Frequently Asked Questions

A: Yes.  Several years ago, senior leadership set a direction to replace our on-premise enterprise systems with cloud-based systems. During Phase 1, we considered the only two viable cloud-based options: Oracle Cloud Financials and Workday Financials.  After evaluating our options in Phase 1, it was determined that Workday Financials meets nearly all of our requirements and provides the added benefit of integrating with Workday HCM, which has already been deployed.   The FST project team is continuing due diligence efforts in Phase 2 – Readiness, to ensure that Workday Financials will meet our needs and enable us to transform finance at UVA.

We are currently running a pilot of Adaptive Insights, Workday’s budgeting and planning tool, with Arts & Sciences, Curry, and Batten, and we will continue to evaluate it along with Anaplan as a possible fit for UVA.  Want to know more?  Catch up on this topic in the community!

A: Yes, in places where it makes sense to do so.  FST is a transformational project with one of the goals being to 'Provide a fully integrated, real-time Workday platform that supports efficient and effective business operations supported by common processes to the greatest extent possible.' In order to improve reporting, analytics, and comparative information, we will have to establish some consistency in processes and data definitions. Among other discoveries that resulted from FST Phase 1 – Assessment & Planning, the cross-functional business process workshops enabled us to discover that in addition to our unique characteristics, we also have quite a bit in common from a process perspective.  That being established, we still intend to listen closely to people from across the finance community to make informed decisions about unique business requirements that need to be considered. Our governance structure and our communications plan has been designed in such a way to ensure that we hear from stakeholders.

A: Where functionality could be provided by Workday, an evaluation will be made about whether we will use the existing legacy system or Workday, keeping in mind that there are many benefits to using an integrated system.  There will undoubtedly be some systems that must be retained because the functionality will not be in Workday Financials. One of our activities during Phase 2 is to ensure that we have a complete inventory of all UVA systems to inform an evaluation of what will be replaced by Workday Financials and what will need to be integrated to the new financial system.

A: During Phase 2 Readiness, we are laying the groundwork and preparing for a successful transformation enabled by Workday Financials.  We are utilizing this time to engage with the finance community through discovery workshops to gain an overview of how we could conduct business in the future and identify major change impacts to people, process and technology.  We will leverage this information to refine the plan for the Phase 3 Implementation.  For a look at all of the workstreams that our discovery workshops will tackle, visit the Readiness section of the FST website, or really dive deep by visiting the online community (this link highlights all the posts with a “Readiness” tag for your convenience!).  

A.  We kicked off Readiness on August 30, but we had actually been active in that phase for nearly three months prior.  During that “behind the scenes” time, the project team was staffing up, planning sessions, and generally getting ready to invite our stakeholders into the process.  We are still on track according to the timeline!   Remember too that Phase 3: Implementation is a phase with a long lead time that culminates in the implementation of Workday Financials.  Much work will get done in that phase, as well.  It may be helpful to refer to James Gorman’s explanation of the timelines, found here in the online community.

A: We will continuously evaluate the feasibility of the timeline as we progress through the project.  We are engaged in discussions with other institutions of higher education that have implemented Workday Financials.  Their feedback and lessons learned are valuable to the considerations and decisions that we are making related to timeline.  We are very focused on making this transition as smooth as possible, but also understand that there may be ‘growing pains’ along the way.  The community’s continued involvement and transparency of decisions made will be critical as we move forward. 

A: During Phase 2, a Workday data straw model will be developed and will serve as the foundation for performing a proof of concept for the future state chart of accounts design. We will have a workgroup, comprised of subject matter experts from schools, large units, and central offices, which will evaluate required data elements, needed segments for external and internal reporting needs, and leading practices at peer institutions in order to build this straw model.  One example of a guiding thought comes from Yale University, which has already implemented Workday Financials: their advice to us regarding the Chart of Accounts design is to “keep it simple”; that every custom element we might add to the standard, delivered chart functionality adds an exponential degree of complexity to our business processes.  (Read more about the trip to Yale in the Community.)  So, we need to challenge every urge we have to add custom elements to the design.

See more about the Chart of Accounts work in the Community.

