Managing Change in Cloud Transformation

New ERP systems are the catalyst for growth and change but success is more than getting the technical implementation right. When Hinds Community College made the move to Workday, their chief technology officer said they would do one thing different if doing it over again: bring change management into the process earlier.

As the largest community college in Mississippi, Hinds has been serving students for more than 100 years and fuels a competitive economy and compelling culture for the state of Mississippi. Hinds selected Workday to move from its 20+ year-old transactional system to a true reporting and analytics-based solution to have better visibility into HR and financial processes, allowing the college to better respond in real-time to the changing needs of its student population.

The benefits to deploying Workday have been tenfold for Hinds. The college has been able to breakdown silos, reduce manual and paper processes, and more. But with these major benefits come changing the way people work, which is never an easy process. When asked for the biggest lesson for other institutions embarking on transformation, incorporating change management at the beginning tops the list. Just the rumor of a new project can start the rumor mill. Change management helps organizations provide employees with the support they need and assists them in learning new ways of working and getting back to high productivity faster. Bring change management early in the process ensures the right communications are delivered at the right time, mitigates resistance, and begins building champions for change, helping the project to be more successful.

Avaap Workday Higher Education Program Director Annaleah Morrow and Hinds Community College Director of Technology Tamisha Johnson are headed to St. Louis for Alliance Conference where they will facilitate a session discussing the importance of aligning stakeholders, employees, and students during a higher education transformation project based on their own experience. With many institutions facing big decisions in terms of technology, this is a great opportunity to learn from peers and get the benefit of best practices, lessons learned and knowledge-sharing in an intimate setting.

Join the session to learn how to form a change management action plan, how to incorporate students in the change management process, and the fundamentals of why projects succeed with change management versus why they fail.

See you in St. Louis!