In January, President Wendy Wintersteen asked the WorkCyte project team to revisit the implementation schedule for the Workday software system, originally targeted to start in the latter half of 2018. This week, she approved a recommendation to roll out Workday's human capital management, payroll and financial platforms on July 1, 2019. A schedule for Workday's student information platform still is in the works.
"There was very thorough research done with multiple groups on campus and everyone came to the same recommendation for this new go-live date," said Kristen Constant, interim vice president and chief information officer. "It really did come down to making sure we could deliver a quality product in a timely manner, while taking into consideration the well-being of the people working so hard on this project."
Constant said many of the people on the WorkCyte team are doing their regular jobs in addition to the extra demands of Workday configuration and implementation.
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The recommendation was the unanimous choice of ISU leaders and WorkCyte teams who studied six implementation timeline scenarios.
"The new schedule gives us the time we need to properly prepare and train our colleagues for the new system and processes," Constant said. "Everyone will be impacted by the implementation."
What's ahead
The Workday system is being configured to meet Iowa State's needs for its financial, human capital and payroll processes. Functional testing is happening right now and will continue into early summer, followed by comprehensive testing with other on- and off-campus systems.
"The new go-live date allows us to thoroughly test all aspects of the Workday platform and ensure an implementation of the highest quality," Constant said.
Learning and training already is underway, with workshops and online resources available through WorkCyte's Ready, Set, Learn initiative. Constant emphasized that all employees need to learn the Workday basics before the hands-on training begins.
"Anyone who gets a paycheck needs to know that this coming and prepare for the changes," she said.
