After the Workday Go-Live: Set your Sights on Sustainability
Going live on Workday is an exciting accomplishment for any organization. But once the deployment team is no longer doing daily check-ins, it can be challenging to sustain the momentum of transformation. With real transformation happening after the go-live, having a plan for reinforcing and sustaining change is key to propelling your organization forward.
Communication
Workday will release updates to their system/configurations bi-annually. You may also decide to make changes to your processes or configurations as you learn and use Workday. When changes occur, it will be important to ensure your team is informed and ready to adopt the changes. End-users and functional teams will need to adopt the changes to processes and to keep your team engaged, incorporate a governance model that includes communications and training about the processes, behaviors, and actions that your team will be expected to adopt. As with any change, remain clear about what the change is intended to achieve, how it will improve operations and day-to-day work, and, if appropriate, how it addresses user feedback, ensuring clear channels continue to be available for feedback and questions.
Service Updates and Bi-annual Feature Releases
There are ongoing enhancements to Workday functionality as part of weekly service updates, and every six months significant changes are delivered as part of Workday’s bi-annual feature release. Many organizations do not have internal resources that know how to understand, test, and deploy Workday releases, so it is important to build the capability or identify a partner to drive governance around release management.
For example, will configuration changes be required to accommodate new features? Are features being retired that you rely on? Do you have expertise to plan your tenant strategy? An experienced partner will know how to manage testing between sandbox, sandbox preview, and implementation tenants and how to time the releases for production. Change management may also be needed during bi-annual releases, especially when updates impact end users such as People Experience coming in Fall 2022.
Platform Enhancements
As you approach the go-live or soon after, it is time to plan ahead for what’s next. Think about future functionality or custom reporting you may want to add to optimize your Workday solution. An experienced partner with expertise in Workday can provide support for special projects, review your processes, look at integration points and find ways to make Workday work for your organization.
Getting to go-live is a time of excitement. Your organization is using Workday’s features to streamline processes, get visibility into data, and become more collaborative as a business. It’s also a time to plan for long-term transformation, including additional features not required for the initial go-live, and review any changes to the business that may have new requirements once the go-live event has occurred.
Post-production is important in determining long-term success of the system. As with any new ERP, additions and improvements, and a plan for consuming them, are part of a sustainable future.
Avaap is a Workday Application Management Services (AMS) partner with an experienced consulting team and world-class change management experts available to discuss your organization’s future with Workday.