Workday for Higher Education: Everything You Need to Know

The higher education landscape continues to be reshaped through the world around it and technology like Workday for Higher Education are evolving to fit the industry's needs. At ERPA, we've seen an ongoing push by higher ed organizations to seek foundational improvements to account for the COVID-19 pandemic, changing demographics, declining enrollment rates, and rising costs – all of which contribute to an increasingly uncertain future for the sector.

These challenges force higher education institutions to rethink their business models and adapt to a future that's evolving by the minute. In this context, it's critical for leaders to think strategically and identify new approaches that can help them navigate the uncertainties ahead.

The groundswell of change facing administrators means they must make strategic decisions that set up their institutions, faculty, employees, and students for success. Technology permeates so much of our user experience that many may not consider that back office systems are as critical to success as other, end-user facing technologies but Workday for Higher Education understands that enabling administrators to better serve their student body though technology creates a better user experience results for all.

Address Education Uncertainties Through a Better Use of Workday

Meeting these goals within the sometimes slow-moving and finance-constrained higher education budget may seem impossible, but educators aren't alone in the fight.

Those leveraging collaborative management solutions like Workday for Higher Education (and its associated student education and administrative modules) are ideally positioned to make use of the tools at their disposal and deploy structured digital transformations suited to their enterprises.

Within Workday, users can leverage a variety of software-as-a-service (SaaS) technology procurement options to build out higher education functions at speed. A prime example is Workday's cooperative purchasing agreements and group contract vehicles.

This is a procurement method where multiple entities collaborate to purchase software solutions from a vendor, often leveraging the collective purchasing power of the group to obtain favorable pricing and contract terms from the vendor.

A Workday System Designed Specifically for Higher Education

By participating in cooperative purchasing agreements, college institutions can benefit from increased competition between vendors, which can lead to lower costs and better terms for new solutions. Additionally, participating agencies can share the cost of training, implementation, and ongoing support for the SaaS solutions, further reducing the overall cost of ownership.

For educational organizations, this is one of the easiest ways to adopt cloud-based finance, human resources, planning, and student technologies quickly and efficiently. By doing so, institutions gain access to a variety of new solutions that can be deployed at speed to help address emerging issues or uncertainties that may develop across the educational landscape.

When applied correctly, Workday's modules give higher education establishments the push they need to manage the growing challenges of digitization. This is a critical aspect of preparing for the future as it's common for organizations to overreach their technology goals and end up creating as many problems as they're solving.

Easily Manage Optimize Your Entire Higher Education Institution

Each piece of new functionality brought into an ecosystem will require additional planning, resources, and expertise to manage. Aside from the upfront costs of implementing and optimizing solutions, complex systems make management more difficult and put increased pressure on teams to allocate limited resources effectively.

This is one area where Workday shines, especially when backed by a skilled post-production partner like ERPA. When organizations have expertise managing Workday, it's possible to reduce this systemic complexity to a minimum. Optimization can be applied to nearly any educational ecosystem that has experienced tech bloat over its years of operation, and it's a critical part of maintaining an agile system that's responsive to change.

One of the biggest ways educational institutions can prepare for an unknown future is to eliminate unnecessary overhead and stamp out inefficiencies in common processes. In other words, automation is the order of the day for the education sector, and platforms like Workday can provide this in a variety of ways, including:

Consolidating Data and Processes

Workday for Higher Education provides a unified platform for HR, student administration, and financial management, which can help reduce the need for multiple systems. This simplifies the management of data and processes, reduces the risk of errors, and provides a more holistic view of the institution.

Streamlining Common Tasks

Workday's automation capabilities help reduce the manual effort required for many administrative tasks, such as processing payroll, managing benefits, and tracking time and attendance. This can help reduce errors and improve efficiency, especially when applied at scale.

Simplifying Workflows

Workday can help simplify complex processes by providing a standardized approach to tasks such as approvals, routing, and notifications. This helps reduce confusion and improves consistency across all departments in a campus setting.

Providing Real-Time Analytics

Workday provides real-time analytics and reporting capabilities, which can help institutions quickly identify trends and emerging issues. This helps reduce complexity by providing a more accurate and timely view of the university's performance, as well as improving data streams for quick decision-making.

Streamline Your Learning Institution with ERPA + Workday for Higher Education

Institutions should consider how optimizations to their digital ecosystem can help support their collaboration, recruitment, student retention, and administrative efficiency goals. Many higher education organizations are mired in outdated technologies that fail to provide the real-time data visibility and insights they need to make strategic decisions.

Learning institutions leveraging systems like Workday are in a good position to adapt their processes for better visibility, but even with a strong Workday implementation, some post-production support will likely be necessary to get the most out of the solution.

At ERPA, we have years of expertise helping higher education organizations take their Workday implementations to the next level. From implementation support to optimization to advisory services, our technicians are ready to help you unleash the full range of features and functions that your Workday tenant has to offer. Contact our team or call us directly at (614) 718-9222 to learn more about Workday for Higher Education solutions.