What is ERP?

Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) is a business process management software that allows an organization to use a system of integrated applications to manage the business and automate many back-office functions related to technology, services, and human resources. At its core, ERP is a well-managed, centralized data repository that acquires and supplies information for its users.

In an effort to modernize the Institute’s infrastructure, Georgia Tech is taking advantage of new technologies available in Workday, an ERP platform. 

Why is Georgia Tech transitioning to a new cloud-based ERP?

Workday will provide a single, integrated view of the Institute's financials and will better facilitate the flow of information between departments. The platform will ultimately benefit the Institute by reducing administrative burden.

What are the advantages of moving to a cloud-based ERP?

• Increased efficiency, productivity, and maintenance 
• Reduction in custom built applications
• Increased transparency of system-wide data
• Real-time processing and reporting
• Improved accuracy, consistency and security of data

What are some of the benefits of Workday?

Workday offers a user-friendly interface that is intuitive and easy to navigate. The system also provides business units real-time financial insights enhancing their respective decision-making capabilities.

What functions are currently included in the Financial Transformation?

• Business Assets
• Banking & Settlement
• Budgets
• Customer Accounts
• Expenses
• Financial Accounting
• Grants Management
• Procurement
• Projects
• Supplier Accounts

How often does Workday release updates and how are they addressed?

Workday releases updates twice a year, every March and September. These releases include updates to the software, functionality, and even user interface. These changes will be addressed in training and program communications.

What is the timeline for the Workday implementation?

The ERP is slated to go live in July of 2019.

How will a users experience in Workday feel different from PeopleSoft?

With Workday, users will be much more in the system. It will feel like you are working in Workday holistically, and not a piecemeal. Workday will continue to feel like it has the best functionality for years to come because updates are rolled out twice a year for all users. 

What will happen to PeopleSoft Financials after Workday goes live?

Once Workday goes live and the historical data is consolidated, the Institute will no longer use PeopleSoft Financials.

The cutover strategy is expected to occur at the end of June/ beginning of July. This will also vary by unit. For example, the Controller's Office will have access to PeopleSoft after go-live. The Program Team will work closely with Organizational Readiness, the Controller's Office, and other key groups across campus to communicate timing and processes in Spring 2019. For BuzzMart, functionality will be largely decommissioned at go-live.

Please note that although PeopleSoft Financials will sunset during the calendar year 2019, the Institute will continue to use the PeopleSoft Human Capital Management system. Georgia Tech HCM will migrate to OneUSG Connect as a part of the HR Transformation, going live in January 2020.

Will the implementation team provide training on Workday?

To help ensure end users acquire the knowledge and abilities to effectively utilize Workday, the implementation team will provide training as the go-live date approaches. Training will consist of structured learning (web-based training and instructor-led training), social learning, and experiential learning (quick reference guides, job aids, videos). To learn more about training, visit our training page.

How will the Institute inform faculty and staff of relevant ERP events and updates?

The Institute is committed to keeping faculty and staff informed about ERP news and updates. In order to do so, leadership will leverage the following vehicles to communicate updates:

• ERP Project Website – updated every month
• Campus Info Session – covering 5 business process areas, scheduled over the course of implementation. Watch recordings from the Workday Overview and FDM, and Expenses in Workday sessions
• Departmental Emails – sent on an as needed basis
• Faculty and staff meetings
• Workday Buzz- Bi-monthly Newsletter covering program updates, subscribe here

Is Workday accessible?

Yes. Workday's accessibility functionality will enable you to:

• Magnify text on a responsive interface that optimizes content based on your device's screen size.
• View Workday with high color and contrast, improving legibility for all users.
• Use compatible assistive technology like a screen reader for text-to-speech output.
• Use keyboard support to navigate through Workday with a mouse.

The program team is working closely with OIT to ensure accessibility. Training materials will be tested against screen readers and closed captioning will be included in video materials.

Will everyone have access to the enterprise data warehouse (EDW)?

In some capacity, yes. The EDW will mirror the security you have in Workday for financial information. For other facets, security is modeled based on the type of data and corresponding authority, i.e. student data access is largely guarded by FERPA.  

