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Five Tips for Deploying a Successful Workday Human Capital Management (HCM) Go-Live

October 15, 2024/in Best Practices, Digital Transformation, ERP, Thought Leadership/by Olivia Pycha

Key Takeaways from Attain Partners’ Workday Experts – Part I

Attain Partners has served as PMO for large institutions nationwide as they implement and transition their teams to Workday. Our extensive expertise ranges from tailoring custom solutions for unique institutions to managing successful Workday go-lives with multiple entities using the same tenant.

In this blog series, join five of our experts as they share best practices to consider as institutions embark on Workday implementations in the following areas—Human Capital Management (HCM), Financial (FIN), Technical, Project Management Office (PMO), and Organizational Change Management (OCM).

“It has been such a privilege to work with this incredible team on several Workday implementations,” said Francis Quinn, PMO Director. “The success of our projects is a testament to the hard work of our team members and the thoughtful planning of our leads. The leaders we have across our Workday team are committed to teaming for speed and leading with boldness and integrity. I asked a few of our talented leaders to share key takeaways from their work so that we may help others embarking on implementation journeys and continue to overdeliver to all of our clients.”

In Part I of our blog series, hear from our Workday HCM team leader, Pat Tretina, with personal insights and key takeaways for Workday implementations.

Human Capital Management (HCM) Insights from Pat Tretina

Strong Collaboration

Effective collaboration across all client workstreams and consultant teams is critical to the success of any project, regardless of scale. This process is anchored by strong PMO leadership, which is essential for creating a cohesive plan, ensuring accountability, and fostering constructive and healthy collaboration for the benefit of both the client and the project. If collaboration breaks down in even one workstream, it can disrupt the entire project and jeopardize its progress. Concentrate on how the team interacts, address minor issues before they escalate, and consistently uphold a high standard of collaboration among all members. The true rewards will come when challenges arise and things get difficult—the group will come together and persevere.

Data Integrity

My colleagues will laugh that this is only number two on the list as I am something of a data nerd. Data is everything on the HCM side of the house. The saying “Bad data in, bad data out” has never been more relevant than in today’s ERP landscape, especially with a platform like Workday. Poor, missing, or incorrectly mapped legacy data can derail a project, wasting valuable time and leading to many sleepless nights. While setting aside time for data cleanup might seem tedious or unnecessary, it’s crucial within the HCM space. With clean data, your conversion, validation, and testing processes will run like a well-oiled machine.

Designing for Tomorrow, Not Just Today

The project planning process often falls victim to thinking more in terms of a legacy lift-and-shift and less about the long-term utilization of the platform. When combined with an overreliance on past project knowledge and outdated thinking about ERP implementations, this mindset can lead to disastrous results. Instead, treat each new project as unique, even if it’s within the same industry, and take the time to fully understand the strategic goals for the organization. Design your processes with a forward-thinking perspective, considering how the organization or business units will evolve in the future, not just how they function today. Just because something is done today doesn’t mean it shouldn’t be built for the future—your end-users will appreciate the foresight! For example, for one of our clients, contract generation was simplified and time to signature significantly reduced by using auto-populating templates. Time and absence management was also streamlined giving staff real-time, automated time tracking as well as self-service absence requests and automated approvals and notifications.

The Nuts and Bolts are Important

The importance of trackers, RAID logs, project charters and plans, ticket documentation, testing docs, configuration runbooks, and similar cannot be stressed enough. While these tasks might seem minor and cumbersome compared to larger deliverables, they are crucial and must be handled with thoroughness and dedication. This was a key component for us on the HCM side; without detailed trackers and similar tools, our testing approach would have flopped, outstanding items would not have been executed on, RAIDs would have just become footnotes in a meeting, and ultimately, we wouldn’t have had such a successful launch. We accomplished this by laying the groundwork on the intangibles and sticking to them.

Celebrating Wins

Celebrating successes is often an overlooked piece of managing and working through any project. It’s easy to get lost in the shuffle of due dates, milestones, and blockers and forget to recognize when team members go above and beyond. Acknowledging these efforts is vital to preventing burnout, which can set in quickly during the “grind” of a project, and is crucial for project morale. By recognizing and appreciating the team’s hard work and talents, you show them the value of their contributions in almost real-time. Remember, a project is only as strong as its weakest link; taking time to celebrate achievements helps strengthen the bonds of the team as a whole.

Stay tuned for Part II of this informative series featuring Workday Financials (FIN) insights.

Attain Partners – Digital Transformation Experts

No matter if your organization is beginning its digital transformation journey or 10+ years into driving sustained change, Attain Partners is here to help you achieve your goals.

