Board hears Workday rollout updates and approves additional implementation funding to finish student module planning

The Vermont States Colleges board spent an extended portion of its June 8 meeting on the system’s Workday enterprise software implementation, receiving a status update on the finance/HCM/payroll go‑live and a detailed plan and budget request for the larger student information system rollout.

Wilson Garland, chief information officer and executive sponsor for Workday, told trustees the first phase (finance, human capital management and payroll) is on track for a June 22 go‑live and for initial fiscal‑year financial transactions on July 1. He outlined cutover milestones, parallel testing results, and an extensive training program that has put more than 300 employees through instructor‑led sessions, with several hundred additional staff scheduled before launch.

The board also heard that the student module is a far larger effort. Tom Sullivan, newly appointed program director for the student implementation, said the student deployment will span roughly 33 months, require many more tenant builds and additional internal and external resources for data conversion and validation. Sullivan emphasized that repeated validation, strong test case management and clear communications are critical to success.

Budget and resourcing: administration reported an increase in the project budget to cover additional internal positions (testing lead, program staffing) and outsourced data conversion/implementation support. Sharon Scott and others said the request is intended to reduce implementation risk by ensuring adequate staff capacity during overlapping phases; trustees were told the system has reserves to fund the added costs and that long‑term portfolio savings will emerge as legacy contracts end.

Risk management and change control: presenters highlighted change‑management risks—especially payroll accuracy during the transition—and said the team has planned a command center and tiered support model for the post‑go‑live period. They also reported difficulties obtaining extended write or integration access to the legacy HR/payroll vendor (UKG) and are pursuing view‑only arrangements to preserve reporting continuity.

Quote: “The really exciting news here is that we’re on track to go live on June 22nd,” CIO Wilson Garland said, noting extensive testing and cutover preparations.

What’s next: Trustees asked for continued briefings and a clear plan for transition from implementation teams to maintenance teams and for regular status reporting to the Finance & Facilities Committee. Administration said it will provide an executive portal for ongoing project status and circulate a revised 10‑year cost comparison showing expected portfolio savings over time.

Ending: Trustees emphasized the importance of payroll accuracy and communications to employees after go‑live and accepted administration’s plan to fund extra implementation resources from system reserves.