Message from the President

As was first shared with you last fall, Southeastern is moving to Workday, a new Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) platform that will replace the current PeopleSoft system. This step forward stems from an extensive review process that involved numerous faculty, staff and students from multiple campus departments during which Workday was deemed the most agile and user-friendly platform. While still in its infancy stage, I am pleased to report that initial steps for our transition have begun.

This implementation represents a joint endeavor - the likes of which have never been undertaken before in Louisiana - with two of our sister University of Louisiana System institutions, Louisiana Tech and UNO. We are navigating new ground and exploring ways to make this process as non-disruptive and efficient as possible for all end-users. There are several significant benefits to this approach. The three institutions will share in anticipated savings of nearly $13 million over the next 10 years, while moving to a cutting-edge, cloud-based platform with a user experience that is far superior to our current system.

In order to answer questions about the implementation process as we lead up to our launch next summer, and keep the campus community abreast of the long and short term steps of the implementation process, www.southeastern.edu/workday has been created to house all information about our Workday transition. This web section will be updated regularly as new trainings, resources and information become available along the way. I hope you will refer to it as a means for monitoring our progress as we transform the way we serve students and enhance our ability to plan and make data-driven decisions.

The plan is to go live with Workday's HR/Payroll and Financials functions in July 2019. Implementation of the student components to the ERP will begin the following year. UNO hosted a kickoff event in February and each of the three universities has hosted a number of training sessions for specific staff since that time. The planning phase is complete, and we are now amid the design phase of the project.

Transitioning to Workday represents a major change for our institution that will fundamentally alter how we operate. We are proud to have this project underway, and look forward to ultimately working with all of you toward a successful implementation that will benefit the entire campus community and all those we serve.

John L. Crain
President