New functionality in Workday Can Help Your Organization Minimize Support Emails, Streamline Requests, and Prepare for Audits
FinServ is happy to report that since our last post on Workday Rising, we have successfully implemented the Request Framework for our clients. Our clients are already seeing the benefits, as the Request business process has quickly become a key component of the maintenance and security of their tenants. As we reported in our piece on Workday Rising, the Request Framework is a business process which allows you to formalize your change request process. Specifically, it will allow you to request approvals for security or configuration changes in the tenant, including changes to business processes.
Prior to the Request Framework our clients would rely on emails for change requests and approvals. As you can imagine, emails are not the best approach as they create a myriad of problems:
- Using emails to track requests and approvals is an inherently unstructured process
- Emails are easily lost and difficult to track
- Emails cannot be easily reported on so creating a comprehensive list of changes for audit review is time consuming
With the Request Framework, the process for requesting and approving change requests is significantly enhanced:
- Tracking requests and approvals is formalized within Workday with a defined approval flow
- Requests can be configured to require information for each change request type
- All changes can easily be monitored and reported on from Workday
From an operational standpoint, we can see the Request Framework providing a lot of value in tracking:
- Requests for new Workday Accounts or changes to existing Workday Accounts
- Requests for changes to Business Processes
- Requests for New Suppliers or other Master Records (projects, cost centers, etc.)
We have successfully implemented the Request Framework for our clients and are using it to request changes to business processes, worker access, and security groups as well as for new suppliers.
To do this, we have configured the Business Process: Request to include an Initiation step, an Approval step, and Close Request steps that route to the appropriate administrator. To allow for a limited group of approvers, we have created a security group and role specific to this process.
Here are two scenarios in which the Request Framework would streamline your processes and provide for better auditing:
1. You need to add a new step to your Onboarding process. Your IT department would like a notification and a To-Do step to setup a new hire’s IT equipment prior to a new hire’s first day.
After building and testing the new step, the Business Process Administrator puts in a request for the change, completing a questionnaire that includes an Excel spreadsheet of the proposed business process. The completed questionnaire routes to the Request Approver for approval. After approved, the request routes back to the Business Process Administrator to make the update and close out the request. Full details of the request, including the questionnaire and request dates, all are easily found in a Completed Request Report.
2. Your Accounts Payable Team wants to Add a New Supplier.
A new Market Data vendor is being used and your team needs to set up a new supplier in Workday to make the invoice payments. A supplier request is put into the system with required information such as Name, Address, Bank Account Details, and Method of Payment. The request is then routed to the appropriate business user for sign off. After the request is approved, a member of the Accounts Payable team sets up the new supplier and closes out the request.
The Request Framework is a quick win, it is straightforward to implement and a major security and audit enhancement. Approval details such as what changed, who signed off, and when the approval was made are stored and tracked in Workday allowing for easy reporting. We have seen it save clients’ time and effort through a simple workflow that gets the right information to the appropriate approvers.
To learn more about implementing the Request Framework, please contact us at: info@finservconsulting.com or (646) 603-3799. We have seen the value at our clients and are happy to share with other Workday customers!
About FinServ Consulting
FinServ Consulting is an independent experienced provider of business consulting, systems development, and integration services to alternative asset managers, global banks and their service providers. Founded in 2005, FinServ delivers customized world-class business and IT consulting services for the front, middle and back office, providing managers with optimal and first-class operating environments to support all investment styles and future asset growth. The FinServ team brings a wealth of experience from working with the largest and most complex asset management firms and global banks in the world.
Workday Rising: FinServ’s Key Takeaways
Workday offers an amazing amount of features that is configurable to meet your firm's needs. However, getting the most out of these features will require a thorough understanding of what you are trying to get out of Workday and how Workday will work within your organization. With FinServ, you have a trusted advisor with experience in both Workday and the industry to help you make informed decisions about what functionality to leverage, ensuring that you make the most out of your Workday investment.
