Workday is hoping to shake up the stodgy student information system market with the introduction of Workday Student, which it is delivering on time this week in conjunction with its Rising conference. Here are the details from Workday's announcement:
Designed with input from more than 40 institutions, Workday Student is a mobile-first system that includes student recruiting, admissions, curriculum management, student records, academic advising, financial aid, and student financials.
Workday Student is built into the core of Workday’s suite of applications including Workday Financial Management and Workday Human Capital Management (HCM).
Current systems are rigid and inflexible, making it difficult for colleges and universities to embrace new learning models and engage students throughout their education experience.
With this in mind, Workday has delivered a modern student system designed for the way universities and colleges work, preparing them for today and tomorrow, helping transform the way they recruit, service, and retain their students, ultimately equipping them to pursue meaningful career paths.
Workday had already delivered the Student suite's recruiting and admissions components. With the full release, Workday stands ready to replace the likes of PeopleSoft Campus and Ellucian Banner, says Leighanne Levensaler, SVP of product: "This is an end-to-end solution for higher ed."
Legacy student systems look much the same visually as they did 20 years ago, Levensaler says. Moreover, students haven't always even seen SIS system screens; rather, they stood in line to be assisted by staff members with access to the software, she says.
Workday sees a $1 billion market opportunity in the U.S. alone for SIS systems, and there is already plenty of churn in the space, Levensaler adds. The mere fact that Student is now available should help drum up interest from higher education customers, some of which already use Workday for HCM and financials, she says.
Analysis: No Easy Day
SIS implementations are notoriously difficult and complex and Workday has its work cut out for it, although the process should be easier with institutions that are existing customers.
Early adopters are now working on implementations, Levensaler says. She declined to give a time frame for initial go-lives, but an ideal target would obviously be in time for the fall semester of 2017, which would give Workday something to showcase at next year's Rising conference.
"We really take a lot of control over the experience they're going to have as a customer in deployment," much as Workday has done with its HCM and financials products, Levensaler says. Student will enjoy the same benefits of being on a single platform that provides the "bedrock" needed for successful implementations.
Workday worked with a wide range of schools on Student's design, from community colleges to research institutions. Time will tell if that process has resulted in system that can meet such disparate business requirements.
In addition, the competition isn't standing still. Oracle has launched a Student Cloud product and released an overhauled version of PeopleSoft Campus last year. Ellucian this year unveiled a cloud-based version of Banner.
But Workday had the advantage of a clean sheet of paper when it designed Student, which from the mobile-centric user interface alone looks like it will end up on quite a few selection short lists. Watch this space.
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