About Workday
As a result of a competitive bid process in 2021, The University of Akron chose Workday as their new ERP system. Workday, a cloud-based system, will be used to perform finance, human resource, and payroll functions for the university. The system provides modern functionality which will deliver a transformative platform for the university to perform daily business tasks.
The Workday Implementation project began in 2022 with the finance, human resource, and payroll modules of the product. The implementation of Workday Student will begin in Summer 2022 with a planned implementation of Fall 2024.
University leadership has worked with the project team to develop a vision and guiding principles for the project. As the project progresses, we will be faced with decisions – decisions on changes to current business processes, best practices for the university, product configuration, and more. We will continually refer to our vision and principles to ensure we remain aligned to reach our goals.
Workday Vision & Guiding Principles
Project Vision Statement:
The University of Akron's Workday project will serve as a catalyst to provide trusted and transparent data, employee and student self-service, and empower the University to make informed decisions and support operational efficiencies. Success in this regard will result in positive student outcomes as well as support our creative/scholarly mission.
Project Guiding Principles:
- Collaborate, Simplify, and Standardize
- Operate collaboratively across functions and departments to simplify and standardize business processes to gain efficiencies across the organization
- Keep the end-user experience in mind
- Implement Workday Platform and Student with the students, faculty, and staff experience and perspective in mind
- Embrace best practice and champion change
- Champion a change culture and adopt Workday's best practices where possible
The Workday Implementation Project at The University of Akron is comprised of two major components: Workday Platform (Human Resources, Financials, and Payroll) and Workday Student.
The Platform implementation project completed in June 2023. The Workday Student implementation project is ongoing with several major milestones through 2024. Please see this graphic for a high-level overview of the milestones that represent business function availability to UA as the Student rollout continues through next year.
