Q: What is Workday?
A: Workday is a unified (integrated) administrative information system for human resources, financial management, and related business functions. It is a cloud solution, meaning that the system is operated by Workday at their location, and Brown users have access to their information over a secure network. The Workday company was co-founded by Dave Duffield, who developed Integral and PeopleSoft, and by Aneel Bhusri, a 2005 Brown alum.
Q: What is the Workday Project?
A: The Workday Project will modernize the HR/Payroll, Effort Reporting, Finance, Identity Management (BRU), and other administrative systems. Replacing these systems and redesigning corresponding business procedures will allow Brown to retire its mainframe at the end of the project.
Q: How long will this take?
A: The overall project is expected to take approximately 3 – 5 years. The HR/Payroll system and basic Effort Reporting went live on July 1, 2012. Finance is scheduled to go live on July 1, 2013, and the remaining components will follow. The Faculty Information System is being developed concurrently with the configuration of the Workday system and a deployment date will be identified within the next several months. Some work on the other components—Finance, further Effort Reporting functionality, and Identity Management System (BRU)—may overlap with work on HR/Payroll.
Q: Why is Brown doing the Workday Project?
A: Brown's current administrative systems are functionally and technically obsolete, and it is increasingly difficult to adapt them to meet new business and compliance requirements. The HR/Payroll system, in particular, has reached its capacity and is at risk of failure. More importantly, however, Brown employees need better service and 24/7 access to accurate personal, compensation, payroll and benefits information.
Q: Why Workday and not some other software system?
A: Workday addresses the vast majority of Brown’s business requirements. Because it is a cloud solution, it is easier, quicker, and less costly to implement and operate than traditional enterprise systems. As an added bonus, Brown will be joining Georgetown, Cornell, USC, and Carnegie-Mellon on Workday’s Higher Education Strategic Advisory Board to guide the design and features of the higher education version of the Workday system.
Q: Who will be affected by the changeover to the new system, and in what ways?
A: Virtually everyone will notice some change. All faculty and staff will have online access to their information and the ability to make certain kinds of updates. New automated HR/payroll procedures will change the way managers and administrators handle transactions and get reports, eliminating most paper forms and making work faster and more accurate. For staff with HR/payroll processing responsibilities in their departments, some jobs may change, some work may shift from one office to another, or the methods of accomplishing certain actions may be different.
Q: Can I contribute my ideas or voice my concerns?
A: Yes, we invite members of the community to make suggestions, share ideas, and voice concerns on the feedback page of this website. All feedback will be given careful consideration; however, we cannot guarantee—and there should be no expectation—that any given comment will be adopted.