- Success Story
Siemens goes Workday
How MHP's test management enables a successful rollout in over 45 countries.
HR plays a significant role in almost every company. In times of advancing digitalization, it comes even more into focus – as an enabler of change. After all, it must ensure that human resources strategy, company goals, and the associated IT are aligned. This is also the case at Siemens.
Digital transformation is progressing and does not stop at HR processes. They often need to be redesigned, or at least improved, to run more efficiently, agilely, and harmoniously across borders. In addition, improving employee experience and promoting a culture of innovation and resilience are at the center. HR must support this through competence development, training, and change management, and simplify with the introduction of new technologies. As at Siemens, where cloud-based systems digitize HR activities and enable better data analysis.
This success story shows how Siemens optimized its HR functions and extended user options through the introduction of Workday. The test management by MHP played a significant role in the change process.
Global rollout requires an effective test concept and management
Being future-proof – the project's goal at Siemens was to replace local HR systems with a cloud-based solution.
Workday provided a contemporary platform that met current requirements: it would save costs in the long term, enhance functionalities, facilitate collaboration and communication, and put the needs of employees at the center.
Behind every successful Workday implementation is comprehensive test management
It quickly became clear that further development of HR processes requires not only technological expertise but also a stringent test management including all test phases.
Siemens decided to enlist an experienced team from MHP for the test management topic. Our tasks: developing a comprehensive strategy and planning, organizing, and conducting all test phases for a company-wide Workday Go-Live in over 45 countries.
"The transfer and integration of HR data into a new system environment is one of the biggest challenges in our work. We have experience in ensuring the quality and integrity of this data. With thorough data validation and forward-thinking migration strategy planning, we lay the foundation for the use of Workday."
Gajane Gevorkjan
Senior Consultant, MHP - A Porsche Company
Efficient approach thanks to extensive toolkits
Methodical and holistic: Just as we proceed in strategy development, we also implement the solution afterwards. In the case of Siemens, with the help of a comprehensive toolkit that included templates for project organization, communication plans, and presentations.
This approach ensures effective planning and organization of all test phases. In practice, Smartsheet has proven to be a central testing tool. For Siemens, we were able to create an extensive template library, facilitating access to dashboards and reports during the testing phase. Our goal: structured documentation that promotes transparency.
And how does MHP tackle the complexity of data validation? With a system!
We extracted dedicated reports from Workday and systematically reconciled them with data from the previous system. In a detailed analysis, our experts identified and classified the discrepancies to discuss the results with Siemens stakeholders. After documenting the action items, concrete measures could be initiated. This methodology ensured smooth implementation and secured data quality.
To Bootcamp in India: Full commitment to the Workday rollout at Siemens
Even before this project, our experts were active in test management for Siemens. The knowledge of the corporation's system landscape proved to be valuable here, as MHP could now quickly take responsibility for the planning, organization, and execution of the test phases. This included a bootcamp on-site in India to establish test management as a process, train Siemens key users, and initiate changes.
This proactive support ensures the quality and efficiency of workflows, then directly on-site, now mainly online. Challenging phases of international collaboration during the times of Corona were successfully managed by the teams over long distances thanks to established digitized test management processes. And today?
Up to this day, direct exchange with the key users in the individual go-live countries is crucial for the Workday implementation. Our "Global Delivery Approach" with a top test team at MHP Romania in Cluj takes this into account: Well-trained, interculturally savvy, and Workday-certified experts ensure cost-efficient quality and thus customer satisfaction.
“For a successful global introduction of Workday within our global People & Organization Strategy, efficient, structured, and IT-supported testing and data management are essential success factors. Through a centralized and professional approach, we can achieve a uniform, high quality standard, as well as important synergy and speed advantages.“
Toni Carlowitz
Global Head of Workday Operations, Siemens Global Business Services
MHP and Siemens: A well-coordinated team
The structured MHP approach to test management, based on the in-depth knowledge and expertise of individual members, has already led to the goal dozens of times in the six-year project duration. In close and appreciative collaboration with Siemens, we have jointly developed a customer-specific test management strategy that precisely meets Siemens' needs and requirements. With more than ten successful rollouts in 2024 alone, HR transformation at Siemens is on track worldwide.
Key to the project's success is, among others:
- Early planning
- Precise identification of all relevant data sources
- Sound Workday knowledge and the experience of our experts
- Close collaboration with all internal and external project stakeholders
With Workday, Siemens can access a cloud solution that ensures better employee experience and is characterized by powerful reporting. Another advantage: Siemens HR can internally administer Workday, requiring minimal external resource use in the future.
“The close networking and proactive exchange with Siemens departments were very important for us to be able to plan the test phases in detail. This allowed our test team to achieve the goals within the desired timeframe and effectively support Siemens in the implementation. We now look back on successful Workday tests at Siemens in more than 45 countries.”
Jörg Brückner
Responsible Partner for Siemens, MHP
The project in figures
- Over 6 years of cooperation between Siemens and MHP
- More than 10 rollouts successfully supported in 2024
- Go-Lives in more than 45 different countries since the start of the collaboration
- 6 to 12 Workday-certified MHP testers ensure quality standards
Are you facing an IT transformation in HR and looking to introduce a cloud solution? Our hands-on expertise and years of experience make us the ideal partner for your successful implementation.
Contact us here for a personalized consultation.