By Nicole Parker, Consultant | David Kent Consulting
Use Your Workday Student Implementation to Improve More Than Just Technology.
Technology naturally takes up a lot of the conversation during a student information system implementation. Teams spend months talking about data conversion, integrations, security, testing, and training. Those conversations are necessary, but somewhere along the way something else starts to happen.
People begin asking questions they haven’t asked in years.
“Why do we still do it this way?”
“Does this approval still make sense?”
“Who actually owns this process?”
Those questions have very little to do with Workday. They have everything to do with how the institution operates. After years of working with registrar offices, I’ve found that many processes aren’t necessarily wrong, they’ve just evolved over time. A policy changes, another approval is added, someone creates a spreadsheet to fill a gap, and eventually that becomes the way things are done. No one has time to stop and ask whether the process still makes sense because everyone is busy supporting students. A new student information system (SIS) creates something institutions rarely have: a reason to pause.
A Workday Student Implementation Creates an Opportunity to Revisit Business Processes & Workflows
One of the biggest opportunities during a Workday Student implementation has nothing to do with technology. It comes from the conversations already taking place around the table. As teams discuss Workday business processes and workflows, it’s worth asking whether those workflows still reflect the way the institution wants to operate. Maybe it’s time to revisit how major and program changes move through the institution. Are approvals still adding value, or have they become steps that everyone follows because that’s how they’ve always been done?
Graduation applications are another good example. Could part of that process be streamlined? Are students being asked to provide information the institution already has? Could notifications and approvals move automatically instead of relying on emails and manual follow-up?
This is also a great time to look at transfer credit evaluations, registration holds, curriculum approvals, academic standing processes, advisor assignments, residency reviews, and student communications. Many of these processes have evolved over years of policy changes, staffing transitions, and operational needs. Implementation creates an opportunity to decide which processes should move forward as they are and which deserve a fresh look. Institutions that have already been through this often find that Banner data cleanup surfaces many of the same questions.
For a deeper look at how legacy data forces these conversations, see our post on Banner data cleanup during Workday Student projects.
Some institutions also use this time to review signing authority, committee responsibilities, and departmental ownership. Organizational structures change over time, and implementation gives everyone a chance to make sure decisions are still being routed to the right people.
Not all of these conversations require changing institutional policy. In many cases, they create an opportunity to make sure policy, process, and technology are working together instead of around each other.
Workflows Should Support the Work, Not Dictate It
One of the biggest advantages of implementing a new student system (SIS) is the chance to think differently about workflow. Instead of asking how to recreate today’s process in Workday, ask how the process should work if you were designing it today.
Could a graduation application automatically move to the next reviewer instead of sitting in someone’s inbox? Could advisor notifications replace manual follow-up? Are staff maintaining spreadsheets because reporting doesn’t answer the questions they need answered? Are there duplicate steps between departments that no longer serve a purpose?
Technology should support good operational processes. It shouldn’t lock institutions into processes that no longer make sense.
The Best Ideas Usually Come From the People Doing the Work
Some of the most valuable implementation conversations happen when Registrar, Advising, Admissions, Financial Aid, Academic Affairs, and IT are all sitting at the same table. Each office sees the student experience from a different perspective, and that’s where meaningful improvements begin.
I’ve seen institutions reduce unnecessary handoffs between departments, eliminate duplicate reports that multiple offices were maintaining, improve communication between advising and the registrar’s office, and simplify workflows that had gradually become more complicated over time. None of those improvements required new technology. They happened because the right people took the time to ask whether the process still made sense.
Those changes may not be the most exciting part of an implementation, but they’re usually the ones people appreciate the most once the system is live. This kind of cross-functional collaboration is also central to Workday change management, which we cover further in our guide to common Workday implementation issues in higher education.
Don’t Let the Opportunity Pass By
Once implementation is complete, everyone shifts their attention back to supporting students. The conversations about improving processes naturally become less frequent because day-to-day work takes over. That’s why implementation is such a valuable time to look beyond technology. If a process has been frustrating people for years, this is the right time to ask whether it should be redesigned instead of recreated.
A successful Workday Student implementation isn’t just about launching a new system. It’s about building better ways of working that will support students, faculty, and staff long after go-live.
The First Semester Can Be Your Best Feedback Loop
No matter how much planning goes into an implementation, there are always things that don’t become obvious until people start using the system every day. The first semester after go-live is when registrar staff, advisors, faculty, admissions, financial aid, and students begin interacting with Workday in real situations. That’s when teams start identifying opportunities that may not have come up during the Workday Student implementation.
Maybe advisors are still keeping spreadsheets because one report doesn’t answer all of their questions. Maybe registration uncovers a workflow that slows students down when changing programs. Perhaps notifications aren’t reaching the right people, or staff discover that a process that looked great during testing becomes cumbersome during registration, graduation, or census. Sometimes departments realize they’re collecting information that no one actually uses, or that two different offices are maintaining the same data in different ways.