Driving digital transformation from Customer Relationship Management (CRM) and Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) solutions to Data Services, Analytics, and Applications Modernization, Attain Partners provides end-to-end solutions that help advance our clients’ important missions.

Under the strategic leadership of Partner Reshma Patel-Jackson, our Attain Digital practice aligns Attain Partners’ core digital and transformation services to enhance market focus and emphasize delivery excellence, addressing diverse client needs and providing enterprise-wide strategy and technology transformation expertise at scale.

Enterprise Business Solutions – Learn More

Salesforce Innovation – Learn More

Meet the Expert – Pat Tretina

Pat Tretina is a seasoned HCM Expert and Executive Project Manager specializing in Workday technical & functional solutions. As a Workday Pro Certified resource, Pat has been in the ecosystem for nearly a decade holding roles in complex configuration, to product owner and executive project manager. Pat has brought his robust higher education industry experience from his time with The University of Chicago and The University System of Maryland to Attain Partners. Most recently, he has served as the HCM PMO Lead for the MD Connect Project at the University System of Maryland.

Reimagining Modern IT Managed Services

October 10, 2024/in Managed Services, Salesforce, Thought Leadership Kevin Patterson/by Olivia Pycha

Why a proactive service partner is the future for your organization

Defining Modern IT Managed Services

Managed services for information technology (IT) can be defined as, the outsourcing of responsibilities for maintaining and forecasting the need for various solutions and processes to improve operations while reducing expenses.

While this definition is serviceable, it reflects an outdated perspective on managed services. As technology continues to evolve rapidly, the understanding of managed services needs a comprehensive overhaul.

Traditionally, within the partner community, managed services have been associated with help desk support, subscription-based services, or staff augmentation. Often, they are considered only in the post-go-live phase, an afterthought to the main implementation.

Today, managed services have taken on a new and essential role. Organizations now require managed services professionals who can proactively adapt to technological advancements, provide services beyond just support, and understand the organization’s business processes to offer insightful advice on leveraging technology for success.

The Critical Role of Managed Services in Project Success

The 2020 Chaos report from the Standish Group reveals a staggering reality—66% of technology projects end in partial or total failure. Specifically, 31% of IT projects are canceled outright, and 17% of large IT projects fail so badly that they threaten the organization’s existence. The economic cost of this failure is immense, estimated at around $1.56 trillion. These statistics highlight the critical need for a reimagined approach to IT projects, incorporating change management and long-term sustainment from the outset.

Traditional project implementation follows a rigid framework: discover, design, build, test, train, and deploy. This methodology might suit small, low-risk projects but falls short for large-scale enterprise initiatives. Why? Because traditional implementations cannot effectively address the complexities and uncertainties inherent in significant projects. These projects are plagued by the triple constraints of time, budget, and scope. We all know of projects that met these constraints but ultimately failed.

A New Approach: Agile and Outcome-Oriented

Under a modern implementation model, the focus shifts from these constraints to project purpose and defined outcomes. By emphasizing the project’s core objectives and applying an agile scrum framework, we achieve incremental outputs that reduce risk. This approach integrates human-centered design thinking and combines it with change management and sustainment methodologies. The result is a structured model for adoption, governance, stabilization, and future enhancements.

Client Success

At Attain Partners, we recently worked with an enterprise organization on significant enhancements to their Salesforce Experience Cloud portal. By identifying key stakeholders, focusing on outcomes, and developing incremental gains across four different departments, the clients saw continuous improvement without having to take offline for any significant amount of time. The resulting enhancements increased overall traffic to, and satisfaction with, the portal.

Managed services play a pivotal role in this new delivery model. Rather than being an afterthought, they are embedded within the project to provide delivery, change management, and sustainment services from the start. Given that every project operates within a timeline and budget, why not begin with the project’s purpose and outcomes and then iterate within the agreed-upon parameters?

Benefits of the Managed Services Model

A comprehensive managed services service offering contains all three elements of the triple helix—iterative delivery, change management, and a sustainment framework.

Iterative Delivery

Dedicated resources deliver outcomes iteratively and minimize risk.

Change Management

Involvement with stakeholders and the development team from the beginning ensures effective management of organizational change.

Sustainment Framework

Supports stabilization, training, deployment, governance, and future enhancements.

Attain Partners’ Managed Services for CRM Offerings

Attain Partners’ managed services model, which incorporates agile principles, allows one, cohesive team to manage delivery, change management, and sustainment. This approach allows for flexibility and adaptation throughout the project lifecycle increasing the chances of project success.