How will this transformation improve reporting?

The reports that exist today are static. With the EDW build out and LITE reporting, the suite and breadth of reports that are available will improve. End users will have the ability for ad hoc reporting and data query in a safe and secure environment. Building out the EDW will provide a centralized repository for data on campus, enabling the campus to make better-informed decisions.

How will the implementation team ensure faculty and staff have a voice during the ERP transformation?

The implementation team will include representatives across the Institute’s academic and staff units. Additionally, Nate Watkins has been appointed as the Academic & Research Lead. Watkins and the implementation team will play key roles in providing a voice for Workday’s end users during the transformation process.

The Organizational Readiness leads will conduct interviews, focus groups and surveys to ensure broad representation of input and feedback.

If you'd like to make suggestions or ask questions, please send an email to erp.ask@gatech.edu.

What kind of historical data can be accessed via Workday?

Two years of historical project ID data will be converted initially. It is still being determined how many additional years of history will be available in the EDW.

Will the PeopleSoft Chart of Accounts (CoA) be changing?

Yes, the Chart of Accounts will be replaced by the Foundation Data Model (FDM) in Workday. Workday utilizes a multi-dimensional model to capture attributes on transactions to support financial reporting. The worktags in Workday's FDM allow for a greater variety of classifications and reporting than in PeopleSoft. Learn more about the FDM.

How does my project ID translate to the Workday accounting structure?

A crosswalk tool will be published that will allow you to key-in the PeopleSoft project ID and see how it will map out to Workday.

Are there notifications for the Workday inbox?

By default, yes. But you can select which frequency you receive email notifications. There are also delegation features that can be accessed directly out of the Workday inbox.

What browsers are supported by Workday?

The browsers listed below represent browser technologies that automatically update. These browsers do not require manual IT installation for a browser update to occur. In order to benefit from the technology being introduced with each browser update, Workday will support and test their products only on the latest supported version that is automatically released by each of the browser technologies listed below. 

• Google Chrome
• Mozilla Firefox
• Microsoft Edge
• Apple Safari
• Opera Browser
• BlackBerry Browser

Microsoft Internet Explorer does not automatically update. Workday currently supports Version 11 of Internet Explorer. 

Can I have access to develop my own reports?

Reports in Workday are the basis of a lot of the functionality within the system. Therefore, the central project team and campus users will not be allowed to develop reports in production. For identified users, there will be the ability to develop reports in non-production tenant and request testing, approval, and migration to the production tenant.

Can I have access to the EDW?

For identified individuals, there will be access to financial data through the EDW. These individuals will need SQL and database skills to ensure data can be pulled properly. The EDW team will work with these individuals to develop a two way communication, so that reporting can continually be improved for all campus users.

How will I be able to request a report post go live?

The Program will have a defined governance process to request changes to the reports. This process will be developed and released in April 2019. The Reporting Team and Enterprise Data Management believe that reporting will really get going after launch. The team is committed to work with their customers to develop based on need and continually improve the reports and EDW.

What resources will be available to end users?

End users will have access to the following resources, depending on what functions they perform in their departments:          

• Web-Based Training (WBT): On demand, independent learning hosted online
• Seminars: The SAME content as the WBT, presented in-person with Q&A time
• Job-Aids/ Quick Reference Guides: On demand, process walkthroughs
• Instructor-led Training (ILT): Classroom training for central office users & financial managers

End users will also have Workday Peers across campus to help them answer questions or help troubleshoot in certain areas or processes. We will encourage users to reach out to these Peers for one-on-one support in addition to accessing our on-demand learning and reference materials.

How can I find the list of available courses?

The training course catalog is the hub for training details. Here you can see a list of the training topics and what WBTs, ILTs, Seminars, and Job Aids are available for each topic and access the material:

• Web-based - Navigates to the WBT hosted on GTHR's training site
• Seminar* - Navigates to seminar registration on OSP's Training site
• Instructor-led* - Navigates to ILT registration on OSP's Training site
• Access Slides - Opens a PDF version of the training slides

* For Seminars and ILTs, YOU MUST LOG INTO THE OSP TRAINING SYSTEM before navigating to the individual course link.