A: With the implementation of Workday Financials there will be a new chart of accounts (CoA), referred to in Workday as the Foundation Data Model (FDM).  To establish the new CoA/FDM, we will utilize a workgroup, comprised of subject matter experts from schools, large units, and central offices, which will evaluate required data elements, needed segments for external and internal reporting needs, and leading practices at peer institutions. The intent is to develop a CoA/FDM that will improve data definitions and consistency, as well as reporting and analytics. We will listen closely to the UVA finance community and utilize the governance structure to approve the new FDM. We will train end-users on the new FDM and develop a crosswalk that provides a translation from the existing PTAEO to the new chart string in Workday.  In addition, we will train end-users on which reports to utilize for specific analyses.

A: Similar to how operating system upgrades to your smartphone changes functionality, it is inevitable that how you do your daily work will change. There will be changes in systems, processes, job requirements. As we go through the next two years together, the FST team will work with you and with your managers to better understand any new skills that you will need. First and foremost, we need your engagement with the project, your understanding that change is both hard and inevitable, and your trust that we will do our very best and keep your interests in the forefront of our minds. 

A: We encourage continuous process improvements, but departments must appreciate that the university's financial business processes will be transformed as a result of the FST project.  Thus, we encourage departments to stay informed about the project through the various communication channels.  Your feedback will be critical here – let us know if you have potential improvement efforts we should incorporate, and please do make sure we know if a required business process should change.

A: As we adopt continuous improvement and undertake this transformation, we want team members to be able to do their jobs more accurately and more easily, and a companion priority is our focus on investing in the professional development of our team and providing them with the opportunity to do the right job in the right area with the right resources.  We will be moving away from transaction-focused work into more analytical work, so this should be considered in professional development plans for your team. This involves a shift for all of us to think of roles as defined not only by duties to be performed, but instead seeing the problem-solving, solution-delivering potential that each role can have.  Transactional roles often mean we do the same things in the same way year to year, but in an environment that values analytical work, all roles can contribute to waste reduction and growth.  We want to encourage our team members not to be wedded to transactions but instead to principles of continuous improvement, identifying opportunities, and adding value.  Refer to the Resources section on FST site for more details.

This past January, UVA implemented Workday HCM, and we’ve undergone several large implementations in our past (as J.J. said during the kickoff, “hands up if you were here for the Oracle implementation and you’re glad we’re moving on!”).   The UVA team has a great base of institutional knowledge and a lot of recent experience to give us more solid footing as we work toward implementing Workday Financials.  We’re also connecting with peer institutions who have implemented Workday Financials – they have had a wealth of lessons learned to share with us!  Here are a few common areas we hear mentioned when this topic comes up, with some information on how we’ll be mitigating those issues:

• How will you ensure no processes are missed? Throughout each phase of this transformation project, we have been working with our governance committees and business process owners to make sure we have included the right cross-section of people for the various workshops.  We recognize the need and value input from members across the university community to facilitate a future-state process design that is efficient and effective. Given that, it will be impossible to consider every single unique circumstance and some process improvement activities will likely be addressed post-implementation due to time and staffing constraints.  In addition, there will be a learning curve for everyone in utilizing the new system. The project team will remain active for up to six months of post-implementation during this stabilization period.   One important point to remember always:  things won’t necessarily be perfect at go-live.  We’re going to do everything we can to get them as close to optimal as possible, but there will be bumps along the way, and we’ll need your continued partnership and understanding while we work these out.  Speak up early and often even if you think it’s been brought up before.             

• How are we going to make sure the right people have access to the right data?  The FST project team will be working closely with related initiatives such as the Workday HCM team, Institutional Research & Analytics (the data governance group), Identity & Access Management (IAM program), and FST governance committees to address known challenges with data access and establish a strategy for providing appropriate access to finance systems and data.  Access to the system and business processes will be tested during user acceptance testing (UAT).  Access will not be tied to transactional responsibilities, but instead to broader business needs from a functional and managerial standpoint.  We’ll be thinking carefully about what you need in your job vs. just the transactions you might perform.  Also, remember that some data will continue to be available outside of the Workday platform via other reporting tools currently in use.

