Sponsor Interview: Patricia Lasserre

Preparing our community for Workday Student 

With Launch 2 of Workday Student underway at UBC, we want to share insights from the people behind the project. We will bring you the perspectives of those who are either working closely with the project or who will be impacted end users. In our fourth instalment, Dr. Patricia Lasserre shares her thoughts on how she believes Workday Student will better support UBC’s students, faculty, and staff. 

What excites you most about transitioning to Workday Student? 

Workday Student will bring UBC into the 21st century. Our current Student Information System (SIS) is over 30 years old - the reality is that we need to modernize. I am excited that Workday Student will allow UBC to upgrade, change, and move towards new ways of doing things. Even further, combining students, HR, and finance into one system provides an opportunity for the University to make decisions holistically. It will take time to learn how to use the new system, but Workday Student will be more functional and provide us with the tools we need to propel UBC into the future. 

Why is Workday the right fit for UBC? 

We have been looking for a replacement for our current SIS for over a decade. The first step in this process was getting input from faculty and staff on how SIS was meeting their needs. From these discussions, we discovered that there were a lot of needs not being met by SIS, and it was decided that it was time to change the system. From there we embarked on researching which systems were available on the market and which would fit the unique needs of UBC. Workday was a relatively new system and while it was not a perfect fit, the system provided a solid foundation that we have been able to build upon by adding additional applications and integrating or retrofitting existing applications. We also knew that this system would service UBC for the foreseeable future – our expectation is that Workday Student will serve UBC for many years to come. 

What is being done to ensure the UBC Community is prepared for the transition to Workday Student? 

There has been a huge effort made by the IRP Student team to make sure that Launch 2 training will follow the academic cycle so that staff and faculty learn the skills required as they start to use the system. Specifically, we wanted to focus on relevant scenarios for faculty and staff so that they can feel comfortable doing their daily tasks in Workday Student. Everything I have heard from the community is that training is being well-received. 

How successful was Launch 1 and what are your thoughts on Launch 2? 

Launch 1 was a huge undertaking because it involved building additional features from scratch to add to Workday that were tailored specifically to the needs of UBC. Launch 1 was a big lift and there have been challenges, and the IRP Student team has been amazing at managing priorities to ensure success.  

When I look at Launch 2, the size of the impacted community stands out to me. The number of users in this launch is so much larger than Launch 1. However, I’m confident that the Workday platform will work because it is in production at other institutions.  

We encourage you to reach out to your Primary Transition Lead (PTL) to share your thoughts and comments.