The Client
Utilities Company
In February 2014, our client, a premier regional Utility, awarded The Squires Group Inc. (TSGi) a Master Services Agreement (MSA) to provide professional resources to assist them with enterprise-wide technical, functional, and operational support, enhancement, and upgrades.
Since the inception of our MSA, our client has issued TSGi over seventy Statements of Work (SOW) to support a variety of mission critical projects. TSGi has become a trusted advisor and teaming partner to this client.
The Technology
Legacy Systems to be Transformed/ Transitioned/ Integrated:
- PeopleSoft (Time Tracking and Payroll)
- Recruiting (BrassRing)
- Benefits (Businessolver)
- Talent Performance (Third Party Application)
- Performance Management (Softscape)
- SuccessFactors
- Learning Management System
The Challenge
In January 2018, our client approached TSGi with a unique challenge. They were in the process of transitioning from PeopleSoft HCM and other associated HR applications and services to an integrated, cloud-based HRIS Workday solution. They asked TSGi to provide HR Workday implementation, project management, technical expertise, and overall coordination of internal company-wide activities. They also wanted assistance in the relationship and delivery of the selected implementation vendor. While in the procurement cycle, they needed additional Workday SME expertise to complete the selection process, develop the implementation SOW, and deliver the final solution.
This project was one of their top IT initiatives for 2018. Our role was to deliver an experienced team that would consist of a project manager, a subject matter expert, and a technical support consultant that had prior experience implementing Workday, who could provide day-to-day project management with vendor oversight on behalf of our client. It was imperative that TSGi deliver the right Workday experts before our client selected the implementation vendor to ensure that the SOW would cover all the risks and contingencies and ensure that the project was delivered on time and within budget.
Finally, they needed our consulting team to work directly with their internal business/ technical team to deliver the most viable solution with Workday HR functionality while being in the midst of a merger with another Utility.
The Solution
We successfully delivered a Workday PM with over 20 years of HCM and five years of Workday implementation experience. While our Project Manager was an experienced consulting Project Manager, he had also served as an internal Project Manager of a large corporation. Those experiences gave him the unique perspective of seeing multiple HCM implementations from both vantage points.
Our client immediately engaged our highly skilled consultant just as they were finalizing the RFP review process to select their implementation vendor. Our consultant played a key role in drafting, reviewing, and negotiating a fixed-price SOW that met all of our client’s requirements. During the negotiations, our Project Manager ensured that all the assumptions and definitions of responsibilities were clearly defined to avoid falling into the trap of incremental modifications.
Our Project Manager also played a key role in all phases of the project which included: planning, architecture, configuration and prototype, and testing and deployment phases. In addition, our PM led the internal requirements gathering sessions, change management, testing, and the development of the internal training materials.
Finally, during the post go-live support effort, our PM played a key role in establishing a new system support model. He helped create a new HR Support Help Desk to address employee questions, track issues and develop change requests. Additionally, we delivered a Workday Technical Subject Matter Expert with diverse functional and technical knowledge of the implemented Workday solution. Their role was to provide technical operational support, training, and knowledge transfer, and to enhance the overall support provided to the internal business team.
TSGi consultant also led the effort in deploying the Employee and Manager self-service within Workday. This eliminated all the legacy paperwork requirements. As a result, ALL paper forms were eliminated.
To bring about the behavioral and cultural changes the organization needed to adopt the new Workday solution, our project manager created and conducted multiple training sessions, catering to both employees’ and managers’ needs.
The Success
Our well-rounded leadership approach ensured that our client managed the key deliverables from the systems integrator and ensured that the project went live on-time and within budget. Our client’s executive leadership was extremely pleased to see this critical project up and running before the end of 2018. The new system went live in mid-December of 2018, ensuring that a critical cutover was complete before the first pay period in 2019.
At the time of go-live, there were 45 data integrations to and from the Workday solution. TSGi led the effort to transform and transition all integration touch points from the standard EAI interface platform to a new cloud-based EAI application. Since this was a cloud-based solution, the new system reduced the burden on our client’s IT team to run and maintain the infrastructure needed to support their HCM application. Our client welcomed the transition to the Software as a Service model.
Finally, this application was also personal mobile device compatible, making it very easy for all the employees to use their personal smartphones.
The Testimonial
Client Tesimonials
“Your Workday PM has provided us unbelievable knowledge, direction, and guidance in the success of our HR Workday implementation. We could not have accomplished this effort without his outstanding performance” – Assistant VP Business Admin Services.
“Your Workday PM was our guiding light and kept us focused and on track.” – Director HR/ HRIS Transformation
“The HR/ HRIS EAI platform changed to Mulesoft cloud during a tight HR Workday implementation and could not have happened without the dedication of your technical SME experts.” – Director PMO