None of those discoveries mean the implementation was unsuccessful. They mean the institution has moved from planning into real operations. Instead of looking at those moments as problems, look at them as opportunities to continue improving. The first semester provides valuable feedback from the people doing the work every day. Those conversations can lead to better workflows, clearer ownership, stronger reporting, and a better experience for students, faculty, and staff.
A common mistake is treating implementation as a copy-and-paste exercise. If a process has frustrated staff for years, moving it into a new system won’t make that frustration disappear. Taking the time to rethink those processes while implementation is underway can create benefits that last long after go-live. Implementation doesn’t have to be the last time you evaluate your processes. In many cases, it’s just the beginning.
TL;DR
A Workday Student implementation is about much more than configuring a new system. It creates a rare opportunity for colleges and universities to step back, evaluate long-standing policies and processes, and improve the way work moves across campus. The institutions that take advantage of that opportunity are usually the ones that see the greatest long-term value from their implementation.
How David Kent Consulting Can Help
At David Kent Consulting, we work with colleges and universities to look beyond system configuration and focus on how student services operate. Whether you’re preparing for a Workday Student implementation or looking for opportunities to improve processes along the way, we help institutions evaluate registrar operations, review workflows, align policies, and identify practical improvements that make day-to-day work more efficient.
A new system creates an opportunity to improve more than technology. It can also improve the way your institution works.
Frequently Asked Questions: Degree Works
In Workday, a business process is a configurable workflow that governs how tasks (like approvals, notifications, and transitions between steps) move through the system. Institutions do not have to change their processes to adopt Workday, but implementation is an ideal time to evaluate them. Many higher education processes have evolved over years of policy changes and operational workarounds. A new student information system gives institutions the opportunity to review approvals, workflows, and ownership before recreating them in a new environment.
Common areas include major and program changes, course substitutions, transfer credit evaluation, graduation applications, curriculum exceptions, academic standing, residency decisions, and signing authority. Institutions also benefit from reviewing approval workflows to identify steps that can be streamlined without changing institutional policy.
Spreadsheets usually aren’t caused by the software itself. They typically indicate that a reporting need, workflow, or business process hasn’t been fully addressed. Reviewing why staff rely on spreadsheets can uncover opportunities to improve reporting and operational efficiency.
Yes. Registrar offices play a key role in academic policy, student records, graduation, curriculum management, and degree requirements. Their operational knowledge helps ensure that Workday Student workflows support how the institution actually serves students.
Go-live marks the beginning of day-to-day operations in the new system. Many institutions use the months after implementation to refine workflows, improve reporting, clarify ownership, and identify operational improvements based on real-world experience.
In addition to system configuration and testing, colleges and universities should review business processes, documentation, approval structures, reporting needs, and cross-functional responsibilities. Taking time to align people, policies, and technology helps create a smoother experience after go-live.
Yes. A Workday Student project creates a natural opportunity to review long-standing registrar processes, eliminate unnecessary manual work, clarify responsibilities, and modernize workflows. Small operational improvements made during implementation can save time and create a better experience for students and staff.
David Kent Consulting helps colleges and universities look beyond system configuration by evaluating registrar operations, student records processes, workflow design, and institutional policies. Our team works alongside higher education institutions to identify practical improvements that support students, faculty, and staff before, during, and after a Workday Student implementation.
About the Author
Nicole Parker is a higher education student systems consultant with David Kent Consulting, specializing in Ellucian Banner Student and Degree Works. She works closely with Registrars, advising teams, and IT departments to ensure that academic policy, student records, and degree audit systems are aligned and functioning as intended.
Her work is centered on the operational side of student systems. That includes curriculum configuration, degree audit scribing, student record structure, and the policies that sit behind them. She regularly helps institutions identify where processes break down between offices and how those gaps show up in system behavior.
Nicole’s perspective on platforms like Workday Student comes from that same lens. Not how the system is sold, but how institutional decisions around policy, data, and process actually play out once everything is connected. She works with colleges and universities across the country and stays closely engaged with Registrar and student systems communities to keep her work grounded in current practice.
About David Kent Consulting
At David Kent Consulting, we help colleges and universities work through the operational realities behind Banner-to-Workday migration efforts.. Our team understands that successful Workday Student projects require more than technical implementation and planning.They require alignment across curriculum governance, student records, reporting, integrations, and institutional operations.
We support higher education institutions through readiness assessments, Banner data analysis, implementation oversight, operational alignment, and post-go-live optimization planning designed specifically for the complexities of higher education environments.
Whether your institution is beginning Workday planning or already deep into implementation conversations, we’re always happy to compare notes.
Learn more: davidkentconsulting.com/how-we-work
