A Case Study: How Lightspeed Crushed their Launch Deployment

 
 

by Seena Mojahedi | September 12, 2022

During Workday Rising 2022, Heather Nicholson presented a session entitled: How Lightspeed Crushed their Launch Deployment. In the following blog we share more about how this was possible.

Kandor and Lightspeed have partnered together to deploy Workday using the Workday Launch methodology and it turned out to be VERY successful! Lightspeed is a Platinum customer to Kandor and both parties have really leaned into the relationship.

Back in August of 2021, Kandor embarked on the journey to support Lightspeed during the vendor selection process for Workday deployment partners.

Once the deployment partner was selected Kandor brought on a Client-Side Project Manager. Upon kickoff, Kandor’s goal was to imbed within the Lightspeed team and to be embraced as an extension of the team. Over the initial few weeks, the trust was built, and collectively we worked together to implement Workday. 

The project kicked off on September 27, 2021 and we went live in early April 2022. It was in record time after we went live that they were stable on the platform. 30 days!! In our 10+ years in the Workday ecosystem with involvement in up to 30 Phase 1 projects including 9 in the last 18 months, we have never seen this. In the best case, it’s 3 months and sometimes up to 2 years. A testament to the focus that we had on transformation, business readiness, training, change management, and more.

Since Workday go-live, we are embarking on a new journey with Lightspeed, supporting Phase 2:

  • Ongoing Support

  • Governance

  • Workday team support model

  • and more.

Heather Nicholson, Executive Sponsor of the Workday Project at Lightspeed and Vice-President of People Operations, HRIS, and Analytics

I recently interviewed  Heather Nicholson, Executive Sponsor of the Workday Project at Lightspeed and Vice-PresidentSr Director of People Operations, HRIS, and Analytics.  Here is our conversation. 

Heather has been at Lightseed for ~8 years and has worn nearly every hat in HR. Her favorite space is Operations, Systems and Data, essentially enabling Lightspeed’s people to be able to function effectively and efficiently. She has also spent a lot of time working on M&A activity.

Her current team is split into several functions: HR Technology & People Data, Global P&C Coordinators, Operations & Compliance, Global Mobility. She feels lucky to be surrounded by incredibly smart people and a team of passionate people that were very engaged with the work and excited to tackle the unknown

Q: What did Lightspeed implement in Phase 1?

A: Our initial deployment included Core HCM, Compensation & Advanced Comp, Absence Management, and Talent Optimization. We implemented it in 16 different countries. We had approximately ~25 integrations in scope, half of which we developed internally due to our philosophy around utilizing Mulesoft as our middleware.

Of course, it’s important to note that Operations did not stop for the Workday project, and that includes all of our M&A activity. We dealt with multiple acquisitions during that time. As you can imagine, that meant we had multiple legacy data systems as well as many of our processes were decentralized.

All things considered and with the support from Kandor, we were able to deliver all of this in 6 months using the Launch Methodology.

Our Experience & Lessoned Learned from Launch

Workday Launch

The fastest route to getting live on Workday

Sourced from Workday Community

Q: Can you speak to the speed of Launch?

As noted above in the picture, there is most definitely a lot of value added with using the Launch methodology for Workday. And the speed of Launch is one of those things. Of course that becomes a HUGE asterisk (*). When you increase speed, you increase the risk of quality and the well being of your team. Regardless of how fast or slow you implement Workday, the same work needs to be done so it’s important to understand the methodology in a lot of detail going in and specifically focus on the resource/skills gaps and business readiness.

Overall I feel neutral in terms of the effectiveness of the Launch methodology. And we can say with certainty that working with Kandor really helped us see around corners and focus in areas where there might be gaps on the customer side so that we can be successful.

Q: Can you share a bit about your Project Resource Expectations

A: I cannot stress enough the criticality of understanding the resource requirements and fully staffing up ahead of the demand on a Workday project. This is the X-Factor to the success of a deployment from a customer perspective. The lack of a resource readiness on a Workday Launch project will likely lead to delays in timeline, which will put undue stress on the team that is on the ground and ultimately cost more money.

Q: What areas became critical focus areas for you?

A: There were a few that stand out.

(1) Sales to Service

Understand what you are buying and signing up for when you select Workday and are working through paperwork with Workday and your implementation partner. You want to understand how the scope sections correlate to the output of the solution and what is missing from the statement of work.

During this stage is a good time to launch Phase 0, essentially to do all the pre-work that you will be asked to complete starting at kick-off. If you are like most Workday customers and are looking for a natural transformation just by using Workday and you will certainly get that. What you will not get is the time during the implementation phase to map current state and future state processes. You will immediately be asked for requirements and data at kick-off, so focus on that work before the project kicks off.

Ask Workday or your implementation partner (or Kandor Solutions) what other pre-work can be done ahead of the project. Ask for the workbooks ahead and time and see if any resources can support this pre-work.

