- Success Story
Siemens goes Workday
How MHP guides the test management for the global Workday rollout at Siemens.
HR plays a central role in almost every company. In times of advancing digitalization, it is coming even more into focus – as an enabler of change. After all, it must ensure that HR strategy, corporate objectives and the IT that goes with it are aligned. This is also the case at Siemens.
The digital transformation is progressing and does not stop at HR processes. Because these often need to be redesigned, or at the very least improved, to be more efficient, more agile and more harmonious across national borders. Furthermore, the focus is on employees and promoting a culture of innovation and resilience. HR must promote this through skills development, training, and change management and simplify it by introducing new technologies. Just like at Siemens, where cloud-based systems are digitizing HR activities and enabling better data analysis.
This success story shows how Siemens has taken an important strategic step by introducing Workday to optimize HR functions, improve user acceptance and support corporate goals with modern technologies. In this context, MHP’s test management played a crucial role in the transformation.
Global Rollout Requires Effective Test Concept and Management
To be and remain future-proof – Siemens recognized the need to replace outdated local HR systems with a modern, cloud-based solution.
Workday offered just the right platform to achieve this, and one that met current requirements: It would save costs in the long term, optimize user-friendliness, facilitate collaboration and communication and focus on the needs of employees.
Behind every Implementation of Workday is Holistic Test Management by Professionals
One thing became clear soon: Technological expertise is not sufficient on its own; a comprehensive transformation of HR processes requires stringent test management, including all test phases.
Siemens decided to use an experienced team from MHP for test management. Our brief: Development of a comprehensive strategy as well as planning, organization and execution of all test phases for a group-wide Workday Go-Live in over 45 countries.
"The migration and integration of old, often unstructured HR data into a new system environment is one of the biggest challenges of our work. We are experienced in ensuring the quality and integrity of this data. We are laying the foundation for the use of Workday with thorough data validation and far-sighted planning of a migration strategy."
Gajane Gevorkjan
Senior Consultant, MHP
Comprehensive Toolkits Make for Efficient Procedure
Methodically and holistically: We implement the solution in just the same way as we developed the strategy. In the case of Siemens, this was with the help of a comprehensive toolkit, containing templates for project organization, communication plans, presentations and other relevant documents. It is a proven approach that ensures effective planning and organization of all test phases. In practice, Smartsheet has proven itself as a central testing tool. This enabled us to create a comprehensive template library for Siemens, which facilitated access to dashboards and reports during the test phase. Our objective was to establish structured documentation that enhances transparency.
And how does MHP deal with the complexity of data validation? With a system! We extracted dedicated reports from Workday and methodically compared them with the data from the legacy system. Our experts identified and classified the discrepancies through detailed analysis and discussed the results with those responsible at Siemens. Specific measures could be introduced after documenting the action items. This methodology ensured a smooth implementation and guaranteed the quality of the data.
Boot Camp in India: Full Commitment to the Workday Rollout at Siemens
Our experts were already active in test management for Siemens even before this project. MHP’s knowledge of the Group’s system landscape proved to be invaluable here, as MHP was now able to quickly take on responsibility for planning, organization and implementation of the test phases. This also included an on-site boot camp in India to establish test management as a process, train key users within Siemens, and initiate changes.
This proactive support – initially provided on-site, now primarily online – ensures the quality and efficiency of work processes. Thanks to established digitalized test management processes, the teams were able to master challenging phases of international collaboration across large distances during the Covid-19 pandemic. And today?
To this day, direct communication with the key users in each Go-Live country remains crucial to the success of the Workday implementation. Our “Global Delivery Approach” with a top test team at MHP Romania in Cluj takes this into account: Highly trained, interculturally experienced and Workday-certified experts cost-effectively ensure quality and consequently our customer’s satisfaction.
“Efficient, structured and IT-supported test and data management is an essential success factor for a successful, worldwide introduction of Workday as part of our global P&O strategy. The centralized and professional approach means we can achieve a uniform, high quality standard, but also important synergy and speed advantages.“
Toni Carlowitz
Global Head of Workday Operations, Siemens AG
MHP and Siemens: A Seasoned Team
The structured MHP approach to test management, based among other things on the in-depth knowledge and expertise of the individual members, has already led to dozens of successes in the six years the project has been running. We have jointly developed a customer-specific test management strategy in close and appreciative cooperation with Siemens precisely tailored to our clients’ needs and requirements. The HR transformation at Siemens is on track worldwide with more than ten successful roll-outs in 2024 alone.
Critical success factors for the project include:
- Early planning
- Precise identification of all relevant data sources
- In-depth Workday knowledge and the experience of our experts
- Close cooperation with all internal and external project participants
Workday gives Siemens access to a cloud solution that enhances the employee experience and features powerful reporting capabilities. Another benefit: Siemens HR can manage Workday internally, reducing the need for external resources in the future.
“The close networking and proactive exchange with the Siemens specialist departments were very important for us to be able to plan the test phases in detail. This enabled our test team to achieve the objectives within the desired timeframe and provide Siemens with effective support during implementation. We can now proudly look back on successful Workday tests at Siemens in almost 50 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 45 to 50 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.