How do I register for in-person training and seminars?

Instructor-led training and seminar registration is managed on the Office of Sponsored Projects (OSP) training site. You can follow along with this Quick Reference Guide for Registering or Canceling Workday Financials Training.

You must log into the OSP Training System before registering for the course or else you will get an error.

Once you have registered, you will receive a confirmation email from training@osp.gatech.edu. Please do not reply to this email, instead if you have questions you can reach out to erp.training@gatech.edu with any Workday Financials training questions.

How do I change or cancel training registration?

Users can self-manage the cancellation or rescheduling of their registrations within the OSP Training site. This Quick Reference Guide walks through step-by-step how to cancel your registration. If you need to change registration, you will follow the steps to cancel your existing date and re-register for a different date.

Once your cancellation goes through successfully, you will receive a confirmation email from training@osp.gatech.edu confirming the cancellation. Please manually delete the calendar invite in your Outlook if you previously downloaded it and added it to your calendar.

Please reach out to erp.training@gatech.edu with any questions regarding Workday Financials Training.

Is there a deadline to register for training?

Each session will close registration one business day (21 hours) prior to the start of the session. For example, a training session scheduled for 9:00am will close registration at 12:00pm the business day prior. A training session scheduled for 1:00pm will close registration at 4:00pm the business day prior.

As class capacity is limited for each course, we encourage you to register as soon as possible to secure a spot.

How do Georgia Tech affiliates or contractors complete training?

Affiliates can register for in-person training just like anyone else, but they will not be able to view any of the web-based training in GTHR's training site, Brightspace.

Please reach out to erp.training@gatech.edu for instructions on how to access the web-based materials as an affiliate.

Is there a waitlist for training?

If the in-person training session is full, you can add yourself to the waitlist. When you register for a session that is full, you will receive an email confirmation to alert you if you've been moved off the waitlist and given a place in the class.

You may receive an email reminder of the upcoming course, but this is different from the email confirming you are off the waitlist. If you do not receive an email explicitly saying that you have been moved off the waitlist and into the class, you will not have a spot in the class.

Where is training? Are there parking options?

Training is scheduled all across campus. The ERP team does not validate or provide parking, employees are expected to adhere to campus parking rules. If you need to drive to training, please reference Georgia Tech's Parking & Transportation Services parking maps and zones.

For classes at 755 Marietta (ERP), the parking lot is designated as Area W04. Only cars with a W04 pass should park in this lot. There are two reserved spaces designated by a reserved sign in the lot and unauthorized vehicles that park in these spaces could get towed. You can, however, park at the Environmental Health & Safety building (793 Marietta Street) and 811 Marietta Street parking lots if you have a valid Georgia Tech parking permit.

Do I need to bring anything to training?

Bring a note pad and pen if you would like to take notes.

There are also some special considerations for those taking the Financial Accounting Instructor-led training:

• The training course will include hands on exercises where you will reference certain job aids. You can review the job aids here, but we don't encourage printing these job aids as we continue to enhance the content. The online version will always be the most up to date.
• Be prepared to use Duo to authenticate into Workday. Be sure to bring your mobile device, token, or have access to whatever device you use for two-factor authentication.
• Bring layers- the ERP Training Room gets cold.
• Most courses are from 9:00am-1:00pm. You will receive a few breaks throughout the course, but there is not a lunch hour. Feel free to bring snacks and use the refrigerators. 

What are the Workday security roles?

There are 14 different roles used to categorize the level of access end users have within Workday. View the Workday Security Roles matrix to see the descriptions of each role. End users eligible for the Accountant role have already received communications from the ERP Training mailbox. 

If you are not sure what Workday security roles you will have, please contact your supervisor or manager. Alternatively, you can reach out to the Workday Financials Security Team at erp.ask@gatech.edu.

I attended a course but my history in RosterTech (the OSP training registration site) still shows the class with a status of "pending".

Attendance during Workday Financials training courses is being tracked outside of RosterTech. You will never see a status of Completed in RosterTech for these courses.