Case Study: Workday to JD Edwards Integration for a Construction Company

The Problem

The sun was barely up, and Marshall was already on-site. Dust clouds kicked up by trucks settled on his steel-toed boots as he scanned the half-built structure rising against the pale sky. As the construction site manager for one of the largest firms in the country, Marshall didn’t have time to slow down. Deadlines loomed. Crews were counting on him. And so was payroll.

Marshall’s phone buzzed — a reminder to update his team’s hours for the week. He pulled it out, swiping to get into the system, but the loading wheel spun endlessly. No service. Again. The signal was just strong enough to stream last night’s news, but not enough to submit a simple PTO request or clock-in time entry. He sighed, knowing he'd have to drive back to the trailer, boot up his clunky desktop, and manually transfer the data over to payroll.

Every week was the same grind. Manually keying in hours, wages, and time-off data between Workday and JD Edwards EnterpriseOne (E1). He’d enter numbers until his eyes blurred, only to hear later that an error crept in — and now someone’s paycheck was wrong. Union rules were strict, and mistakes could mean compliance issues or worse: an angry crew wondering if their overtime pay was missing.

The frustration trickled down. HR and Payroll teams were drowning in emails and spreadsheets. Each manual transfer felt like stitching two worlds together with threads that kept breaking. And as the company grew, the gaps between those systems grew wider, the threads weaker. They were feeling the strain of disconnected HR and payroll systems — exactly the kind of challenge that calls for expert HRIS consulting services and true HR system integration.

The Solution

Then came a lifeline. The company brought in us, iAM HCM Consulting, a trusted HRIS consulting partner experienced in Workday-to-E1 integrations, and for the first time in a long while, hope entered the conversation. Our team listened to the struggles of manual processes and missing connections. We mapped out where each piece of data needed to go, like planning a network of sturdy bridges between the two systems. This was a full HRIS assessment combined with strategic integration design.

When the solution was ready, it felt like someone had finally paved the road between two towns that had always needed each other. Data moved seamlessly, almost invisibly, across the systems. Time entries flowed from Workday into JD Edwards E1 automatically, eliminating the risk-prone handoffs. User errors dropped off like weights lifted from everyone’s shoulders. HR no longer played the role of data-entry drone, and Payroll stopped bracing for weekly delays and mistakes. This is the power of effective HR system optimization and expert-led HR integration.

The Impact

Marshall’s phone buzzed again. This time, he clicked a few buttons, and his team’s time entries went through — effortlessly. No trip to the trailer. No spinning wheel. Just a moment of quiet satisfaction. For once, technology wasn’t a hurdle. It was a bridge. And the company? Now they were ready to build higher, faster, and stronger, knowing their systems were as solid as the structures they put into the sky.

Want to learn more about how iAM HCM Consulting can optimize your HR and payroll systems, support Workday or JD Edwards integrations, and strengthen your HRIS strategy? Let’s talk.