1. The Workday Cloud Platform – What’s Ahead
Feature Summary:
With the upcoming semiannual Workday 30 release (March 2018), partners and customers can build extensions on the platform to manage business applications on the Workday Cloud Platform.
FinServ’s Recommendation:
It’s not actionable until the Workday 30 release but this could have a major impact on how clients leverage the Workday platform.
Perhaps the biggest announcement of the conference was that Workday is now opening up its Cloud Platform so partners and customers can build extensions and new applications on the platform. As co-founder Annel Bhusri explained, this new chapter is aligned with Workday’s “Power of One” mantra. All of Workday’s 1,800+ customers are on the same platform. Since its inception, Workday sought to eliminate the common fractured legacy enterprise applications found in the industry.
The goal of opening up the platform is to provide customers with the tools to design and manage business applications in the Workday cloud. This is very similar to how Salesforce has opened up its platform. As an experienced Salesforce partner, we know firsthand how this was a real game changer for the CRM platform. We believe that opening the Workday platform will have a similar effect for Workday as it did with Salesforce. This added functionality will greatly enhance Workday’s customers’ ability to use the platform in ways they hadn’t imagined possible. Workday cited various use cases, including integrating a security badge system, a peer-to-peer feedback system for an agile development team, and even Workday’s own mobile alert system to ensure safety among Workday employees in the event of an emergency.
For now, the platform is only open to Workday implementation partners. At the time of the conference there were already 80 software partners and 30 services partners investing in bringing their innovations into the Workday platform. It will be accessible to all users with the Workday 30 semiannual release in 2018.
2. Workday Analytics – Prism Analytics and Benchmarking
Feature Summary:
Prism Analytics allows customers to bring in external data to build reports in Workday. Workday Benchmarking provides Workday customers with insights on how a customer compares against other Workday customers.
FinServ’s Recommendation:
For now, we advise clients to wait and see how this functionality matures. It’s unclear how useful benchmarking data will be for clients and we have not yet seen any clients in the Financial Services space use Prism Analytics. We are also skeptical of Workday’s description of Prism Analytics as a “self-service functionality,” requiring no technical expertise.
Released in Workday 29, Workday Prism allows customers to combine Workday and non-Workday data to create decision-making metrics. The ability to combine Workday data with external data allows business leaders to get a better sense for where the company is currently so that they can better plan for the future. For instance, using Prism Analytics, a customer can build reports that associate employee data with sales data to attain a more accurate picture of both the workforce and sales earnings.
This should be a feature to keep an eye on, as numbers on performance have not yet been published. At the conference we were told that figures would be made public in the coming months. Prism Analytics is meant to be a self-service functionality and we were advised that customers need not have technical expertise in order to use Prism Analytics, However, Workday Reporting can quickly get complicated with building out calculated fields and setting up the security permissions. Incorporating external data using Prism Analytics will bring an added layer of complexity to the process. We anticipate that Workday Prism Analytics will require a good deal of technical expertise. A developer may not be necessary to create the reports, but a HR generalist should not be expected to build them. Regardless, without published data on how customers are using it, it’s difficult to assess the value of this functionality.
Also available with Workday 29, Workday Benchmarking leverages Workday’s customer base to provide business insights. Customers can opt-in to provide secure and de-identified data, which would in turn produce benchmarks that can be leveraged to drive informed decisions. Benchmarks include workforce composition, headcount turnover, management metrics and Workday usage.
Similar to Prism Analytics, the Benchmarking functionality sounds enticing but it’s not clear if customers will be comfortable enough to opt-in to this feature, or if the data collected will provide any useful metrics. The demonstration did not provide any figures on the number of customers who have opted in since the release with Workday 29. We will be curious to see if Financial Services customers opt into the feature. Our clients tend to be very sensitive about their data—we don’t imagine Workday will have many Financial Services customers participate.
3. Request Framework – Better Workday Governance
Feature Summary:
Through an approval process, the Request Framework allows customers to request changes to components of the tenant, including those related to business processes and security.