While traditional implementation models may suffice for certain projects, large-scale enterprise projects characterized by uncertainty, complexity, and risk benefit significantly from a managed services approach. This model not only meets immediate project needs but also addresses change management and long-term sustainment, leading to higher adoption rates and better returns on investment. In this context, managed services evolve into a relationship-driven, delivery, and sustainment model that maximizes an organization’s chances of success.

Attain Partners – Managed Services Experts

Whether you are interested in shared or managed services, we can deliver the precise solution you need to meet your requirements. Collaborating remotely with your team, we’ll work with you to understand your IT gaps and objectives in order to create a cost-effective, tailored service strategy. With decades of experience and over 300 Salesforce certifications, we will work with you to determine which service solution is right for your needs. Contact us today to learn more.

About the Author

Kevin Patterson is a Salesforce Customer Success Manager with over 20 years of nonprofit experience and a decade of consulting expertise in Salesforce SaaS CRM solutions. He has a proven track record in customer success and change management, leading enterprise clients through digital and business transformation projects. His educational background includes an MBA from Indiana Wesleyan University and a BA in Opera Production from Indiana University. Kevin holds multiple certifications, including Organizational Change Management from Cornell University and Salesforce certifications as an Administrator, Business Analyst, and Sales Representative.

Creating Inclusive Documentation

October 9, 2024/in Best Practices, DEI, Digital Engagement, Events, Salesforce Jaemi Loeb/by Olivia Pycha

Inclusive Thinking for Effective and Accessible Documentation

From user guides to technical documentation, the goal of documentation is to make life easier for people. Good documentation eases big transitions and allows quick and effective onboarding of new users. To achieve any of these goals, your documentation must be findable, usable, and helpful to the target audience. In this blog post, we’ll discuss how inclusive thinking can improve your documentation process and make your documentation actually work for you.

What is inclusive thinking?

Inclusive thinking is a mindset that focuses on seeking out and valuing a wide variety of perspectives, with the goal of helping people with those perspectives feel included. Often, it is a reminder to consider the needs of people who aren’t in the decision-making room or who may move through the world differently than oneself or most of one’s target audience. Inclusive thinking is also a way to focus on the real, in-context experiences of the people who will read your documentation (or perform your new business process or use your new system, etc.). By making inclusion a habit of mind, you can avoid using unexamined assumptions in decision-making and improve the process of making changes.

Documentation—Why it matters

With an inclusive thinking mindset, you consider the needs of the people who will be using and reading your documentation. But even before considering those needs in detail, you begin to realize that documentation matters. Documentation is how new staff members learn the rules of the road, how technical people troubleshoot problems, and how business processes are maintained. Once you consider the people trying to use documentation to do those things, you realize that it should not be an afterthought or an “if you have time” responsibility.

Inclusive thinking is often as much about the questions you ask as the answers you find. If you’re considering how your documentation is organized, you might ask:

How does this documentation fit into people’s workflows?
When do people need the information in this documentation? And what else will they be doing at that moment?
What is the best way to share this information in a way that people can easily have on hand when they need it? (Hint: The answer may not be a document. It may be some help text or a popup in your Salesforce instance.)

If you’re reviewing documentation, you might ask:

What outside knowledge do people need to bring to this document?
Does this document provide all the information it purports to? Or does it require institutional knowledge to be complete?
Who will actually be using this documentation and what are they expected to do with it?
Is this document’s language appropriate to its audience? Can it be read literally?

Having committed to taking documentation seriously and asking important questions, you can begin addressing the needs of what we’ll call the end users of the documentation.

Specific needs will vary by person, role, and type of documentation, but documentation systems that are inclusive tend to have:

An organizational structure that is clear and aligned with both end user workflows and other ways of organizing information that you use.
A way to search broadly to find the single piece that is needed. (Hint – document titles don’t convey enough information to serve as the backbone of such a search.)
Clear delineations between types of documentation and their uses.
Tone and detail/technical level that is tailored appropriately to the actual audience.
A statement listing outside knowledge or skills that documents expect a reader to have.
Language that is clear, precise, and avoids requiring the reader to make inferences.
Consistent formats and layouts that are accessible to adaptive technology.
Consistent formats and layouts that are usable by people with vision impairments, including colorblindness.
A consistent document structure that is clear and easy to navigate, like an index or table of contents.
Information that is consistently accurate and current.
Documents that are easy to update.
A low-effort way to notify people of changes to certain mission-critical documents.

