FAQs

If you work in finance, human resources, or research administration, the goal of ATP is to make your job easier by standardizing processes and implementing Workday and select modules of Huron Research Suite. These integrated, cloud-based enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems were selected to meet the Universities of Wisconsin’s needs now and in the future.

Following ATP, you will:

• Be able to complete many of your tasks in fewer steps thanks to automated business processes
• Complete most human resources and finance work in Workday and/or research administration work in select Huron Research Suite modules

All UW faculty and staff will use Workday to:

• Access payroll and benefits information
• Enter and track professional development
• Submit travel reimbursement requests
• Complete other employment-related tasks

The ultimate goal of ATP is to give faculty and staff more time to focus on the Universities of Wisconsin’s mission of education, research, and outreach.

Explore the ATP website for information about the program, as well as the finance, HR, research administration, and IT workstreams. The website is updated regularly and provides timely information as the program progresses.

Subscribe to the ATP Touchpoints newsletter for monthly news and updates.

Your campus Governance Groups, ATP Readiness Team, or Ambassadors will provide information specific to your campus, school, division, or department.

Workday will go live at all UW universities in July 2025. View the timeline and stages of work.

Modules for the Research Administration Modernization Project (RAMP) will go live on separate timelines between 2022 and 2025.

After a thorough review process and assessment of Workday’s capabilities, leaders from your institution will determine if a system should be kept, replaced, or retired. Discover the disposition status for more than 1,800 current systems.

There are 21 ATP Design Teams, each assigned to oversee the redesign of specific business processes, such as Cash Management, Time & Absence, and Grants Management, within Workday. Design Team members have experience working for UW universities and bring extensive knowledge to this effort.

Throughout the redesign process, Focus and Validation Groups meet with the Design Teams to review the work and provide feedback before the next iteration of Workday design. Focus and Validation Groups consist of faculty and staff from all UW universities who represent the needs of their campuses during design. See who’s involved from your campus.

To facilitate the implementation of Workday and Huron Research Suite, the Administrative Transformation Program has established a governance framework that includes representation from all UW universities.

ATP is a multi-year program. Review the timeline and work associated with each stage to see an overview of what is happening right now.

ATP is developing training plans to prepare staff ahead of the Workday go-live in July 2025. Workday training begins in March 2025 for finance, HR, procurement, and research administration staff and will include a variety of materials and delivery methods, including job aids, computer-based training, and instructor-led learning opportunities.

The job aids, how-to videos, and on-demand webinars will be accessible to all through the Workday website. The computer-based training, instructor-led training, and live webinars will be accessible to invitees (based on the security roles a user has in Workday) through Canvas initially, and then transition to Workday Learning after go-live.

Training will focus on the new, standardized Workday processes and Workday functionality. There will be one standardized training curriculum for all campuses.

We are investigating tools that would allow us to report back to campuses who has/has not completed training.

Training courses include knowledge checks to reinforce key concepts throughout the course. Some courses may have a final knowledge check that provides a score to help you assess your learning. However, there is not a score required to pass the course.

Yes! Training will be ongoing after Workday is live. Workday will have two releases a year, and training will be an ongoing and consistent part of using Workday.

There will be a few ways for users to access additional information. ATP will host live “office hour” sessions for learners to ask questions. The ATP team is also developing a comprehensive user support strategy that will include help desk support to address questions and issues that you might have once Workday is live.

Our goal is to ensure all users, regardless of English proficiency, have access to clear and understandable guidance on using Workday. Key job aids are being translated into multiple languages — English, Spanish, Chinese, Tibetan, Hmong, and Nepali — to support English Language Learners in understanding how to navigate and use the system with confidence. The translated job aids will be accessible via a new Workday-focused website.

We prioritize accessibility and inclusivity in every step of our training content development process:

• We use compliant software tools to ensure content is accessible to all users.
• Our accessibility quality assurance (QA) checklist helps us apply standards consistently.
• If an employee needs a reasonable accommodation, they should contact their university’s human resources office.

No. Most of the business processes you currently perform in HRS and SFS will be redesigned within Workday.

You can review a list of Workday terms and definitions, including a crosswalk from current terms across the UWs, through our website (UW credentials required). This list will be updated regularly.

Yes, you may share personal pronouns and the pronunciation of your name. You also have the option to upload a photo and display your education, military status, and preferred name. You may choose what to share publicly (or not) with others who work for the UWs. These are all options, not requirements.

You can see recorded demonstrations of specific business processes right now! Check out Workday resources for your role. You will find demos, as well as high-level overviews about the changes coming with Workday. They will help you learn Workday basics prior to training, which begins in March 2025. Recordings are available to anyone with a UW login.

Yes, Workday allows users to change their display language. UW faculty and staff will be able to choose from over 40 different languages in employee self-service.

As we standardize business processes across the Universities of Wisconsin, universities will all use the same setup and processes in Workday to facilitate information sharing and reporting. Each campus will have its own Workday landing page with branding, messages, and resources that are relevant to that institution, in addition to systemwide information.

It depends on where you work.

If you work at UW-Milwaukee, a comprehensive UW university, or UWSA, MyUW and your local applications portal will be combined into one convenient portal where you can link to Workday as well as other applications like Zoom or DocuSign.

If you work at UW-Madison, MyUW will look very similar to what you see today. However, instead of separate tiles for entering absences, finding pay statements, and registering for professional development, there will be one tile linked to your Workday Home Page, where you can navigate easily to that information and more.

The updated portals will be ready for use prior to Workday go-live in July 2025.

UDDS is the alphanumeric string that is the UWs’ primary method to manage our organizational data. Organizational data includes programs, cost centers, funding, identity/access management, workflows, document management, and more.

UDDS has caused a variety of problems in data management, operations, reporting, and governance. Transitioning to the Workday Foundation Data Model (FDM) structure will solve many of those problems. UDDS will be discontinued with the implementation of Workday, but will still be used when working with historical data, as not all data will be migrated to FDM.

The Foundation Data Model (FDM) is the framework to support accounting and financial reporting in Workday. The FDM combines Ledger Accounts + Organizations + Worktags + Cost Centers and allows HR/HCM and finance units to share relevant configurations.

Watch our FDM overview video.

FDM Worktags do not have logic or smart numbering built into the reference ID, as is the case with current-state chartfields like department IDs. Divisions or units are represented by various levels in the cost center hierarchy.

Staff will use a crosswalk to determine future-state FDM values or funding strings. A link to the tool is coming soon.