Frequently Asked Questions

• A key feature of the Elevate program is the use of regular assessments to allow for objective evaluations of critical milestones, technical metrics, and campus readiness to determine if the implementation remains on track.
• The most recent scheduled assessment at the end of March determined that key technical requirements relating to payroll functions require further testing.
• Leadership decided to postpone the Go-Live date for Workday to allow for this additional testing.

The new Go-Live date is November 15, 2023.

• Allow completion of rigorous testing protocols in collaboration with the State Central Payroll Bureau (CPB).
  • This will allow us to meet the highest standards for an accurate payroll in Workday.
• Provide more time for staff to learn the Workday system including new business processes.
• Give more time for central offices to make sure they are staffed appropriately.
• Result in increased readiness for staff, faculty and students as they transition to Workday.

• Training for Workday HCM and Finance launched on July 17, 2023. Learn more about training on the Training page.
• Aside from formal training, staff can continue to work towards preparing for the Workday transition by reviewing functional overviews provided on the Elevate website. Staff can also prepare by working with their unit on other readiness tasks as advised by your local Project Implementation Team (consult with your PIT Crew leader).
• Key staff across colleges, divisions and campuses along with PIT crew members (over 1,000 staff) currently have early access to a Workday tenant to gain familiarity with the new Workday system. The delay allows additional time for these staff to explore the system, provide feedback, and understand impacts on operations.

Functional area information is included in our Learning Hubs.

The Elevate Program is a multi-year effort that started in January 2021.

Implementation of the Human Capital Management (HCM) and Finance systems were expected to be completed in July 2023. However, during the second of three planned Go/No Go assessments, the Elevate Program with the support of University leadership decided to postpone the Go Live date. Our new Go Live date for HCM and Finance is November 15, 2023.

The planning stages of the Student system implementation began in 2023 and is expected to Go Live in Fall of 2026.

Go/No-Go Assessments assess critical milestones, technical metrics, and campus readiness to determine if the implementation remains on track to Go Live as planned. Such assessments are typical of large implementations like this one. The Elevate Program has three planned Go/No Go assessments in the lead-up to our planned Go Live date.

If the results of these assessments provide confirmation of our technical and functional readiness, we will proceed as planned. Should concerns be identified in the Go/No-Go assessment that would interfere with the July date then Leadership and the Elevate team would evaluate the identified issues and determine appropriate next steps which could include revising the expected start dates. Elevate Program leadership will keep campus updated on key decisions that come from these assessments moving forward.

A multi-year project to transform and improve business practices at the University of Maryland through the use of a modern cloud-based enterprise solution (ERP).  This modernization of our administrative systems benefits our partners at the University of Maryland Eastern Shore, the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science, and the University of Maryland System Office.

This next-generation administrative computing solution is replacing current systems involving:

• Human Resources (replacing PHR and eTerp),
• Finances (replacing Kuali Financial System), and
• the Student Information System.

Our core administrative systems are at the end of their useful lives and in dire need of replacement. We need modern, sustainable, and secure systems with functionality that supports the complex work of a leading research university. 

Replacing these systems gives us an opportunity to standardize and streamline our core business processes, lightening the administrative burden on our faculty and staff and freeing them to spend more time on mission-driven work and improving our ability to demonstrate compliance.

The Elevate Program: 

• provides better support for our students, including 24/7 access to the core student system and the ability to use mobile devices.
• enables better strategic decision-making through improved data management, reporting, and access to information.

Doing nothing is truly not an option. Our outdated systems grow increasingly difficult to maintain and secure.  

Because of technical limitations, our ability to respond to new campus policies through new functionality, and to continue meeting regulatory requirements is increasingly difficult.  

There are increasing instances of system problems that could eventually lead to lack of reliability and interruption of core functions tied to HR, Finance, and the Student Information System.

Current outdated systems create difficulties in accessing and analyzing financial, HR, and academic data.

Relatedly, many of our administrative systems that have related data do not “talk to each other” in real time. As a result, it’s difficult to share information across the institution and perform timely analyses.

The ERP project leadership is comprised of key leaders with deep understanding of the University and our future needs.

Huron has experience implementing Workday in other higher education institutions. Specifically for UMD, they bring leading practices and Workday lessons learned from seven other R1 higher education institutions including Iowa State University, UT Austin, and the University of Washington.

Replacing an enterprise system is a significant task that involves not just technical changes but fundamental changes and improvements in every business process throughout the university’s HR, Finance, and Student systems.  This is a multi-year process.

To fully implement the entire new system (HR, Finance, and Student) will take at least 5.5 years: 

• Once implementation begins it is expected to take a minimum of 2.5 years to fully implement the new HR and Finance systems. 
• Following the implementation of HR and Finance it is estimated that it will take an additional 3 years to implement the Student system.

Importantly, time estimates for project completion may change once we begin an in-depth evaluation of current systems and undertake the implementation process. 

• Updates regarding the project timeline will be posted whenever additional information is available.

The Elevate Program relies on the active engagement of the entire campus community to ensure its success. One of our highest priorities is to engage members of the university community to provide guidance, insight, and feedback to help shape new ways of working.

