All 20 members of the Texas A&M University System will be converting to one system for payroll and human resource functions.
Chief Information Officer Mark Stone says the $14.1 million dollar, five-year agreement involves a cloud-based system that replaces scores of mainframe systems at member universities and agencies.
Stone says there will be no change in the workforce at the A&M System or at any of the member organizations.
Replacing the 35 year old technology is projected to save the A&M System at least $5 million dollars over the life of the contract.
Implementation will start this fall and is expected to take two years to complete.
Click below for comments from Mark Stone, visiting with WTAW’s Bill Oliver:
News release from the Texas A&M University System:
Texas A&M University System Chancellor John Sharp today announced a new contract with Workday, Inc. to replace 35-year-old technology with a cloud-based human resources and payroll system.
“Access to new technology is one of higher education’s most important assets, especially when it saves money across our statewide system of universities, agencies, extension services and health science centers,” Chancellor Sharp said. “Having a single state-of-the-art human resources system certainly helps achieve that goal.”
A common cloud-based software solution was one of Deloitte Consulting’s 29 recommendations for improving the Texas A&M System’s information technology environment. The selection of Workday Human Capital Management (HCM) is the result of a ten-month, competitive bidding process that ultimately involved almost 500 staffers from human resources, payroll, finance and information technology across the Texas A&M System.
“Eighty-nine percent of those employees selected Workday as their first choice,” said Mark Stone, Chief Information Officer for the Texas A&M System.
Stone said Workday’s system replaces mainframe software technology that is becoming obsolete and is expensive to maintain, requiring skills that are getting more expensive and harder to find.
He said the new system has a consumer internet interface, making it highly intuitive and user friendly. The system allows all functionality to be accessed on mobile devices. Being cloud-based ensures that A&M members will always be on the current version of software, requires no additional outlays of capital for hardware or software, and allows for predictable annual subscription costs. Most importantly, Workday will eliminate a jumble of different human resource systems currently employed by the A&M institutions.
Stone said the two-year deployment of Workday HCM will begin this fall.
He estimated that through the avoidance of necessary upgrades, reinvestments, and operational costs of the current system, as well as efficiencies gained through improved and streamlined business processes, the contract will save a minimum of $5 million over the five year term of the contract.
“With Workday, the Texas A&M University System will be able to reduce complexities and costs with one system for human resources and payroll, ultimately enabling its administrators, faculty, and staff to focus on the university’s mission and continual growth,” said Randy Hendricks, president, Education and Government, Workday.
Workday is a leading provider for enterprise cloud applications for finance and human resources.
Founded in 2005, Workday delivers financial management, human capital management and analytics applications designed for the world’s largest companies, educational institutions and government agencies.