FinServ’s Recommendation:
This is a framework we highly recommend clients start utilizing. It’s a great way for clients to monitor the security and governance of their tenant. Admittedly, the feature does have some limitations (it does not currently support ad hoc approvals); however, it is a feature that customers should become more accustomed with using.
Unlike Prism and Benchmarking, the Request Framework is a feature we would encourage customers to take advantage of now. The Request Framework is intended to assist with the governance of Workday. Security administrators now have the ability to make requests within Workday that flow through an approval routing. This should make approvals for changes smoother and requests from Internal Audit easier as well. The Request Framework replaces the need for a ticketing system or the inconvenient chain of back and forth emails often used to request and approve a change. As part of the Framework, there are a few Workday system-generated reports delivered to administrators, allowing them to see what requests have been made and where the request exists in the approval process.
The unveiling was a sign that Workday has been listening to its customers. There was a packed audience who had many questions at the end of presentation. It was clear that the framework still has a way to go before it can be heavily relied upon. The presenters did not have great answers to the questions asked. For instance, when inquired about the option of ad-hoc routing for approvals, no timeline was provided for when this functionality would be available.
4. Surveys – Improvements
Feature Summary:
Customers will soon be able to use campaigns to issue surveys and schedule a survey through a distribution framework.
FinServ’s Recommendation:
We recommend clients re-examine the survey functionality once the enhancements have been rolled out. With the new updates we believe customers will now be able to leverage this feature to engage their workforce.
A common topic among HR leaders is the desire to poll their workforce. More recently, we’ve used Workday’s survey functionality to obtain feedback from new hires on the newly implemented Workday Onboarding functionality. However, using Workday to survey employees has its limitations. For instance, surveys are not connected to a business process and are only sent through a notification in the Workday tenant. While the feature is limited, we still encourage clients to explore the functionality because there are some advantages. First and foremost, by using Workday’s survey functionality, companies are able to store and report on the data all within a single platform. Secondly, by using Workday’s survey feature, employees are enabled to become familiar with the Workday ecosystem. We often hear from clients that employees are not knowledgeable of the system so they’ll come to HR with simple requests like updating their addresses. Utilizing the survey functionality allows firms to train employees to become more comfortable with Workday. ln the coming months, users will be able to issue a survey using a campaign and a scheduled distribution framework. With a campaign, the survey will be more visible to employees, displaying directly on their dashboard instead of sitting in the less commonly used notification folder. This is a major improvement for the survey functionality.
FinServ Consulting advises clients on Workday HCM and Financials implementations, Phase 2 Functionality rollouts and platform maintenance. FinServ has experienced HR and Finance consultants that have worked with clients on vendor selections and implementations of various HR and Finance platforms. For more information on Workday or for general HR and Finance platform inquiries, please contact info@finservconsulting.com or (646) 603-3799.
About FinServ Consulting
FinServ Consulting is an independent experienced provider of business consulting, systems development, and integration services to alternative asset managers, global banks and their service providers. Founded in 2005, FinServ delivers customized world-class business and IT consulting services for the front, middle and back office, providing managers with optimal and first-class operating environments to support all investment styles and future asset growth. The FinServ team brings a wealth of experience from working with the largest and most complex asset management firms and global banks in the world.
Is Your Team Prepared for the Workday 29 Release?
Workday customers should all have their calendars marked for September 9th 2017, the second of Workday’s semiannual releases (referred to as “W29”) for 2017.
Each semiannual release comes with major changes to the Workday platform and includes enhancements that have a significant impact on business processes and reporting. This upcoming semiannual release includes major user experience redesigns and added features and functionality enhancements for HCM (Human Capital Management) and Financial customers. The Workday 29 Release will have a major impact on your current Workday environment and new features will enable better user adoption for your team.