Go to training. This is the best time to send all your internal team to training classes (on-demand or in-person). Evaluate your resource plan and ask for guidance on the expectations of your systems implementer in terms of what resources you will need on the project.

(2) Data Conversion

When you kick-off a Workday implementation, one of the first deliverables are the data conversion workbooks. You will go from 0-160mph within a week. You will need to complete configuration workbooks for foundational data, worker data, and all the modules you will be implementing (e.g. Absence, Benefits, Payroll, etc.). Make sure there is someone on the team who understands the interdependencies of the data and how to properly populate the data into the workbooks.

This exercise requires due diligence to understand and ensure all the company policies are known and pre-documented, then transcribed into the workbooks in an expected format.

Project Management is a requirement for cross-functional collaboration, ensuring the timeliness of the deliverables, ensuring we have the proper resources,etc.

(3) Testing

Testing determines the quality of the technical solution and deliverables in Workday. The quality of your testing will determine the readiness of the Workday modules you are implementing. While the Testing phase of a Workday project is closer to 60% of the way into the timeline, I would urge Workday customers to start the test planning when the project kicks off. There are always false starts in testing so take all measures to stay ahead of testing to increase the chances of success.

Training Paths: Ensure the team is assigned to the proper training path courses and completes the training prior to kicking off the project. This will ensure the team is ramped up and ready for the project and avoid delays during the project.

Test Phases:

  • Unit Testing

  • End-to-End Testing

  • User Readiness Review

  • Payroll Parallel

Understand these different testing phases, align on the definitions with the internal team and your systems implementer, and start documenting test scenarios early.

Communicate early and often and ensure the internal team understands what these phases are and what their accountability is as we approach and enter/exit each stage.

Assign a customer-side test lead. This person will be in charge of overall test strategy, coordination, issue resolution, and ultimately delivering a solution with 99%+ accuracy between the workbook and configuration.

Test Scenarios: Start documenting test scenarios as early as the workbooks phase. If you are entering requirements, those requirements need to be tested. Document them as you go. Refine and add to them during the FAS and CCS sessions. Add further as you start executing unit testing and understanding how the system works. Always be thinking about corner cases and how the business operates and incorporate that into your scenario testing.

(4) Change Management

You can get all the requirements and technology correct (functional and integrations). Without proper change management, you will fall flat on delivering Workday to the business.

I recommend engaging a customer-side Workday Change Management professional to work closely with your internal change management team and end users to help drive high adoption with your end users.

So what does that mean? You want a cohesive change plan, training plan, and communications plan. Understanding your audience and understanding your culture are important factors as you embark on this journey. Put together a change management strategy and plan as early as when you’re kicking off the project.

Understand end user expectations. And manage to meet those expectations (within reason). After all the licensing costs and implementation costs for Workday, and even with a successful technical launch, the last thing you want is for your employees to say “Workday sucks,” or the C-Suite to say “Why is the data all wrong?,” “How come the workflows are broken?,” and the list goes on.

(5) Business Readiness

First thing first. Pick your Workday Support Model. Understand what the internal team makeup needs to be in order to properly support Workday once you go live and start working towards building that team. In the best case scenario, you have an HRIS expert with Workday experience on staff during the implementation, and in lieu of that you can always augment your internal team with the Workday expertise.

Establish a governance structure and an intake process. Document a RACI for ownership of operations and system-level processing and configuration changes. Align across functions within HR and always keep leadership, accounting, finance, legal, and IT informed throughout the process.

The amount of time that you spend stabilizing the Workday platform after going live is heavily reliant on the business readiness for Workday.

A Thank You from Kandor Solutions

We want to thank Heather for the time she took to interview with Kandor Solutions. Additionally, we want to thank her and the entire Lightspeed team for embracing Kandor as a partner and extension of their team for all HRIS and transformation needs. We are humbled by the experience of being on their Workday journey with them and excited to watch them blossom as they continue along on their journey.

A message from Kandor Solutions

The executive management team at Kandor have each been certified for nearly a decade with high quality Big 5 firm experience and client-side experience with some of the most prestigious technology companies in the world (Google, Slack, Coinbase). Our consultants have implemented in the largest enterprises and the SMB (small to medium business) space, Fortune 100 clients, and managed Workday for the largest big tech FAANG companies in the world.

We are excited to share these learnings with you and hope that they will make an impact as you’re working through your Workday deployment. Should you have any questions, need augmented support, Workday advice, Workday resources, etc., please do not hesitate to reach out. We have built Kandor Solutions to help Workday clients navigate these issues and set them up for success.

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Direct Line: 818-674-0555

 
 

About the Author

Seena has been driving business value for Workday® clients and partners for nearly nine years. He has been in the trenches on over 20 client engagements and has a deep understanding of what it takes to plan, build, and run a successful Workday platform.

He holds a BS in Business Administration with an emphasis in Computer Information Systems from California Polytechnic University, Pomona.

 
Seena Mojahedi