Workday continues to hold sway in the package solutions market. The latest Workday surge seems to be in the higher education arena. With the relatively new Workday Student function, Workday now offers an end-to-end student and faculty management system designed for the modern day higher education.
Many higher institutions which previously implemented Workday HCM and/or Workday Financials are gravitating towards Workday Students. This is in spite of the fact that Workday Student is still under incubation and many desired features are evolving. There are reasons for this, principal of which is the desire for a unified information management platform. Workday Student unites the entire institution under a single SaaS platform, a dream of every Information Technology department of virtually every institution.
The early adopters of Workday Student claim that the system allows them to quickly adapt and meet the expectations of students, particularly millennials who are accustomed to advanced applications accessible from any device at any time. Workday’s mobile-ready solution makes it attractive to institutions concerned with positive student experience.
As part of the Workday Student, Workday offers Academic foundation, Financial Aid, Academic Records, Recruiting, Admissions, Enrollment, Advising, Financials and Curriculum. Since these offerings intersect heavily with other Workday offerings in the areas of HCM, Financials and Payroll, the implementation of Workday Student can be complex and time consuming. However, being able to leverage the plethora of Workday’s native features, including mobile and top-notch analytics, makes the effort worthwhile.
Many institutions have been grappling with antiquated systems which do not meet the expectation of students. For these institutions, even the growing pains of being early adopters of Workday Student pale in comparison to their current struggles. Workday Student, therefore, offers the proverbial light at the end of the tunnel. There is no better time to implement than now.
Ejike Eze, Ph.D.