Workday, a business software that handles payroll and human resources management for thousands of prominent companies, suffered a major outage Friday, joining Microsoft in experiencing a shutdown this week.
The platform manages services for 11,500 companies.
“Workday is currently unavailable,” the platform signaled when users tried to gain access. “We are experiencing a service interruption. Your service will be restored as quickly as possible.”
“We apologize for the inconvenience. If you are a Workday customer and require additional assistance please contact the Workday Administrator within your organization. Otherwise, please check back later,” the message continued.
Retail giants including Walmart and Target are among the large retailers potentially affected.
Workday’s clientele also includes corporate giants like Netflix, Salesforce, PNC Bank, Chipotle, Southwest Airlines, General Electric and Nasdaq.
Additionally, the platform serves numerous government agencies, including the cities of Philadelphia, Dallas, Seattle, Charlotte and Denver, as well as federal agencies like the US Department of Energy.
Workday also lists NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory as a client.
Downdetector, a website that tracks digital outages, first reported a spike of nearly 3,000 Workday issues shortly after 5 p.m. Friday.
“Some of our customers are experiencing a service disruption and we’re working urgently to investigate and resolve the issue,” a spokesperson for Workday said in a statement to FOX LiveNOW.
“We sincerely apologize for the challenges this is causing impacted customers,” the spokesperson added.
Workday has not provided an estimate for when services will return.
The company told the San Francisco Chronicle that the disruption occurred after it discovered a problem while testing backup systems.
The outage is the second major business software outage to occur in recent days after Microsoft experienced a massive global shutdown that affected its widely adopted Outlook and Teams email and messaging platforms.
