Getting to Go-Live with Workday: Your Life in Production

Picture this: your institution has selected Workday for its digital transformation, and your team has spent months readying for the deployment. This is an exciting time for many higher education institutions, but it can be nerve-wracking to transition to go-live. For many institutions, few projects impact every campus and organizational unit more than a digital transformation project. The road to go-live is well worth it, and benefits are realized as your institution moves to production. Here’s what you can expect as your institution crosses into modernization with Workday.

One Week Before Go-Live

About a week before go-live, the project stakeholders have an opportunity to get a sneak peek at the final product. The data is clean and in place, and the project team is finishing the last flurry of activity to make sure everything will go smoothly on the day of go-live.

Day 1

The day of go-live has arrived, and your team is excited to see how your institution adapts. You may have a small sense of mourning as the daily check-ins with the deployment partner and the team may soon shift to a less frequent cadence. The day itself is a little quieter than you expect, with questions surrounding forgotten emails and missed training. It may even feel anticlimactic.

Day 7

You’ve made it through the first week! Questions have dropped even more as the realization that everything is in one place, and the teams become more familiar with how the system is integrated and has eliminated time-consuming, inefficient paper processes.

Day 15

Your institution has completed its first round of payroll without any issues. Everyone on the team breathes a sigh of relief, and it is largely due to the hard work and preparation you’ve completed toward making this milestone a success.

End of Month One

The impact of your Workday deployment is seen when your team speaks to the board at the first meeting after go-live. Your institution will be able to reflect on the work completed, including improved transparency, reduced paper and manual processes, and employees spending time on more meaningful work, resulting from this investment.

The impact of digital transformation can be felt across an institution, and a deployment project is no small task. After go-live, your team will feel a sense of accomplishment, and your institution will reap the benefits of a streamlined source for data and processes.

Annaleah Morrow, PhD, is an Avaap Workday program director, most recently working with Joliet Junior College on their deployment of Workday Financials and HCM, and the next stage of their transformation journey, modernizing their student system with Workday Student. Avaap specializes in Workday HCM and Student deployments, helping higher education institutions eliminate many of the challenges that come with legacy applications.