As many of you know, last year the University of Findlay reviewed ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning software) options to replace Jenzabar CX (CARS), which has served as our ERP for 30+ years. Many members of the campus community were involved in the review and selection process. The end result was Workday being selected as the ERP platform that would best meet UF’s needs.
But before we go any further, we should address the most obvious question – What is UniFire?!? It is common practice in both higher education and business to name/title an ERP project implementation. During the summer months, we had a naming competition involving the ERP Selection Committee (approximately 45 reps. from all Colleges & Divisions). The ultimate WINNER was “UniFire”! This acronym stands for “The University of Findlay Initiative to Re-engineer our Enterprise”. You will be seeing the UniFire brand on our Workday implementation website (keeping you informed regarding progress & timelines), on T-shirts, mugs, sky-writing…
But now, back to the main purpose of this email. TODAY is a very exciting day as we begin our Workday implementation journey! IBM, our implementation partner is on-campus today, Wednesday, 10/4 – Friday, 10/6 for the functional kickoff of our Workday implementation. Members of the UF Workday implementation team, UniFire Steering Committee and various offices will be involved in these kickoff meetings. Over the next several years the UniFire Project will focus on implementing three major components of the Workday platform, starting with HCM (human capital management/Human Resources), Finance and finally Student. This kickoff will begin discussions on both HCM and Finance, but will mainly focus on our HR area, as HCM is targeted to be our first go-live area in Workday.
Our goal is to keep you well-informed. We will begin a series of communications as well as launch our UniFire website which will have many more details pertaining to our Workday implementation. Please keep an eye out for these upcoming updates. In the meantime, please join me in the excitement as we begin this journey to build our new Workday!
Daniel Haas
UniFire Project Lead/UIS Director
The University of Findlay
NOTE: [email protected] is our new email account set up specifically for communication on the UniFire Project.