It pays to have a partner to help you manage your Workday applications, especially when it comes to keeping back-office administration running smoothly. A partner will have standardized, repeatable processes in place to support you.
But your Workday partner isn’t the only one who should have good processes in place when it comes to managing your Workday suite.
It’s equally important for you to have a comprehensive governance model in place. Having one will empower your organization to work more effectively with your lifecycle support partner.
Tips for building an effective governance model
Below are three areas where having a formal governance process will help your organization get the most out of your partnership and improve how your business uses Workday overall. Focus on these areas and you’ll be well on your way to building an effective Workday governance model.
- Define User Roles– Establish early on who will be responsible for managing what, and who will be responsible for overseeing issue management. Is this role distributed by function or is there a centralized point of contact for all issues and change requests? You should also know who will own the different types of data (e.g. payroll, benefits, recruiting) your organization is maintaining in Workday. You should have both a primary contact and a backup to help with data validation and testing. Identifying these roles and documenting expectations around them will help to formally cover any gaps in managing data issues.
- Document Issue Management Procedures– No matter how many controls are in place, things will sometimes go wrong. Managing these issues using documented governance procedures—with a clearly defined ticketing process, for example—will not only help ensure a speedy and complete resolution but serve as a foundation for process improvement to help prevent the issue from recurring.
- Create a Change Management Plan– Workday is constantly evolving. Be prepared for new releases and change requests by having a Workday governance model that reviews new functionality through a change board—a group of people within your organization who will decide what needs to be changed and then work with your AMS provider to test and approve those changes. Any type of change should also include a communication plan, because any change—no matter how small—can have an impact on how your people will use Workday.
Achieve your KPIs with a quality governance model
A good application governance model provides structure, not to mention checks and balances, so you can track the entire process and achieve the measurable outcomes you were aiming for in the first place. Remember, deploying Workday is just the beginning, and good governance is an important piece of any post-implementation support strategy.
For organizations in need of ongoing support for Workday, an Application Management Services partner with deep domain experience is essential. But an experienced AMS partner alone won’t guarantee that every change request is successful. A comprehensive governance model will make you a more effective partner as you work with your AMS provider to configure Workday according to your organization’s specific needs.
