Hundreds of research grants are stuck in limbo as the University of Washington continues to struggle with implementing $340 million in Workday software.
The West Coast educational institution, which is said to be second only to Johns Hopkins in federal funding, spent more than five years transferring 850 legacy technologies to a centralized cloud-based SaaS financing and HR system .
The financial side of the project – officially UW Finance Transformation – hit a snag last summer when the backlog of unpaid vendor invoices reached $90 million. By the end of last month, the team had reduced the amount to $43 million, but problems with grant payments remain.
According to the Seattle Times, processing delays have affected hundreds of grants due to issues with the Workday system. Problems with current financing also persist.
In a statement to The registersaid a university spokesperson: “While the necessary migration to Workday from our old legacy systems has been challenging, the update is currently on budget and on schedule. We expect our grant and vendor backlogs to close by July will be back to normal levels, after a significant amount of time and hard work put in by people across the University.
“We have made significant progress with our workflows, but there is still work to be done. It is not unusual for a technology shift of this magnitude to present complex issues. Nevertheless, these are operational implementation issues and do not address the overall performance of the Workday contract. metrics and Workday’s reputation as a key university partner and stakeholder.”
A Workday spokesperson said the company is committed to supporting the University of Washington project. “A major transition like this requires numerous change management and process considerations to support success.”
A Seattle Times management consulting report found that the project – which began in 2018 – suffered from a lack of IT skills and pandemic lockdowns.
But Bluecrane’s report also said the changeover plan contained poorly defined priorities and crucial decisions were postponed because management placed too much emphasis on “experts” and “salespeople.”
This is not the first time a Workday implementation has encountered problems at a university. In 2021, The register reported that teaching assistants (TAs) at Canada’s McGill University were waiting to be paid over the Christmas holidays as the institution grappled with a new Workday HR and payroll system.
At the time, the Association of Graduate Students Employed at McGill said more than 460 TAs were not paid within the first 30 days of starting work, while more than 180 TAs were not paid within the first 60 days.
In January, the university said it had resolved all known cases affecting new hires by the start of the fall semester and is quickly resolving new cases as they arise.
Workday says it is the market leader in higher education, with more than 400 institutions using its software. ®