Also, he and Bhusri have been friends and co-workers for 18 years, Duffield added. "Marriages don't last that long."

A recent customer survey returned 96 percent positive marks for Workday, Duffield said at another point. Only eight customers had something negative to say, and in a few cases the dissatisfaction stemmed from a bad experience with a Workday business partner, he claimed.

But the executives spent most of Tuesday's keynote describing Workday's steady customer growth, technology strategy and product road map.

Workday 15 will be released in early December and features 174 new features on top of hundreds of others issued in three versions over the past year, according to Bhusri. The company's modern design approach has given it the ability to roll out updates so frequently, he contended.

"It's not as if the other guys are not trying, they're just saddled with legacy architectures," he said.