Reclaiming the Weekends with Workday Adaptive Planning
How our Workday Adaptive Planning team helped a nonprofit save time, enhance reporting, and set the stage for a long-term partnership.
Client
This EisnerAmper client is one of the world's largest providers of arbitration, mediation, and other alternative dispute resolution services. The nonprofit organization has a long history in this field, with offices throughout the U.S. Its roster of arbitrators includes distinguished judges and leaders in the legal and business communities with industry-specific knowledge and expertise.
Challenge
Our client was using an outdated financial planning and analysis (FP&A) system. The finance team budgeted, planned, and forecasted in disconnected systems and spreadsheets, which made reporting tedious and time-consuming. Manual tasks bogged the team down, and leaders often found themselves working through weekends to complete the budget.
When organization leadership converted to a new cloud-based accounting system, they decided to start fresh and implement a new FP&A software solution. They initially purchased Workday Adaptive Planning. Instead of using a third-party partner for implementation support, the finance team worked directly with Workday to implement the software.
At the time, the organization’s leaders were hesitant about the added costs of using a third party for implementation. However, the implementation was more complex than anticipated, and the finance team initially thought Workday Adaptive Planning couldn’t meet their needs. After switching to a competitive product, they realized it wasn’t as robust as Workday Adaptive Planning and couldn’t handle some of the functions they needed.
[When working directly with Workday], we couldn’t get someone to come and say, ‘This is what you should be doing.’ We knew [Workday] Adaptive Planning could do what we needed it to do, but we needed that help.
Approach
When the finance team decided to try using Workday Adaptive Planning again, Workday recommended working with Eisner Amper to customize a new solution. Our experienced professionals are Workday Adaptive Planning Certified Associates and have a reputation for igniting excitement, building trust, and performing quality implementation. We met with Workday and the nonprofit organization to explore their expectations and the platform's capabilities. We explained how we partner with our clients to meet their long-term needs and how we focus on transformative outcomes.
For about 12 weeks, our team collaborated with the client to:
- Design and implement Workday Adaptive Planning based on their goals.
- Hold workshops to train users, promote knowledge transfer, and assist in adoption support of the system.
- Build a foundation for planning and analytics.
- Automate integration from our client’s existing financial management platform.
- Plan for expenses and capital expenditures.
- Forecast personnel and workforce needs.
Our first meeting with [EisnerAmper] really gave us peace of mind, and that was the biggest thing [we] needed at that time: assurance that we were building with a true partner.
[EisnerAmper] was very knowledgeable and clearly laid out how they were going to approach the implementation process. That transparency and initial conversation, where we were clearly clicking and getting on the same page, made us feel really comfortable.
Results
Now, I feel like we have a product that we're utilizing properly. It's really meeting our needs…and [I] can't say enough good about our team at EisnerAmper for helping us implement everything we needed at a time when we really needed support.
Streamlined planning
Instead of working with isolated spreadsheets, our client’s Workday Adaptive Planning solution allows them to make decisions using real-time data and financial or operational dashboards. Workday Adaptive Planning integrates with the organization’s cloud-based accounting system, so the finance team has all the information they need in one place.
The [EisnerAmper] team showed us a much better way to do the budget process than we could have ever envisioned, and that'll definitely have a lasting impact.
Enhanced collaboration
We tailored our client's Workday Adaptive Planning system to their needs, with robust process designs to make work more collaborative. Instead of a few individuals handling the budget process, their whole team is trained to navigate and work within the platform. The organization’s finance team now has support throughout the budget process and can rely on their colleagues for help.
A lasting partnership
As promised, we built a true partnership with the client. An ongoing support agreement means that experienced EisnerAmper professionals assist whenever the team has questions, issues, or concerns about their Workday Adaptive Planning system. Our client has access to the depth of solutions and resources our firm offers and is exploring additional services from our colleagues, such as Transaction Advisory Services and Change Management.
With a smoother budgeting process, finance leaders have more time to focus on strategic matters and no plans to work through the weekends next budget season. They also found a trusted partner in EisnerAmper that they can rely on for the services and solutions they need to help them reach a wide range of business goals.
[EisnerAmper] made it clear from day one that they wanted this to be a long-term partnership, beyond just the Workday Adaptive support. That meant a lot to us and had a lasting impact, and we’ll obviously be working with them in other capacities. This is an important relationship for us.
Workday Adaptive Planning
We were so happy with the service we got here that [EisnerAmper] were the first ones we reached out to when we needed help.