How Workday® Implementation Partners Are Like a Moving Company

I often make the analogy that moving to a new SIS (or ERP) is like moving to a new home. At Workday Rising I shared this analogy a lot and it resonated with everyone.

This is why I emphasize doing Plan stage (aka Phase Zero) work ideally 6+ months (or 2 years, if possible) before you begin an implementation.

The Plan Stage involves things like:

1) Documenting All Your Workflows in Written & Visual Format

Use this documentation internally and share with your implementation partner.

This documentation must be written in "higher education" language. Someone from another department on campus should be able to read your documentation and understand it. It is best to keep things high level. If you go too detailed, then you might be prescribing too specifically to your implementation partner what to do.

This documentation gives the implementation partner your desired outcomes and what needs to be accomplished in broad language. With this, they can help you re-envision how to do this within Workday. This is like cleaning out your house and organizing it before you move.

By documenting workflows, you can also begin thinking about how to streamline these processes in advance of the implementation partner arriving. It pays off big dividends when you go to unpack.

2) Identify All Requirements of the Student Information System (SIS)

This step is like taking inventory of your house.

You want to identify what you have and what you want to move. This is based on operations of your institution. You need to find a home for each item either within Workday or another system. This documentation can also be used for your test scenarios later on.

3) Best Practices Come From Within or Other Institutions

I often hear schools say that they will ask their implementation partner for best practices. When I think of the phrase "best practice" I think of seeing institutions, not implementation partners, present at conferences on what they've done. So, let's remember a great source for best practices are our colleagues and peer schools. I think we just need to own that implementation partner staff may happen to know some best practices, but they really are the technical gurus, not a research firm.

Next Steps

My team has put together a full list of 15 things institutions should do before your Workday Student implementation that I'm happy to share. Email us directly at info@legatostrategic.com.

As former higher education professionals ourselves, we love working closely with schools to meet their goals. Workday® Student is the most complex Workday® product, but with the right preparation, any institution can accomplish a smooth, successful implementation.

If you are thinking about how to best plan for your Workday® Student implementation, check out some of our pre-implementation services or request a no-obligation discovery call to brainstorm your situation.