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With rising costs, compliance challenges and the need to attract and keep top talent, more companies are turning to Alight to unlock the value for them in their Workday investments.
In this Q&A, subject matter experts Derreck Brown and Sarah Couch, senior directors and area leads for Workday Application Management Services (AMS) North America, explain how they and Alight colleagues internationally help businesses unlock value from Workday investments.
Q. What is driving the demand for Alight’s Workday AMS and optimization services?
Sarah Couch (SC): The main drivers are improving performance, efficiency and competitiveness.
Human Resources (HR) and finance teams fully understand the benefits of an optimized Workday system. Often barriers to achieving this are the need for more time, resources and/or skills in-house.
With hiring budgets stretched and these skills often needed on a project or ad hoc basis, it makes business sense to partner with a Workday specialist.
Typically, we support clients with optimization services for Workday deployments for core HCM (Human Capital Management), payroll, financial management and added workforce management modules.
Q. Why are more HR departments customizing and integrating Workday infrastructure?
Derreck Brown (DB): HR is under pressure to improve operational efficiency and control costs while still hiring, training, motivating and supporting a competitive workforce.
As the optimization partner, we manage the Workday heavy lifting so HR can focus on company culture, employee experience and operating model agility.
Q. What are Workday optimization services?
DB: Our scalable optimization services offer strategic road mapping, tenant assessments and rolling optimization services. Additionally, support for high volume demand, such as open enrollment and performance cycles.
Increasingly, however, we are involved in entire HR modernization projects. Supplying cross-functional expertise from value engineering to go-live and ongoing services. In addition to AMS, Alight's Optimization Architects help potential and existing clients with strategic road mapping.
Typical services include
- Workday post-implementation and deployment review for maximum ROI (Return on Investment)
- Testing and quality assurance services
- Total system health check and remediation
- Security, interface and reporting review and configuration for optimized operations
- Review roadmap and adaptable model for future modernization projects
Q. And what about Workday AMS?
SC: Alight's Workday AMS offers best practices developed from experience with hundreds of Workday projects. This reduces complexity and sets up a foundation for long-term success.
Options include built-in intelligence, preconfigured tenants, industry-specific workflows and reusable integrations. Alight's AMS experience and support model services give our consultants unique insights into Workday functionality and untapped opportunities. This sets us apart as a Workday partner.
Typical AMS includes
- Workday platform support and maintenance, including end-to-end or incremental support
- Integration monitoring to ensure seamless operation with other systems
- Aligned resource support, such as staff augmentation to meet specific needs
- Workday feature release support, including regression testing and impact analysis
- Just-in-time support for break/fix issues to minimize disruption
- Security and compliance measures to protect data and ensure regulatory compliance.
Q. What is the difference between Workday AMS and Workday optimization?
DB: In short, Workday AMS is a set of services that help organizations manage and maintain their Workday deployments.
Workday optimization is the process of customizing and enhancing Workday to make it more effective for the organization and their unique needs.
Q. How do optimization services complement Workday AMS?
DB: Workday AMS is recommended for ongoing maintenance, supplementing your internal team with added resources and ability. With Workday Optimization Services, our consultants work with company stakeholders to identify priority areas for improvement and innovation.
Typically, these are aligned with business goals to maximize the value from Workday investments. Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) track progress towards goals. Leveraging both services together ensures your Workday tenant is well maintained while also maximizing your investment in Workday through strategic value-added projects.
Workday AMS
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Q. What competitive advantages do firms with an optimized Workday platform have?
SC: There are a ton of advantages of optimizing Workday and leveraging the functionality according to your organizations needs including:
- Efficiency: Streamlined HR, payroll and financial processes save time and effort
- Accuracy: Automation keeps data and processes accurate.
- Security: Regular security updates and controls protect data and reduces risk.
- Agility: Customization and optimization keeps HR aligned with the business strategy.
- Empowered: Self-service tools give employees greater control for an improved employee experience
- Informed: Real-time data and analytics to make confident decisions, faster.
Q. Do you have any Workday optimization tips and trends to share?
SC and DB: Yes! We have three tips to get the best value from Workday.
- Be realistic. Consider expert support to manage Workday and lower total costs effectively and quickly.
- Prioritize user adoption. Invest in user training and adoption programs to engage employees and improve outcomes.
- Integrate. Seamless data and process flow between systems provides greater flexibility and efficiency in business operations.
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