Three Reasons Why Workday Semiannual Releases Should Be Your Team’s Top Priority
| 1 | Releases will directly impact and change your business processes and reporting | Understand which updates are not optional and which are (these are referred to as “Opt-In” features) |
| 2 | Releases introduce new functionality that can improve your Workday Experience | Take full advantage of the new enhancements that are built into the cost of your subscription service |
| 3 | Releases are time consuming and need to be planned and resourced accordingly | For at least two weeks prior to the release your team should plan dedicated hours to release preparation. Resources will need to thoroughly research, test, and communicate the releases’ impact |
FinServ Consulting has extensive experience advising clients’ IT, HR, and Finance departments through Workday releases. The table below highlights some of the key updates in the upcoming Workday 29 Release:
Worker Profile Enhancements
Workday introduced new functionality for the worker profile. Enhancements include:
- Profile Summary: this is the first tab of a Worker’s profile. It is not optional, so make sure to configure this to your team’s requirements
- Header Card: think of this as an employee’s virtual business card, you can choose up to four data points from a worker’s record to display on the top portion of the worker’s profile
- Timeline: display a timeline of a worker’s history including position dates, Compensation dates, and personal dates
- Employee Data report: key worker data is made more accessible on the Job tab of a worker’s profile
| Feature | Impact / Description | Key Benefit |
| Worker Profile Enhancements | Workday introduced new functionality for the worker profile. Enhancements include:
Profile Summary: this is the first tab of a Worker’s profile. It is not optional, so make sure to configure this to your team’s requirements
|
All of these features are designed so that your team can easily access the necessary employee data quickly and efficiently. |
| Error Revision Redesign | Errors will now be displayed with a new design that consolidates all errors into a pop-up textbox with hyperlinks to each error. | This allows users the ability to easily navigate through errors without having to hunt for alert icons on the page. |
| Sub–process Definition Selection Configuration | As an example, an update to the Onboarding process (like adding an additional form) can now occur while a Hire is in progress so that the individual currently being hired receives the form. You are now able to select a subprocess definition by its own event initiation date. | Prior to this update you would have to restart the hiring process in order for the employee to receive the form. This allows an update to a subprocess (i.e. changing a step in the Onboarding process) while a parent process (i.e Hire) is currently in progress. |
| Adoption Planning | Workday now provides you with an End User Adoption dashboard and an Adoption Roadmap timeline.. You can create a project, assign tasks to members of your team, and report on the project status. | This allows you to plan releases and functionality rollouts within Workday |
| My Team Dashboard Functionality | For Human Capital Management (HCM) customers, Workday has delivered a new My Team dashboard that allows users to manage their team and keep track of time-sensitive tasks. | Ability to assign team members tasks and the ability to track your team’s progress. |
| Consolidated Payment Files | For Payroll customers, you can now consolidate payment files sent to your banks. | Prior to the update you had to send multiple files, which was costly and inefficient. |
| Tax Recoverability Enhancement | For Financial Customers, Workday now allows you to have separate tax recoverability codes and the ability to configure tax recoverability at the company level. | This helps customers accurately apply recoverable percentages and reduces the amount of complex tax recoverability configurations. |
Note: Per Workday’s forward looking statement, these updates are subject to change and not guaranteed as part of the release.
The table above only scratches the surface of the many W29 release updates that may be applicable to your firm. It’s critical that your team thoroughly researches and tests the new updates in your Preview environment. FinServ has advised both Workday HCM and Finanical clients through Major Semiannual releases. As part of our methodology, we have organized the release preparation into five key steps. Clients must:
Assess the release’s impact on their business,
Plan release feature testing and rollouts,
Test both new features and current configurations,
Document required environment configuration changes and lastly,
Communicate to users what the release means for them.
Assess: Determine how the business will be impacted by the release. Whether you’re an HCM or Financials customer, you’ll need to wade through the Workday Community (Workday’s FAQ page) to determine what release features will have the greatest impact on your processes.