Campus involvement began with the selection process that included 87 technical and functional users drawn from across HR, Finance, and Student support areas. Further, the vendor presentations in Fall 2019 had over 700 campus attendees including staff, students, faculty, and administrators. These attendees completed over 400 surveys to share their assessments with the Technical Evaluation Committee.

The team that is involved with implementing the new systems comprises of campus staff who are subject matter experts drawn from the functional areas of HR, Finance, and Student. Having our own staff work collaboratively with the implementation partner ensures the success of the project and builds internal knowledge regarding the new systems.

Student and faculty liaisons are part of the Elevate team to ensure that their needs are addressed.

Yes. Modern cloud-based enterprise systems include optimized business processes, so there will be changes to improve our existing business processes.

The Elevate Program's business process and organizational change management teams work with units across campus to review as-is processes, develop new processes, and help make necessary preparations.

This leads to streamlined business processes, allowing users to spend more time on mission critical tasks to better support our students, staff, and faculty.

The student system replacement will begin after the new HR and Finance systems have been implemented and gone live (expected summer 2023). This staging is necessary as the student system relies on elements of the HR and Finance system to run. 

Once implementation for the new Student system begins, it will take approximately 3 years to be fully functional (approximately Fall 2026).

Once implemented, the new Student system will streamline how students register for courses and will offer mobile capabilities and 24/7 access.

Students who are employed by UMD will also be impacted by the Workday Finance and HR implementation. This impact, however, will be modest and likely affect activities like applying for jobs and time reporting.

In February 2020 the university announced that Workday has been selected for negotiations to provide our new enterprise system.

The Workday contract was approved by the Board of Regents (November, 2020) and Board of Public Works (December, 2020).

Workday is a leading cloud-based enterprise system that is now being used by by the state of Maryland to manage employee benefits.  Workday is used by a number of universities including: Ohio State University, University of Virginia, Pennsylvania State University, Iowa State University, University of Rochester, Arizona State University, University of Texas – Austin, Texas A&M System, University of Washington, Georgia Institute of Technology, University of Arkansas System, Georgetown University, University of Pennsylvania, Brandeis University, Carnegie Mellon University, Cornell University, Brown University, Yale, USC, and NYU.

The review and selection process has been part of a robust multi-year evaluation of our enterprise systems and needs.

In 2017 and 2018 the University engaged a consulting firm to begin assessing current enterprise systems and to provide information on modern cloud-based enterprise solutions used in higher education.

The university released a Request for Proposals (RFP) in August 2019 to solicit vendor proposals for a modern cloud-based ERP solution. Proposals were received from Oracle and Workday, the two major vendors offering cloud-based enterprise systems in higher education.

To review proposals, a 20-member Technical Evaluation Committee (TEC) was created with technical and functional experts from across campus and the TEC was supported by another 49 technical advisors from across campus.

From September 2019 through February 2020, the TEC considered the following in their review of vendor proposals to make the final vendor selection:

• vendors’ responses to over 600 technical requirements put forth by the university,
• campus presentations by each vendor with a total of 743 campus attendees (involving staff, students and faculty),
• responses from over 400 online surveys completed by attendees at the vendor presentations, and
• references from other universities that have implemented, or are in the process of implementing, these cloud-based ERP systems.

Our current systems are housed in physical “servers” located on campus (or “on premises”) and we are responsible for maintaining and upgrading these hardware and software systems.

Modern ERP systems are cloud-based and thus accessed via the internet. This is part of a software as a service (SaaS) model where the vendor is responsible for maintaining the hardware and regularly updating the software.

Among many other aspects, the benefits of a cloud-based enterprise system include:

• The ability to utilize data more effectively to get a more complete picture of the business.
• System functionality that offers students, staff, and faculty self-service, enabling users to update or access their information privately from any computer or mobile device with internet access.
• Regular upgrades that ensure constant improvements in the enterprise system.
• Enhanced data security and regulatory compliance.

During implementation, and until the new system is live, systems related to Finance (e.g., KFS), Human Capital Management (e.g., PHR), and the Student Information systems are in containment, meaning that we will not perform upgrades or make significant changes to these and related legacy systems. 

Relatedly, the campus will seek to avoid the purchase and integration of new software systems that involve the Finance, HCM or Student systems.

There are several reasons for this:

• A new ERP system, once implemented, will completely change our processes and functionality for HR, Finance, and SIS. The new ERP system will make many of today’s change requests for the old system (or adoption of new software) unnecessary or irrelevant.
• Any change to our current systems can generate a new process. Processes take time to develop and adopt, and in most cases, a new ERP may already be live before the process (based on the old system) would have a chance to be widely adopted.
• We have limited time and resources to dedicate to our administrative systems. Many of our staff who ordinarily perform these upgrades will be allocated to the ERP implementation.

Kuali Research will not be replaced with Workday, but our team is developing integrations between Kuali Research and Workday. Workday will be used for post award processes, not pre-award

Interested UMD employees who are in a current "exempt" position may apply for ERP opportunities by accessing https://ejobs.umd.edu. On the “Login” screen, applicants will select “Current Employees Select This Link to Login.” After CAS authentication, applicants will select the “Search ERP Internal Jobs” tab on the left-hand side of the ejobs website, which will display available ERP opportunities.

We are not rolling Workday out gradually to beta groups. All users of Workday functionality will go live at the same time.