I recently had the pleasure of catching up with George Whitaker, head of innovation at Maske Group, on my Workday Gold podcast. George’s journey from implementing Workday at PGA of America to now building apps for the Built on Workday marketplace offers fascinating insights into how the platform has evolved and where it’s headed.

The Transformation Story That Started It All

George’s story begins at PGA of America, where he was tasked with modernizing systems that were literally decades old. Picture this: during onboarding, he filled out a stack of paper forms. In 2019! That’s when you know transformation is overdue.

But here’s what made their Workday implementation special—they didn’t just replace old systems, they innovated. The PGA needed to pay out winnings from 6,000 golf events annually, often to thousands of participants, with a three-day SLA. Think about that complexity: identifying the right Bob Smith out of hundreds who played that weekend and getting them paid accurately and quickly.

This challenge led to one of the early success stories of Workday Extend: the Purse Payout Tool. This is how George and I met. Working together (George reached out to me through a Workday sales rep), we built a solution that handled 90% of their needs initially, then 99% after their second version was released. The beautiful thing? End users had no idea it wasn’t standard Workday functionality.

Real Apps Solving Real Problems

What excites me most is seeing the variety of applications hitting the marketplace. George’s team at Maske Group has three apps live with six more launching soon. These aren’t just theoretical solutions—they’re born from real customer pain:

• Customer Portal Payments: Allows customer to make credit card payments via the Workday Customer Portal page and Stripe. 
• IBAN (international banking account number) Validation: Advanced validation for international customers
• Sales Order and Drop Ship Management: Automates Sales Order and Drop Ship management

The beauty is these apps work within Workday’s security boundaries, provide full audit trails, and integrate seamlessly with reporting. When George created a “purse payee” object, it immediately became reportable and could be linked to supplier records.

Career Advice from the Trenches

George’s career advice resonates because he’s lived it: network before you need it. Our relationship started because I was asking questions, and Workday connected us. That conversation led to successful projects and ongoing collaboration.

His specific recommendations:

• Attend events such as user groups, DevCon, or Rising regardless of your career stage
• Spend time in GMS (Global Modern Services) sample tenant – treat your preview tenant like a learning lab. Consider refreshing your Preview tenant with GMS for a while. 
• Be a good customer or partner – people notice how you collaborate

The Future is Built on Workday

What we’re seeing is the emergence of a true platform ecosystem. Just like Salesforce transformed business applications a decade ago, Workday is positioned to do the same for HR and finance systems. 

The marketplace is just getting started, but the trajectory is clear: Workday is becoming the platform where business innovation happens. Whether you’re a customer looking to extend functionality or a partner considering the Built on Workday opportunity, now is the time to pay attention.

As George puts it, if he were “big blue or big red,” he’d be a little scared. The platform revolution in enterprise software is here, and it’s built on Workday.