FinServ recommends breaking out the enhancements into three categories
| Category | Description | Workday Example |
| Major Enhancement | Directly impacts current business processes and requires planning and testing | Customers are forced to use the Summary tab on the Worker’s profile |
| Behind-the Scenes Enhancement | Directly impacts current business processes but does not require action | Customers will now have the ability to preview a PDF, prior to W29 in order to view a PDF a user would have to download it |
| Future Functionality | Does not directly impact current business processes, but could enhance customer’s usage of Workday | Customers will now be able to leverage Adoption Planning to create projects and tasks for Semiannual Releases |
Note: Per Workday’s forward looking statement, these updates are subject to change and not guaranteed as part of the release.
Plan: After identifying the key features related to your business and categorizing them into the three groupings, prioritize testing. Build a plan for how your team will configure, test, and adopt the functionality. We advise clients to commit to a Workday project plan with dates, time estimates, and resource allocations to ensure Major Enhancements and Behind-the-Scenes Enhancements are functioning properly and Future Functionalities don’t take a backseat to competing team initiatives. For example, to ensure the Worker Profile is configured appropriately, clients will need to configure a Worker’s:
Profile: add new tabs to your Worker profile
Profile Group: add new reports to your Profile tabs (including the new Timeline Report and the new Employee Data report)
Profile Summary: add cards (reports) to your Summary tab
Profile Header Card: add up to four worker data points that are displayed at the top of your Worker Summary tab
Test: Your team will need to devote significant hours to test the new Semiannual releases’ impact. Testing in Workday’s Preview tenant is the surest way to ensure a smooth Workday Semiannual release. Your preview tenant should be configured exactly how you would like your environment to function with the new release. FinServ advises clients to do three types of testing prior to the release date:
Test Enhancements: Test all of the Major and Behind-the-Scene enhancements that your team has identified. It is important to check Workday Community regularly to see if there have been updates as sometimes the release features do change. Ensure that all of these enhancements are working according to Workday guidelines.
Test Unaffected Business Processes: the goal for each release should be to have zero surprises. Therefore, it is important to not only test business processes that you know will be impacted but also those business processes that should not be effected by the release. By having members of your team test all business processes you will be able to avoid unexpected headaches after the release date.
Test Custom Configuration: clients will need to test custom reports and custom integrations that are not supported by Workday. Custom reports and integrations need to be tested to ensure that down/up stream processes are functioning properly.
Document: Your team will need to easily recreate the configurations into Production come September 9th. We recommend that clients create a spreadsheet detailing all the Major Enhancements and the steps taken to configure these features. It is also important that all user guides are updated to include new processes and enhancements. An example of effective Major Enhancements documentation:
| Major Enhancement | Component | Steps Taken |
| Worker Profile | Worker Header Card | 1. Configure Profile Header Card 2. Profile: Worker Profile 3. Add: Employee ID; Company; Position Title; Cost Center |
Communicate: New enhancements, like a change to the user interface, should be communicated to your workers. Appropriate and timely communication will ensure users understand how they will be impacted and how to navigate the latest version of Workday. The new release is also an excellent opportunity to remind employees that they have a robust platform that caters to their HR and Finance needs – they should use it! By following these steps your team is well on their way to an easy Workday 29 Release. In addition to release consultations, FinServ Consulting offers operational assessments and Workday implementations. FinServ has experienced HR and Finance consultants that have worked with clients on vendor selections and implementations of various HR and Finance platforms. For more information on Workday or for general HR and Finance platform inquiries, please contact info@finservconsulting.com or (646) 603-3799.
About FinServ Consulting
FinServ Consulting is an independent experienced provider of business consulting, systems development, and integration services to alternative asset managers, global banks and their service providers. Founded in 2005, FinServ delivers customized world-class business and IT consulting services for the front, middle and back office, providing managers with optimal and first-class operating environments to support all investment styles and future asset growth. The FinServ team brings a wealth of experience from working with the largest and most complex asset management firms and global banks in the world.