Starbucks integrates Cadena with Workday for attendance and multi-country payroll compliance.
As the licensed operator for Starbucks Coffee across several high-growth Southeast Asian markets, Maxim’s Group manages a sprawling retail network. With over 2,000 employees across 170+ stores in Vietnam, Cambodia, and Laos, the Hong Kong-based group serves as a critical pillar of the brand’s regional presence, balancing premium coffee culture with high-velocity retail operations.
Modernizing our legacy systems across Vietnam, Cambodia, and Laos was a massive undertaking. By choosing Cadena as our single regional partner, we saved significant time and integration effort. The seamless bi-directional flow between Cadena and Workday has given us the regional agility we need to manage 170+ stores with total data integrity.
Results at a glance
Scale
Supporting 2,000+ employees across 170+ stores in Vietnam, Cambodia, and Laos.
Legacy Transformation
Successful upgrade of a 2013 client-server system to a modern integrated platform.
Data Integrity
Bi-directional integration between Workday (Global) and Cadena (Local).
Compliance
100% compliance for government insurance and tax reporting.
The challenge
Modernizing legacy systems for regional scale
[DRAFT — pending Marketing/Marc approval] As the licensed operator for Starbucks Coffee across Vietnam, Cambodia, and Laos, Maxim's Group must maintain brand consistency and operational excellence across a rapidly expanding retail network. Managing a high-velocity workforce of 2,000+ employees across 170+ stores requires granular control over complex shift rosters, real-time attendance tracking, and strict adherence to multi-country social insurance and tax regulations.
[DRAFT — pending Marketing/Marc approval] Maxim's Group needed a solution that could bridge the gap between their global "system of record" (Workday) and the specialized, localized payroll and compliance needs of high-velocity retail operations across three different countries.
The scope
A next-generation hybrid integration
The 2021 project centered on a comprehensive upgrade to Cadena HRM Series 5, creating a seamless, automated bridge with Workday. This shift moved the group from localized "data islands" to a synchronized, high-performance ecosystem.
Workday-to-Cadena sync:
A robust interface ensures that all employee profiles, contractual data, and absence records flow from the global Workday environment into Cadena. This ensures that a new employee hired in the system is ready for store-level scheduling immediately.
Bi-directional payroll flow:
In a sophisticated data loop, payroll results calculated within Cadena are interfaced back into Workday. This provides the global headquarters with a consolidated view of labor costs while maintaining local granularity.
Partnering with outsourcing:
The payroll module was specifically tailored to support Starbucks’ payroll outsourcing vendor, providing the vendor with a secure, digital environment to process complex calculations while ensuring Maxim’s Group retained full data ownership.
Retail admin functions:
Implementation of advanced administrative tools to manage attendance and payroll across 170+ disparate locations, ensuring store managers can focus on the customer rather than paperwork.
The benefits
Regional agility at global standards
1
Significant cost & time savings via single-vendor synergy
By partnering with a single vendor (Cadena) for all three markets, Maxim’s Group achieved substantial economies of scale. Instead of managing three separate integration projects with different providers, they utilized a unified integration framework. This "build once, deploy thrice" approach drastically reduced the total integration effort, slashed rollout timelines, and lowered long-term maintenance costs across the Indochina region.
2
Seamless ecosystem integration
The "Source of Truth" remains firmly in Workday. Any contract changes or leave requests approved globally are automatically reflected in the local payroll and roster system via scheduled transfers. This eliminates manual data re-entry and the high risk of human error in reporting.
3
Optimized outsourcing collaboration
By implementing the Cadena payroll module for their outsourcing partner, Starbucks created a "shared workspace." The vendor gains the tools needed for localized tax and social insurance compliance, while Starbucks ensures that the resulting data flows back into Workday for executive reporting.
4
Future-proofed infrastructure
The transition from the 2013 legacy system to a 2021-standard cloud-ready integration prepares Maxim’s Group for continued expansion. Whether opening store #171 or store #300, the digital framework is now built to scale without increasing administrative overhead.