRI’s reseller‑focused business model. What was once tracked manually across spreadsheets and emails is now executed within a single system. 

The PSA teams are also seeing benefits, with Workday enabling them to allocate resources, raise budgets, and manage projects with a level of consistency they never had before. 

Looking ahead to a future‑forward ESRI and Strada partnership

The foundation is in place, and 2026 marks a shift from stabilization to innovation. ESRI and Strada are now focusing on:

• Expanding reporting and analytics, including Snowflake integration. 
• Advancing HR functionality with talent, recruitment, and onboarding. 
• Preparing for Adaptive Planning in FY27. 
• Strengthening automation around software sales processes. 
• Enhancing multi‑entity consolidation and exploring no‑touch integrations with ESRI. 

ESRI also plans deeper participation in customer communities, learning from other Workday finance customers and building its internal capabilities to support long‑term growth. 

A strengthened foundation for a unified financial future 

ESRI’s partnership with Workday and Strada has created a modern financial backbone that supports scale, data accuracy, and operational alignment across the entire region. 

The hard work has unlocked a future where teams can focus on insights, not administration, and where ESRI can innovate confidently on top of a unified platform. 

The journey continues, but the foundation is strong and built for the long term. 

Advice for others on the same journey 

“Change management needs more investment than you think. Centralize your data migration, make decisions quickly and involve your executives early. If you wait for perfect alignment, you will never move forward.”

Toni Gordon Chief Financial Officer, ESRI

“Start data cleansing early and separate it clearly from data conversion. Fix problems at the source and do not bring legacy issues into your new system. It saves enormous pain later.”

John Powe Workday Implementation Lead, ESRI