Data Validation: The Key to a Seamless ERP Implementation

Data validation is the #1 determinant of whether a Workday® Student go-live is smooth...or not. On top of that, data validation is 100% the responsibility of the institution.

Yes, the quality of data is the institution's responsibility and the quality is the key to a successful, smooth go-live. That's both good and bad news for institutions. The good news is that the institution is in the driver's seat behind key components of the implementation's success. The bad news is that this added responsibility catches many institutions by surprise.

What's the Implementation Partner's Role?

It is the implementation partner's responsibility to ensure the submitted data meets workbook requirements. They focus on the data being formatted and "loaded" successfully, not on whether the data itself is accurate. The accuracy is not their responsibility. As an example, a workbook to override Academic Standing can be correctly formatted and load at 100%, but it may be missing Academic Standing for many students for selected academic periods. 

Who's in Charge of Data Validation?

For most institutions, there is not a clear "owner" of the data validation project. In some cases, the person doing data conversion is technically skilled, but does not understand the data at an operational level. Most often, the Registrar Office staff is held responsible for student data centered around personal information (where there is no true owner) and academic information. However, the Registrar is already heavily involved with multiple Workday® Student product lines (Academic Foundation, Core, Records, Curriculum, and Advising). I often see people fail to realize or appreciate the huge number of configuration tasks and business processes in these workstreams. The Records workstream alone has more configuration tasks and business processes than any other other product line. An institution cannot expect the Registrar's office to manage data validation in addition to these tasks.

Make Data Validation a Priority

Takeaways:

1) You need a lot more staffing for areas that focus on the academic record from both a configuration standpoint and data validation standpoint. Be prepared for this and plan accordingly.

2) You need staff nearly dedicated to validating data, problem-solving issues (sometimes it's not the data, but rather a configuration issue), and doing project management work to organize and facilitate resolutions. 

3) Your legacy student information system sometimes will be the problem with the data. Prepare to do data clean-up in that system first. It's not always that the legacy system is right and Workday® is wrong. Sometimes Workday® is a validation of your legacy system. It's critical to make sure you have the resources to take on this effort.

Make a Plan

At Legato Strategic Consulting, we love helping schools come up with a data validation plan. No matter how messy your data is, we have strategies to get you 100% validation and 100% accuracy with your data conversion. Most of our team members started in higher education and we understand the liabilities of inaccurate data for your students and your institution.

Let's brainstorm together your data validation plan and design a smooth go-live for your school. We offer complementary consulting sessions for brainstorms like these. It gives you a new perspective and gives us a chance to show you what we can do. To schedule, request a discovery call.

For more tips like this, make sure to subscribe to our newsletter.