FAQ

  • Workday is a cloud-based enterprise resource planning (ERP) solution that allows institutions like Williams to manage their employees, college finances, and students. In less technical terms, Workday is replacing PeopleSoft as our primary hub for college data, starting with employees and college finances.

  • The Workday implementation is a multi-year project with several phases. Phase One, which includes Human Resources and College Financials, is scheduled for go-live in late June 2024.

    The remaining functionality, which includes data for the student experience (e.g. registration, student financial services, and course management), is currently slated for 2027.

  • A significant factor is that our current system, PeopleSoft, is approaching what we call "end-of-life." This means it is becoming more and more difficult to support, and it's our job as good stewards of College data to replace it.

    However, the ultimate goal of the C.O.W. project is to provide better support for the people and processes essential to the academic and administrative functions of the College. Workday will allow us to meet these goals through improved process design, user interface, access to data, and information security.

  • As with many processes moving to Workday, some things about reporting time worked and time off will stay the same and some things will change. We recommend reading the Frequently Asked Questions - Time Entry and Absence document for a fuller understanding of what's changing.

  • This project is supported by dozens of individuals spanning a broad section of the college. They're grouped into what we call "program teams." Each program team specializes in a specific area: HCM (human resources), FIN (financials), Change Management, Tech, and Governance

    We're also working with a group called the HERD Network to help share information about Workday and collect feedback from the community.

  • The individual impacts of this change will vary depending on your role at the college and the work that you do.  There are some general impacts that will be felt by everyone including:

    • User friendly processes that are consistent, efficient, transparent and accessible.
    • A modern user interface that leverages computer and mobile device accessibility.
    • Better informed decision making by improved and easier access to information.
    • Improved efficiency in collaboration and reporting through a single unified system supporting Human Resources, Financial and Student data and processes.
    • Reduced institutional risk generated by outdated on premise enterprise systems.
    • Reduction in the number of redundant third party systems used to support processes.

  • The overarching goal of this project is process improvement. No system will replace our people, but it will change the way we do our work in various ways. Training and help materials will be available to ensure that the community is knowledgeable about the new tools and processes and has the skills and resources to effectively navigate their work.

  • Yes! As outlined in the strategic plan, the shift to remote teaching and work during the pandemic demonstrated the importance of technology infrastructure on campus. Williams has an opportunity to reimagine how we collect, maintain, analyze and protect data across all areas of campus. As a result, the strategic plan includes a commitment to upgrade our enterprise data systems, including our core student information, financial and human resources systems. This change is driven by the pending obsolescence of our systems and also presents an opportunity to rethink business operations and data use. The full plan can be revised on the Strategic Planning website.

  • This website will continue to offer up to date information regarding the project status and opportunities to engage with the project teams.  Check back throughout the project to learn more about what’s happening.

  • If you have questions, comments or general thoughts about this work we want to hear them!  Submit your feedback here and a member of the project team will get back to you.

  • The Foundation Data Model (FDM) is used across Workday's HCM (Human Capital Management) and Financials modules to establish the foundation for Workday transaction processing and reporting. Much of the Workday FDM is like a typical financial chart of accounts (ie: Funds and Accounts) but includes additional dimentions not included in a traditional chart of accounts (ie: Locations and Spend Categories).

  • While Workday as a product is the same across colleges, every implementation is unique. What worked well for one college might not work well for us, and vice versa. At the end of our implementation, we'll have built something similar to our peer institutions, but not identical.