Workday at Rhodes

What is Workday?
Similar to Banner, Workday is a system that allows Rhodes to store employee records, process hiring and benefits information and run payroll and all our critical accounting and business affairs processes. However, unlike Banner, Workday is a modern, secure and mobile-ready system that will integrate up to 20 other Rhodes systems and manual processes that are currently “bolted-on” to Banner. Systems such as Concur, AsureForce, PeopleAdmin, BannerWeb, manually-updated spreadsheets and many others will be replaced by a one-stop shop in Workday. These will soon be available in one place on the web and via mobile app. 

In March of 2018, Rhodes College began assessing best alternatives to Banner to run our Human Resources, Finance and Payroll business processes. Rhodes has selected Workday as its next generation ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning system).

Why is Rhodes moving from Banner to Workday?
Banner has become high-risk software for the College. Its technology is dated, difficult to change and integrate with, and does not provide sustainable value for Rhodes. It requires a lot of maintenance and resources (time and money) to maintain stability, and continues to increase in complexity and cost but not in delivered value. This is a high-priority for Rhodes because it houses important data and processes including HR, Finance, Payroll, and Student Information, impacting everyone on campus. 

Banner's architecture is at the center of a web of siloed systems. As needs across campus have grown to keep track of and access more information about constituents and to increase operational efficiencies, Banner has not kept up, and they do not indicate plans to do so. The BannerWeb interface is unintuitive and primitive to end users. The lack of built-in modern security measures in Banner is a risk to the College, and the vendor is slow to respond to new security threats as they arise. 

By contrast, Workday is a modern, mobile-ready, stable and secure infrastructure that gives individuals easier, self-service access to information. It ensures business process consistency and data integrity. Workday builds business intelligence (advanced data analytics) into the reporting interface. And it eliminates the use of multiple systems to accomplish our core business functions. The Rhodes Workday initiative strives to be best in class with our software systems, maintaining our high standards of quality for our students, faculty, and staff. 

When will the change to Workday happen?
The system is currently being migrated, configured and tested by a Project Team of HR, Finance, IS staff and a Workday implementation group. Workday for Rhodes will be available after January 1, 2020.

How will Workday impact us on a daily basis?
The new Workday system will have greatest impact on Rhodes staff working in the areas of Human Resources, Finance and Payroll who will gain improvements in abilities to process and access data for the Rhodes community. For student workers, staff and faculty it will provide easy access to all your Rhodes employee information. For faculty chairs and administrative staff it will provide greatly enhanced access to budget information, expenditures, and available funds. For Data Services it will offer new and advanced reporting features and data analysis opportunities. When implemented in a few more years, the Workday Student platform will offer new capacities for course enrollment, student advising, financial aid, and student access to personal data.

How will we learn to use Workday?
In the coming months there will be more information about Workday and its features. We will also be providing various opportunities and routes for training - in-person, online videos, tip-sheets and Q&A - before AND after Workday goes live on January 1.

Questions about the move to Workday?
Contact the Workday Project Team at help@rhodes.edu. Please let us know how we can keep you informed and help in this transition.