In the first two parts of our series, we explored why a robust Workday support model is essential for business success and navigated the different structures you can adopt—from ownership and resource allocation to personnel models. Now, let’s focus on the “how.”

Once you’ve chosen your model, how do you ensure it runs efficiently? A great support structure is only as good as the processes that power it. Implementing a few key best practices can be the difference between a support team that is merely reactive and one that becomes a strategic driver of business value.

1. Establish a Workday Center of Excellence (COE)

A Center of Excellence (COE) is a formal governance body comprised of key IT and business stakeholders. Instead of a decentralized free-for-all, the COE acts as the central hub for all things Workday. This group is crucial for managing the platform strategically, rather than just handling day-to-day tickets.

Key responsibilities for a Workday COE include:

  • Strategic Alignment: Ensuring all Workday configurations and enhancements align with broader business goals.
  • Governance: Establishing policies for security, data privacy, and system changes.
  • Prioritization: Managing enhancement requests and prioritizing the backlog based on business impact.
  • Release Management: Owning the bi-annual Workday update process, from research to testing and rollout.

2. Implement a Robust Ticket System

The foundation of any effective Workday support model is a system to track and manage incoming requests. A simple email inbox won’t scale and offers no visibility. A dedicated ticket system provides the structure needed to manage the backlog, assign resources, and identify recurring problems.

Best practices for your ticket system include:

  • Tracking and Visibility: Use the system to track the entire lifecycle of an issue, from submission to resolution. This creates a backlog that can be managed and prioritized.
  • Clear Categorization: Set up clear categories (e.g., “Integration Failure,” “Report Request,” “Configuration Change”) to route tickets to the right specialists quickly.
  • Service Level Agreements (SLAs): Define and communicate expected response and resolution times to manage user expectations.
  • Knowledge Base Integration: Link your ticket system to a knowledge base. This allows users to find answers to common questions themselves, deflecting tickets and empowering employees.

3. Master Proactive Release Management

Workday delivers two major feature releases each year. These updates are not optional; they are pushed to your tenant automatically. A reactive approach to these releases can lead to broken integrations, confused users, and missed opportunities. Proactive Release Management is essential to stay up to date.

A strong release management cycle involves:

  • Research: As soon as the release notes are available on the Workday Community, your COE or Workday support team should review them to identify new features that could benefit the business and, just as importantly, changes that could impact your existing configurations.
  • Plan and Test: Develop a test plan that focuses on your most critical business processes and integrations. This is where automated testing becomes invaluable. Automated testing for key configurations and integrations ensures that your core functions (like payroll or benefits enrollment) won’t break with the new update.
  • Train and Deploy: Communicate changes to your end-users before the update goes live. Create simple guides or videos for any significant new features you plan to adopt.

4. Prioritize Documentation for Continuity

Your Workday support team holds an immense amount of “tribal knowledge.” If a key analyst leaves, they can take critical information about your unique configurations with them. Comprehensive documentation is the only way to ensure continuity and protect your investment.

Focus on documenting:

  • Configurations: Why was a business process configured a certain way? What security groups are involved?
  • Integrations: Document every integration’s data mapping, endpoints, and error-handling procedures.
  • Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs): Create step-by-step guides for common support tasks, like adding a new security role or troubleshooting a payroll error. Tools such as Loom or AI-generated transcripts make documentation much easier and no longer have to be a chore.

This documentation becomes the “single source of truth” for your team, speeding up onboarding for new members and making troubleshooting far more efficient.

5. Partnering for Success: How to Work with External Vendors

For most organizations, the question isn’t if they will use an external vendor for Workday support, but how. The “Hybrid” model—which combines a small, strategic internal team with a Production Support  vendor—is the most popular and effective approach. This model provides the “best balance of control, cost efficiency, and access to expertise”.

However, to truly succeed, this relationship must be a partnership, not just a transaction. Here are best practices for working effectively with an external support vendor like Teamup9.

  • Maintain a Strong Internal Core Team: An external vendor should not replace your internal knowledge base, but supplement it. Your internal team should remain in control of “strategy, governance, and complex business configuration”. This prevents the “potential loss of internal system knowledge” and ensures the vendor’s work always aligns with your business goals. Select a vendor that prioritizes self-sufficiency and provides knowledge sharing.
  • Clearly Define Roles and Responsibilities: Use your vendor partner for what they do best. This includes “routine support, technical maintenance, and enhancements”. It also includes specialized, project-based work, managing bi-annual update cycles, and providing project management and implementation resources for new module rollouts. Select a vendor that can easily switch between request-based and project support.
  • Integrate Your Vendor into Your Governance: Don’t treat your vendor as just a ticket queue. Integrate them into your Workday Center of Excellence (COE) or Governance Committee. This ensures both your internal team and external partners remain “strategically aligned” and are jointly prioritizing the enhancement requests and projects that deliver the most business value. Select a vendor that invest in client managers that know your business and that can be relied on for advice.
  • Leverage Their Breadth of Expertise: A key advantage of a Production Support partner is “access to a broad pool of certified consultants” and “flexible staffing”. Instead of trying to hire and retain expensive, specialized talent internally, use your partner as a flexible resource. This gives you access to deep expertise in specific modules (like Financials, Payroll, or Integrations) exactly when you need it, without the full-time overhead. Select a vendor that is a Workday partner and invests by assigning named resources to your team that can create a relationship. By having experienced resources that know your business and team, issues will be addressed faster and the overall results are suitable for your organization.

Conclusion

An effective Workday support model is built on a foundation of strategic best practices. By establishing a Center of Excellence for governance, implementing a robust ticket system, mastering proactive release management, committing to thorough documentation, and selecting the right external vendor you transform your support team from a simple help desk into a strategic partner that actively enhances your Workday investment.

Is your support model leveraging these best practices to their fullest? Partner with Teamup9 for expert guidance. We can help you implement these practices and provide the specialized support you need to ensure your Workday platform delivers continuous value.