Expert Advice on how to Save Big for your Workday Deployment
by Seena Mojahedi | September 27, 2020
The initial implementation of the Workday® platform is rapid, by nature and design.
Over 90% of organizations that purchase Workday do not have the Workday expertise in-house because they have never needed it. Now that you’ve purchased Workday, an internal Project Manager can add tremendous value to help drive the right decisions for the Workday platform and corresponding processes within the business units.
Poor decisions can lead to faulty configuration, inefficient processes, and drive user adoption rates down. And with that comes multiple years of cleanup, reconfiguration, and process improvements. Yes, that’s right… multiple years!
The Workday client-side Project Manager is critical for a Phase 1 rollout. They can save your company upwards of $500-$1MM of spend per year following the initial launch of the platform.
The Workday Client-Side Project Manager is an individual who understands the entire Workday platform, from Financials to Payroll to HR.
This person is tenured as a project manager for several years and has a strong aptitude for cross functional alignment, pre-planning activities for an ERP and/or HRIS rollout, excellent communication skills, and an ability to drive rapid decision making.
They understand Workday’s Launch Methodology and can influence all business stakeholders to make rapid decisions for the betterment of the organization.
They can engage and manage the external Workday systems implementer, while also managing internal teams to mobilize and execute on the project plan.
They understand change management and how critical of a role it plays for the business to successfully adopt Workday.
Here are 4 areas that your Client-Side PM can help with:
1. Understanding the Launch Methodology
2. Selecting and Managing your Systems Integrator
1. Understanding the Launch Methodology
Sourced from Workday
The Workday Launch Methodology is a proven, best-practice deployment package that Workday offers new customers.
It is widely used and accepted in the Medium Enterprise space, and is now even being adopted widely by Large Enterprise Workday customers.
With it, your firm receives a pre-configured tenant, predictable timelines, a packaged scope, embedded analytics & dashboards, and training & adoption material.
By receiving a pre-configured tenant, you are:
Reducing risk, as your data is loaded upfront and saving and headaches during the deployment process.
Promoting speedy decision making, as you’re able to see your company’s data in Workday at the start of the implementation, rather than theoretical designs and fake data.
Providing assurance, as a dedicated Workday team is committed to delivering a robust tenant on time.
A typical Launch implementation takes ~20 weeks, so long as the business, Workday, and the system integrator are aligned to the rapid and efficient delivery. And the benefits to standing up the platform in 20 weeks are tremendous.
Once the platform is up, then you are able to adopt additional capabilities and enhancements to your Workday tenant in an Agile manner, at a speed that is comfortable for your business.
For more information about Workday Launch, check out this Workday® blog post.
2. Selecting and Managing your System Integrator
Sourced from Workday
There are many qualified and certified Workday system integrators (SI) out there. They all have different niches.
For example, some are technology-focused and want to deliver a seamless transition from a specific system, like ADP, to Workday. Some are focused in certain industries, like Healthcare, Education, or Government. Some focus on large enterprise clients, while others focus on medium enterprise clients. There is a wide range.
If you’re in the commercial sector, it is important to make sure that there is alignment between your internal Workday team and your external Workday team.
Make sure that you are receiving an “A” team. The Workday ecosystem has grown a lot over the last decade and with that there is a growing consultant pool. Even with the growing Workday consulting workforce, there is still a shortage of consultants, especially high-quality ones with many years of industry experience.
Make sure you meet your project team and understand the roles of each team member. Do not settle for anything short of great. My advice to clients is to hire the SI who will bring you a project team that you will build yourself internally at your organization and one that meshes well with your company culture.
For a quick reference to all the Workday certified service partners, click here.
3. Driving your project plan to completion
Sourced from Wake Forest University
You’re ready to kick off your Workday project. You’ve hired your system implementer and they have assigned a project manager to your account. They have provided a project plan and gantt chart, a high-level communications plan, and a training plan.
So… why do you need an internal PM?
The answer is simple. The Workday PM from the system implementer is a role specifically to support the SI’s directive is completing the project and closing out on the statement of work. Of course, they are there to ensure your success, and their main drivers are internal to their business.
Your Client-Side PM will help with cross-functional alignment, process improvement, fits and gaps, your business case, change management, communications plan, executive steering committee preparation, and more.
These are all essential to the success of your Workday rollout. Having someone who is a counterpart to the SI’s PM and knows how to manage responsibilities effectively is what you should be looking for.
4. Navigating Common Mistakes for your Workday rollout
Time and time again, we speak to Workday customers that have just gone live or are just one year past their go-live date, and they start to uncover configuration and data issues.
Sometimes they are minor and can be easily remediated. And sometimes they are large and complicated and cause all sorts of data and compliance issues for the business.
Below is a list of the top 5 ways to avoid common mistakes that we frequently encounter during Workday rollouts.
Simplify the Workday Implementation
Change Management and Adoption
Strategically Plan Data Conversion & Integration Strategy
System & User Acceptance Testing
Understand the company Financial Goals & Processes
If we can help just one new Workday client in setting them up for success just by understanding these concepts, we’ve done our job. We hope that the impact will be greater than that. For more detailed information on this topic, check out our blog about How to Avoid Common Mistakes when rolling out Workday.
A message from Kandor Solutions
If you’ve already selected Workday®, Congratulations!! You’ve made the right decision for your Human Capital, Payroll, and Financials Management platform.
You’ve set your firm up for success for managing your workforce, driving strategic financial and workforce decisions, and gaining valuable insights out of your HR and Financial data.
And that’s just the tip of the iceberg!! Now comes the hard part: Implementing Workday and driving towards steady state HR and Financial Operations.
The executive management team at Kandor have each been certified for close to 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 enterprise and SMB space, Fortune 100 clients, and managed Workday for the largest big tech FAANG companies in the world.
We are uniquely qualified to interview our resources at a very technical level to be able to ascertain the unique skill sets that they have, which will provide value for your company outside of the typical standardized configuration capabilities. Without having the first hand experience of these outlier requirements and gaps unsupported by Workday, you may be hiring resources that cannot successfully address your needs.
Our extensive configuration background means that we are well qualified to ask the more difficult questions that a standard recruiter or hiring manager may not have with Workday.
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415-237-3066
About the Author
Seena is the Founder & Owner of Kandor Solutions and has been driving business value for Workday clients and partners for nearly nine years. After working on the consulting side at DayNine Consulting, he spent six years at prestigious technology companies such as Google, Slack, and Coinbase. 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 started Kandor Solutions because he is passionate about Workday, and is even more passionate about ensuring the Workday ecosystem has top talent to pick from.
When he’s not working, he loves spending time with his family, traveling around the world, snowboarding, hiking, and enjoying his morning cappuccino. He holds a BS in Business Administration with an emphasis in Computer Information Systems from California Polytechnic University, Pomona.