Many of these attributes could reasonably be considered as general attributes of good documentation practices. That is perhaps the greatest power of inclusive thinking. Focusing on inclusion creates outcomes that not only benefit those whose needs are otherwise ignored, but also creates better outcomes for everyone.

Want to learn more about how to create inclusive documentation?

Hear from Jaemi live during Northeast Dreamin’ on Wednesday, Oct. 16.

Attain Partners – Salesforce Experts

No matter if your organization is beginning its Salesforce journey or 10+ years into development, Attain Partners is here to help you achieve your digital transformation goals. Contact us today.

To learn more, check out our Salesforce Innovation services, read case studies about our work, and explore our latest thought leadership.

About the Author

Jaemi Loeb is a Senior Consultant at Attain Partners and a veteran nonprofit leader. Her expertise sits at the intersection between technology and people, tools, and daily operations. She is passionate about helping organizations to streamline their workflows and use data to meet their missions.

#SmallDentBigRipple – Redefining Community Engagement with We Are For Good

October 7, 2024/in Events, Nonprofit, Thought Leadership Sterrin Bird/by Olivia Pycha

Nonprofit Executive in Residence Sterrin Bird Gives her take on We Are For Good

Sometimes when I log onto LinkedIn and see people traveling week after week to conference after conference, I wonder to myself, “Who is back at the office actually doing the work?” After grappling with that question for the last week or so, I now see these events as opportunities.

These are opportunities for each of us to ask ourselves what our role is in making the world a better place, to find community, and to re-energize ourselves in the sometimes-maddening world of resource-constrained nonprofit offices. When we choose where to spend our “free” time or professional development resources, we have to invest wisely.

As nonprofit executives, people, and parents, how can we let the little things add up to the big shifts the world needs to change? How can we make small changes that have a big effect? In fact, I recently put the answers to those questions in action. Let me introduce you to an organization that I am super excited to talk about—one that I am personally and professionally passionate about.

We Are For Good

We Are For Good is a nonprofit media company that is obsessed with celebrating the power of philanthropy through their podcast and other content. It’s run by some good friends of mine that, believe it or not, I “met” in an online chat room on Clubhouse back at the height of the pandemic. We’re a COVID “love story!”

We Are For Good’s work aligns nicely with Attain Partners’ core value to give back to the communities in which we live and work—which we call Obsessing Externally.

I recently got involved with their nontraditional gathering, Impact Up. It was exactly what I, and everyone in that room, needed. We spent the morning in a global, virtual convening talking about shifting the power dynamics in our sector, including between nonprofit executives and their board, the nonprofits and the people they serve, and the nonprofits and the philanthropists. Then, from 6 – 7:30p in 29 cities around the world, we gathered in person. I hosted a small cohort of about 41 people in the Bay Area. We had wine and cheese and talked about what those power dynamics meant in our careers and lives.

This gathering revealed to me how out of whack so many power dynamics currently are in our local, regional, and global communities. This event crystalized for me the power that we DO have—we can each trust the light and intentionality inside of ourselves. If we can focus on the fact that each and every one of us brings light and energy, including our own power to our work in the nonprofit sector, then WE can share our light with each other and the people with whom we work.

Small Dents Create Big Ripples

If enough of us strive to make small changes or dents, then all those dents will create one big ripple in the world. In the words of We Are For Good, an impact uprising.

We need to look to ourselves to fill the gaps and honor our own power. To name it, be proud of it, and not shy away from it. At the end of the day, we will need to step into the gap of the leadership vacuums we may see at home, at work, or in our communities.

Ask yourself, “What can I do today, this week, this month, and this year to make a change in my sphere of influence?”

That’s exactly what we did in this event, and it led to thousands of people from around the world having this essential conversation simultaneously.

ImpactUp: PAUSE – Oct. 10, 2024

The next ImpactUp event is on Thursday, October 10. During this event, we’ll discuss mental health and wellness and how to take care of each other while we do important life-changing work in the nonprofit sector.

Once again demonstrating our commitment to being intentional partners to the nonprofit sector, Attain Partners is proud to be sponsoring this global event. Learn more about how you can participate for free here.

Attain Partners – Your Partner in Driving Meaningful Impact

At Attain Partners, we’re familiar with the unique challenges facing mission-focused organizations and use our extensive experience to help nonprofits leverage Salesforce to accelerate their fundraising efforts, expand engagement with their constituents, manage the entire program lifecycle, and measure their outcomes and impact. Contact us today to learn how we can serve your organization.

For more, check out our Salesforce Innovation services, read case studies about our transformative work, and explore blog posts from our Salesforce experts.

