UW Madison postpones Workday implementation by a year, stoking fears of cost overruns and another failed ERP deployment.

Email sent to the faculty and staff at UW Madison:

On Friday, October 6, 2023, the University of Wisconsin System Board of Regents approved a revised timeline for the implementation of Workday — the cloud-based system that will streamline and simplify administrative processes — as part of the Administrative Transformation Program (ATP). The Workday launch date, previously scheduled for July 2024, is now July 2025.

The Administrative Transformation Program (ATP) is a UW System-wide initiative to standardize and simplify how finance, human resources (HR), and research administration tasks get done across all UW System institutions, allowing staff to refocus valuable time on UW’s mission of teaching, research, and public service.

Getting it right is the driving principle behind this decision. The revised timeline allows for thorough product and process testing; integration of ancillary systems (current systems, tools, or applications that will interact with Workday); effective adoption of business process changes; and full realization of the benefits of Workday.

We will share more details about the timeline revision, its impact on current and scheduled work, and next steps as we learn more. The UW‒Madison Change Readiness Network and other key stakeholders across campus will continue to work on the transition to Workday with no interruption or pause. Most UW‒Madison employees will not need to take any action until March 2025.

The revised timeline for testing and training is: End-to-end testing: July 2023 – August 2024 User experience testing: August – October 2024 Employee training: Begins March 2025 Most UW‒Madison employees will start Workday training in March 2025.

We appreciate your collaboration and continued support as we modernize our technology and standardize business processes across the UW System and at UW‒Madison.

To learn more, visit UW‒Madison’s hub for news and resources about the Administrative Transformation Program, including Workday, at workday.wisc.edu.

UW‒Madison Change Readiness Leads

Of course this delay can only stoke the unpleasant memories and lost tax revenue during the not-so-successful deployment of Lawson in 2005.

Let's get it right, and let's get it done on budget.