• How will training be delivered?  Will we have a sandbox before go-live?  There will be various training tools and methodologies utilized to support the learning and adoption of the new system.  During Phase 3 – Implementation, we will develop and deploy a training strategy based on the identified needs and change impacts.  This plan will address the audiences to be trained, identify the best time for training each audience, and determine the most effective delivery method (e.g., computer-based learning vs. instructor-led learning).   End users will be trained on the new system utilizing a training environment prior to go-live.  Patty Marbury, Training and Development Director for Finance Outreach and Compliance (FOC), will be leading the training effort in conjunction with the FOC team of trainers and our consulting partners.

• What about grants accounting and effort reporting?  Will the Office of Sponsored Programs have an active role in the project? The Grants Management workstream participants are currently engaged in pre-discovery discussions that are allowing us to learn more about UVA research administration processes including effort reporting, along with the systems being currently used in the research administration landscape.  Based on this review, we will be looking to uncover needs, challenges and desired results as we move into subsequent project phases, including design and implementation.  Already, Stewart Craig, the Executive Director of the Office of Sponsored Programs (OSP) and the OSP leadership team took a trip to Yale University to meet with their colleagues about lessons learned from Yale’s own Workday implementation two years ago.  They returned from that visit with a high level of enthusiasm about FST, and OSP is dedicating significant time and resources to the project.

• I see “HCM remediation assessment” in the Phase 2 plans.  What does that mean? Because we replaced our human resource system before our financial system, some configurations in Workday HCM had to be established to integrate with Oracle Financials. Now we will need to re-evaluate these configurations and integrations in order to take advantage of having a single Workday platform for human resources and finance.

• Will the Labor Distribution process change/improve in any way and at what point in time? We are currently exploring ways to address the challenges associated with the Oracle Labor Distribution (LD) process, involving Workday HCM and Oracle EBS.  It is our goal to both implement some short-term solutions prior to the implementation of Workday Financials and to fully re-design and simplify the labor distribution process as part of the Workday Financials implementation.  We have a cross-functional group of UVA experts working on these issues.  Kelly Hochstetler has helped lead a tremendous amount of work in this space – for more information on what has been done to date and the work that is ongoing, check out her recent post on the online community.

• Support after go-live is going to be really important.  What is the proposed operating support model to be used after the implementation of Workday Financials?  The plan is to review the existing support model for Oracle EBS and other financial applications.  In addition, we will examine best practices employed by peer institutions that have adopted both Workday HCM and Workday Financials.  Utilizing this background information and weighing the options, coupled with visioning discussions with leadership, a recommendation will be made to the FST Executive Committee as to the service delivery model for post-go-live. This project will not include a comprehensive centralization of financial functions, nor do we plan to have a wholesale reorganization or require employees with financial responsibilities to apply for future positions.

• How long after implementation until we can trust the data?  Depending on where you sit, you get different answers to the same question.  Will FST bring alignment?   The goal is to enable the accuracy and consistency of data from the onset.  There will be a stabilization period post-go-live.  Typically, most intuitions stabilize over six months, which we are planning for here, and during which time there will be issues identified that will need to be addressed.  Prior to go-live, there will be multiple test runs of data loaded into the new system.  Immediately following go-live, we will continue to monitor the accuracy of data and make adjustments as needed.  In the meantime, the FST project will be incorporating data governance principles into re-designed business processes.        

 A. Project leadership and the project team definitely want to hear from you!  Here are a few ways to reach out:

• Check in with representatives from your school or unit (we have Steering Committee members, Advisory Group members, and Checkpoint Team members in a searchable database on our website).
• Get in touch with anyone on the project team.  Our contact info is available on the FST website.  We’re ready and listening!  Not sure who to email?  Just contact us at financetransformation@virginia.edu and we’ll make sure you get a well-informed response quickly.
• If you have a great idea or a question you think others might share, we encourage you to share it in the online community. Not only are we very responsive in that channel, but also, your colleagues can interact with your thoughts, too.  It’s a great way to connect with others and keep all of our concerns, inspiration, and feedback in the open. 
• Want your feedback to remain anonymous?  You’re welcome to drop us a line via the FST webpage feedback feature in the top right corner of every page on the site. 

There’s no wrong way to give feedback and no such thing as a dumb question.   We are striving for this to be an inclusive process.  When questions and concerns surface, we’ll do our best to get those answered both privately and in forums where others can benefit from them.  Often this will be accomplished by posting frequently asked questions in the community or on our website, without identifying the person who asked the question.