About the Author

Sterrin Bird is a global fundraising leader and transformative figure in the nonprofit community, universally recognized for her nearly three decades of exceptional dedication to philanthropy. Her expertise spans the future of fundraising, building robust teams, and mastering the art of relational fundraising. With a keen focus on breaking down silos and fostering human-centered change, Sterrin excels in leveraging technology in support of mission outcomes and is an advocate for utilizing AI for fundraising innovation.

Prior to her tenure as a development officer, Sterrin catalyzed growth as a development consultant for three notable international consulting firms, where she blossomed into a cross-functional leader. In 2010, she founded her own consulting practice, orienting her approach around uncommon coaching and leadership mentoring. Throughout her multifaceted career, Sterrin has orchestrated over three dozen capital campaigns across the globe, cumulatively raising more than $5.5 billion, securing her reputation as a global fundraising leader.

In her professional journey, she has held pivotal leadership roles at prestigious nonprofit giants such as Duke Medicine, the University of California, the American Red Cross, the March of Dimes, and United Way. Sterrin also spent four years as the in-house nonprofit expert with the global team at Salesforce.

Sterrin holds an Executive Certificate in Nonprofit Management and Leadership from the Harvard Kennedy School. She is also a True North Leadership Fellow and was named to the Advisory Council of Rogare, a fundraising think tank in the UK at the University of Plymouth.

Her extensive experience with C-suite executives, nonprofit directors, and leadership across complex organizations speaks to her ability to exceed funding objectives while leading teams and managing the ever-changing nonprofit industry. A distinguished cross-functional leader, Sterrin navigates the intersection of fundraising, marketing, brand positioning, and program advancement with ease.

Originally from Short Hills, New Jersey, Sterrin now calls the Bay Area home, living with her two children, Thomas and Mary. She is a prolific public speaker and is also deeply invested in her community, she sits on the board of Maimoni Valley Preserve, One Life Counseling, and the Young Men’s Service League, embodying the spirit of engaged and impactful citizenship.

Four Key Considerations When Undertaking an Advancement Initiative

October 3, 2024/in Advancement, Best Practices, Digital Transformation, Higher Education, Salesforce, Strategy, Thought Leadership/by Olivia Pycha

Advancement 101: Positioning Higher Education Institutions for Success

Advancement is progressively evolving in the higher education and nonprofit landscapes. But what exactly is Advancement? “It’s simply ‘advancing the work,’ of higher education institutions and their constituents,” said Christopher Campbell a leader in the Advancement field with twenty years of experience. He serves as the Advancement Advisory Lead within Attain Partners’ Attain Digital practice.

Advancement is about creating an impact. At Attain Partners, we serve as trusted partners for higher education institutions and nonprofit organizations seeking to strategically transform and modernize their Advancement technologies and processes to create built-to-last, sustainable change.

Meet Christopher Campbell, Advancement Expert, Attain Partners

As a leading expert in the Advancement field, Christopher Campbell joined Attain Partners in 2024 as the Advancement Advisory Lead.

Campbell brings a deep understanding of Advancement as a subject matter expert and has firsthand experience and knowledge working in higher education Advancement. His first Advancement experience came from his time at Oklahoma State University (OSU), where he held many positions, including serving as a frontline fundraiser, building out and overseeing the Prospect Development Team, and ultimately serving as the Senior Associate Vice President for the Information Strategy Business Unit.

In every role, Campbell strived to strengthen OSU’s Advancement focus. He led a team to implement Advancement tools and Salesforce CRM solutions, which have streamlined and improved OSU’s funding and engagement tracking. Now, at Attain Partners, Campbell actively shares his expertise to help other higher education institutions optimize their Advancement operations and strategy.

As the Association of Advancement Services Professionals (aasp) Summit 2024 approaches, we sat down with Christopher Campbell, a long-time aasp member, to discuss what higher education institutions need to consider before embarking on an Advancement improvement journey. Read on to learn the four key considerations when undertaking an Advancement initiative.

Four Key Considerations When Undertaking an Advancement Initiative

1. Embrace Change to Achieve Advancement Success

Powerful new technology is rapidly being deployed in Advancement, and our institutions must embrace and maximize those new tools. At Attain Partners, we support Advancement transformation initiatives by helping institutions bring their systems and processes into the 21st century.

Technology ages like dog years. So, if your organization is operating on a 20-year-old system, it’s actually much older given the rapid growth of technology especially within Advancement. Our work at Attain Partners helps higher education navigate this dynamic and ever-changing landscape. A big part of that is partnering with institutions to help them implement these solutions within Salesforce.