Key Takeaways and Lessons Learned from a Workday Implementation

As organizations continue to adapt to an ever-changing landscape, implementing a new enterprise software has become a crucial step. No matter the size of your organization, software implementation is a challenging task that requires careful planning and accountability. Thorough planning from the beginning can help your project be successful, but unexpected challenges can occur at any stage. Raven Intelligence recently spoke with Lynn Zimmerman, on her experience implementing Workday at a large retail food service company, with the support of an implementation partner. Overall, the implementation was successful, but as with any large change (even the most successful ones), there were some obstacles.

Implementation Challenges

Login Issues

Just three weeks before launch, the retail food service company realized that several employees did not have company email addresses, which caused issues with logging in to the new system. This was a gap in their initial plan that they did not identify until the eleventh hour. It’s a reminder of how important it is to identify potential gaps in the plan early on in the process.

Training

Several company managers, who were responsible for training their teams on the new system, did not attend the live training sessions. As a result, there were some challenges with knowledge transfer and understanding of the new system. 

Template Implementation

The company’s implementation partner did not take the time to fully understand the specific needs of the company before implementing templates. This led to miscommunication and delays. 

Responsiveness

After go-live, the responsiveness of the implementation partner tapered off, which created some challenges for post implementation support and issue resolution. 

Implementation Lessons Learned

Create a Dedicated Project Team

Regardless of the vendor and consulting firm an organization chooses, it is crucial to have a dedicated team within the organization to oversee and manage the implementation process. This team should have a clear understanding of the organization’s specific needs and should be able to effectively communicate those needs to the vendor and consulting firm. It’s extremely important to have open communication with the consulting firm to ensure they are taking the company’s unique needs into account.

Identify Potential Gaps Early 

The login issues the retail company faced is a reminder of how important it is to identify potential gaps in the plan early on in the process. Rushing into rolling out new functions without careful consideration of details, potential gaps, and oversights, can lead to unexpected challenges that could have easily been avoided.

Provide Comprehensive Recorded Training

The lack of attendance from the managers at live training sessions created challenges with adoption and understanding of the new system. It’s crucial that the software vendor and implementation partner are able to provide comprehensive training to the employees who will be using the system. This includes providing recorded training with live Q&A sessions, in addition to live training. This will help to ensure that employees are able to understand, use and train new employees on the system effectively. 

Communicate with Implementation Partner

The implementation partner had a tendency to want to implement a template without fully understanding specific company needs. 

To ensure a smooth transition, it’s important to maintain communication and keep the lines of support open with the vendor and consulting firm throughout the entire process, from planning to go-live and beyond. This includes not only addressing any issues that may arise, but also providing feedback on what is working well and what can be improved.

The Importance of a Detailed Stakeholder Analysis

It’s important to remember that an implementation partner is only as good as the information provided to them. An implementation partner begins any project with the knowledge of previous implementations and a template that shows what has worked for previous clients. Although a great starting point, the client should work hand in hand with the implementation partner to ensure the implementation partners aren’t missing critical details that are unique to the client’s organization. 

Questions to Ask:

What are the key characteristics of this stakeholder group?

What are the behaviors we want this stakeholder group to change?

How important is this stakeholder group to the success of this change?

Does this stakeholder group have influence over the success of this change?

Set Your Implementation Project Up For Success

The implementation of a new enterprise software can be a challenging process for any organization. However, by learning from the experiences of others and being mindful of potential issues, organizations can make the transition as smooth as possible. This retail company serves as a great example of this, despite the challenges they faced, they were able to successfully launch their new system with the help of Workday and the implementation partner. 

By keeping the lessons learned in mind and staying vigilant for potential issues, organizations can set themselves up for success in their own enterprise software implementation projects.

Upcoming Implementation Project? Raven Intelligence Can Help

Raven Intelligence is an independent peer review site that helps enterprise software customers find, hire and review the best consulting partner for their implementation. We provide business leaders with valuable transparency into the software implementation process and raise the visibility of consulting partners who are doing the most to help their customers achieve the maximum benefit from their software purchase. We make it easy to pick a partner that’s right for your organization—entirely based on peer review data.

About the Workday Implementation Partner Ecosystem

Workday has more than 30 firms in their consulting partner ecosystem, which is far fewer than their HCM software vendor peers. All of Workday’s implementation partners must be certified and employed full-time by a certified partner firm, making it possible for Workday to have a high degree of control over the quality of their ecosystem.

Raven’s most recent report about the Workday consulting partner ecosystem indicates that more than 50% of their implementation partners are Workday-exclusive. Learn more about Workday’s consulting partner ecosystem here.

Lynn Zimmerman, ABC, owner and chief strategist for Swing Strategic Communication, helps organizations communicate change strategically to their key stakeholders. She has been a part of more than 40 acquisitions, multiple capital projects such as Workday and SAP implementations for large global corporations and other business transformation projects related to acquisition integration. Lynn is an award-winning strategic communicator who is an active member of the International Association of Business Communicators and has received the Accredited Business Communicator designation. She lives in Fort Collins, Colo.

Connect with Lynn on LinkedIn.