From Flat Fees to Growth-Based Pricing: The New Reality of Workday Success Plans

In a world of rapidly changing subscription models, your Workday Success Plan is no different. Over the past year, Workday has made significant changes to their Success Plan program. While the names and service levels have evolved, the most consequential change is how these plans are priced and how this shift can now impact your business.

For organizations approaching renewal, planning an expansion, or considering a new Workday deployment, these changes can materially impact long-term costs and contractual flexibility if not addressed early. Here is what you should know to successfully navigate these changes.

Understanding the New Workday Success Plans

Under the old program, Success Plans fell under three tiers named after precious metals: Silver, Gold, and Platinum. The plan names fall under four categories: Standard, Accelerate Essentials, Accelerate, and Accelerate Plus.

Not only have the names on your order forms changed but so have the structure and functionality of the Success Plans. While there is no apples-to-apples comparison for the old and new, the table below outlines what new model is most comparable to your previous one:

How Success Plan Pricing Has Changed

The most significant change to Workdays Success Plans is how they are now priced. What was once a fixed flat fee is now percentage-based pricing. To understand why this matters, it helps to look at how support and maintenance were historically structured and how those cost models have evolved over the years.

Back in the “old days” of on-premises perpetual license software, customers paid a large upfront license fee, followed by annual maintenance and support fees determined as a factor of net license fees.

As license counts grew, so did maintenance and support fees. Much like taxes, annual maintenance and support fees generally only went in one direction…up. It was an antiquated model that paved the way for SaaS.

The transition to SaaS brought on the idea of “renting” software under a subscription model, lowering annual costs and eliminating the big, upfront capital expenditure in favor of recurring operating expenses. Some of the stated benefits of the subscription model are that maintenance and support are included in the fee, and you will always be running on the latest and greatest software version without the customer ever having to implement upgrades or refresh hardware.

Under Workday’s new Success Plan model, we are starting to see a reversal in those benefits. What was once a flat, fixed fee is now a variable, percentage-based fee as a factor of your total Workday spend.

In other words, as your Workday product footprint or FSE counts grow, so does the cost of your Success Plan. Although the new plans offer a step forward in features, this shift towards the old on-premises maintenance and support fee is clearly a step backwards for customers.

What Can Workday Customers Do to Avoid Success Plan Cost Increases?

Whether you have an upcoming renewal or are a new Workday customer, here is what you can do to avoid in-term cost increases:

1. If up for renewal, ask Workday to map your old Success Plan to the new tiers. Evaluate your business needs and determine the best-fit Success Plan, not what Workday wants you to buy.
2. Once you have evaluated your Workday Success Plan Scope, push for a flat fee over the term, rather than a percentage associated with growing spend.
3. Lastly, request the Success Plan be a separate order form without contractual tie-ins to your core subscription order forms. This provides flexibility to modify or remove the plan in the future without disrupting the core products and the corresponding negotiated pricing and protections.

The Bottom Line

Workday’s evolving Success Plan model reflects a broader shift toward growth-based pricing, but that does not mean customers should accept escalating support costs without scrutiny. By understanding how the new plans compare to prior offerings, pushing for predictable, fixed pricing, and maintaining contractual flexibility, customers can better protect themselves from unnecessary cost increases.

Ultimately, understanding and proactively negotiating these changes is essential to ensuring your Workday Success Plan delivers value without introducing unnecessary and unpredictable cost risks.

Navigating Workday Success Plans requires more than just understanding the options: it requires commercial leverage. UpperEdge helps organizations evaluate Success Plan value, negotiate predictable pricing, and protect long-term flexibility. Learn how our Workday Commercial Advisory Services can help you take control of your Workday Success Plan.