NextGen

In July 2024, Workday will replace the Integrated Statewide Records System (ISRS) for many HR and finance-related business processes throughout the Minnesota State system, including St. Cloud State. Although the HR and Finance areas will see the majority of the changes, all staff and faculty will see at least some new processes related to time and absence, expense reports, purchasing, budgeting and more.

However, not all faculty or staff will be affected in the exact same way due to differences between bargaining units and job duties. Furthermore, students (including student employees) will not be impacted by these changes.

To help understand where different faculty and staff members will be affected, we encourage you to review the Workday and Employee Groups Factsheet, which outlines the impacts of the Workday Go-Live coming July 2024 on individuals based upon their employee type(s) and bargaining unit where applicable.

To help make the transition to Workday as seamless as possible for faculty and staff, Minnesota State is implementing a robust “just-in-time” training program that will begin in early May 2024 and will include different levels and modalities of training to ensure users are trained on the proper functions in Workday.

Below is a chart that lists what is in scope and not in scope for the July 2024 Workday Finance and HCM Go-Live: 

Pre-planning is underway for the student-related aspects of the NextGen project. MinnState provided the following update in December 2023 through the UpNext newsletter:

"This past year, campus and system office subject matter experts have been collaborating on NextGen’s Workday Student pre-planning activities. These activities have included updating current state business processes, inventorying companion projects, and providing change leadership support for the NextGen student project. 

Dr. Kim Lynch, associate vice chancellor for Educational Development and Technology, is directing this work with a team that has a wealth of experience in Academic and Student Affairs. Brent Glass is serving as the NextGen student implementation lead and Stephen Kelly as the project manager. The team has particular experience managing and supporting multiple enterprise technologies, including D2L Brightspace, MnPALs library services, Zoom, and Kaltura. In addition, the team has led change to comprehensive cloud-based technologies and, through the Network for Educational Development (NED), cultural transformation in the areas of academic technologies, academic equity, open educational resources, and more. 

Current State Review (2023) – The NextGen student lead and project manager convened seven NextGen working teams consisting of campus and system office academic/student affairs, Institutional Reporting (IR), and Information Technology (IT) professionals to review current state documents originally developed in 2018, to inform the requirements for the NextGen student Request for Proposal (RFP) process. In the past five years, our current state business practices have changed due to the impact of the pandemic, new technology, and changes to board policy, and state/federal regulations. Understanding the current state of systemwide business practices and campus companion project inventories is critical to NextGen Student Pre-Planning and is essential information for organizational change management and cultural transformation.

Companion Project Pilot – Winona State University, Minnesota State University, Mankato, Normandale Community College, and Alexandria Technical and Community College are participating in a pilot program to inventory companion projects at their institutions. Companion projects are third-party integrations or software, institutional forms, and workflows. These campuses have participated in work sessions to identify which companion projects can be replaced by Workday Student functionality. If the companion project cannot be replaced, the question is: is it possible to build an integration with Workday Student? The work sessions will also identify the companion projects that cannot be replaced or integrated with Workday Student. The Academic and Student Affairs division in the system office will also identify companion projects at the enterprise level. The pilot will provide an opportunity to create a road map for companion project alignment as we conduct inventories at the remaining 29 institutions.  

Change Leadership Support – Change leadership, management, and support is integrated into all pre-planning and implementation activities for the NextGen student project. These efforts are grounded in our work to advance the goals of Equity 2030 to eliminate disparities in educational outcomes and experiences for our underserved and underrepresented student populations. The implementation of NextGen Student will link all 54 campuses and serve as a unified administrative technology system that improves the student experience and streamlines enterprise-wide business processes in student services, finance, and human capital management. As we implement NextGen Student, we will adhere to our guiding principles to ensure access to an extraordinary education for all Minnesotans."

What is the difference between NextGen and Workday?

NextGen is a strategic initiative that creates a modern technology landscape for Minnesota State – one that meets the changing needs of our students and campuses now and in the future. It includes multiple projects including but not limited to the implementation of Workday, Companion Projects and more. 

Workday is an Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) tool. The implementation of Workday across the Minnesota State system is one part of the NextGen project.  

Looking for Workday-specific terminologies? Review the online Workday glossaries. 

Visit the Friends of NextGen site for several resources about the project, including:

• NextGen/Workday Overview
• Bite-sized learning
• Change impact flip cards
• Demo library
• FAQs
• Glossaries
• Workday Wednesdays

Although the project is a Minnesota State project, St. Cloud State has implemented its own Local Transition Management Team to help coordinate local activities and communications. Huskies are encouraged to reach out to this team to share questions or concerns about the NextGen project. You can reach the team by emailing NextGenSCSU@4dian8.com.