Workday Tools
All institutions across the UW System will implement Workday’s Human Capital Management (HCM) and Finance Management (FIN) suites, Adaptive Planning software, and Prism Analytics solution to manage administrative operations.
Benefits of Workday
Workday will deliver many benefits to the UW System, from improvements at the institution level to efficiencies for all faculty and staff. Some benefits include:
- Independent Access
You will be able to see or change personal information more easily – meaning fewer phone calls or forms. By empowering faculty and staff, we can also reduce the strain on HR personnel who perform these functions. - Data Accuracy
Job details and personal information are documented and accessible within Workday. Because data is entered electronically, there is no risk of losing papers that contain sensitive and important information. - Increased Compliance
Workday offers a detailed audit trail through reports, so authorized users can see what is happening – and who is doing what – in the system. The ability to customize access based on staff roles ensures only authorized staff will be able to perform or approve certain business processes and review data. - Greater Automation
Workday automates certain processes, saving you from manual entry or input – and saving you time. - Improved Efficiency
Workday lets you see which step of a business process you are on. It also allows several users with the appropriate security access to act on a step, reducing delays in the case of staff absence.
Workday Timeline
Expand the panels below to see the key activities for each Workday implementation stage.
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Planning Stage: July 2021 to April 2022
Finalize project scope, schedule, and budget
Project details including resources, costs, deadlines, and scope for the Workday and Huron Research Suite implementations are finalized.
Build and train ATP project team
Design Team Leads and team members are onboarded and trained on relevant Workday modules. The system implementation firm, Huron, joins the team. Focus and Validation Groups begin to form.
Architect Stage: May 2022 to December 2022
Business Process Design
Administrative end users, process owners, and leaders from across UW System meet with ATP Design Teams to provide input on high-level business process needs and learn how Workday can meet those needs.
- Design team members identify business processes not addressed during the Planning Stage and suggest solutions in Workday or alternative systems.
- Initial reporting requirements for finance, human resources, and research administration are identified.
- Design decisions are documented for finance, human resources, and research administration and updated if needed as business processes are configured in Workday.
At the end of the Architect Stage, the initial setup of Workday is configured to manage UW System processes and ready for more specific work in the Configuration and Prototype Stage.
Information Technology
Hundreds of administrative ancillary systems currently in use are evaluated and selected for continued use or disposition. A plan for evaluating ancillary systems in the future is drafted.
Configure & Prototype Stage: December 2022 to June 2023
Business Process Design
Subject matter experts from across the UW System are invited to attend Customer Confirmation Sessions (CCS), where they collaborate with ATP Design Teams to validate and refine business processes in Workday. This is the final step of business process design before the ATP teams move into the Test & Train Stage in July 2023.
Technology
The primary milestone of this stage is the configured version of Workday that will be used in testing.
To prepare for end-to-end testing, the IT teams create and test individual components of the Workday design, including:
- Integrations
- Reports
- Security roles
- Design
Additionally, the ATP Team develops the first draft of a cutover plan to guide the transition from current systems to Workday. This will include a timeline of activities, information about the Workday setup, staff roles and responsibilities, logistics, and communications.
Engagement & Training Development
ATP Readiness Teams attend Workday Walkthroughs, which provide high-level overviews of how select business processes have been designed in Workday. Workshop recordings are available to anyone with a UW login.
The ATP Training Team begins developing the training plan to be delivered in the next ATP stage.
Test & Train Stage: July 2023 to March 2024
Testing
Various ATP teams begin testing all components of the Workday setup, including:
- End-to-end testing: ensures business processes and transactions work as expected in Workday
- Parallel payroll testing: validates that data in Workday aligns with the current UW payroll system
- Regression/release testing: confirms Workday functions as planned following new software releases
- User acceptance testing (UAT): involves selected staff to undergo a series of testing scenarios confirm Workday operates as planned
- Performance testing: validates that importance functions and integration schedules will perform as needed
Training Development and Delivery
Training for UW faculty and staff launches in March 2024 and support will continue past go-live.
Deploy Stage: April 2024 to June 2024
End users continue to receive training. The UW System configuration of Workday is finalized and ready to go live in July 2024.
Production Support Stage: July 2024 to Forward
Upon go-live in July 2024, the system is monitored to ensure it works as expected.
Key Dates
March 2024: Workday end-user training begins
July 2024: Workday goes live at all UW System institutions
Why Workday?
Based on feedback from hundreds of end users, Workday was selected for its excellence in three areas:
Functionality
Workday provides robust functional capabilities for finance, human resources, and research administration. Other advantages include improved security, more accurate reporting, and close alignment with the benefits ATP plans to deliver through this transformation.
Experience
With strong representation at higher education institutions across the country, Workday’s technology successfully supports the operations of many large college systems and research universities. Workday uses its learnings from peer institutions to continuously improve its features, delivering benefits to all.
Technical Capabilities
Workday offers advantages around data backup, testing, and overall user experience.
Measuring Our Success
ATP will use Workday’s value realization framework to track business process improvements and identify areas for growth following go-live in July 2024. Detailed capability metrics captured before and after go-live will be compared with both UW and Workday benchmark data to help ATP prioritize and track improvement initiatives over time, ensuring the best possible outcomes for the new ERP system at all UW System campuses.