Austin Community College District’s (ACC) journey toward transforming its Student Information System (SIS) using Workday Student nears completion of the initial planning phase. 

Workday representatives met with ACC’s IT department and core SIS functional teams — subject matter experts dedicated to the SIS Modernization Project from Student Affairs (SA) and Instruction — for collegewide planning meetings.

The week of May 8, members from the Student Affairs and Instruction SIS teams completed a week of Discovery sessions aimed at helping them learn more about Workday Student and examining existing departmental processes. 

The following week, both teams, along with additional subject matter experts, participated in two all-day planning workshops focused on identifying the major activities that will be completed for each functional area, the go-live schedule for functionality, and how ACC will manage the transition period when Workday and Colleague are being used simultaneously. In all, around 150 ACC staff participated in the workshops.

The two core SIS teams — Students Affairs and Instruction — will continue to work hand-in-hand throughout the process. Below, find an update from each team about what they are doing for their areas as well as the next steps in the process.

Student Affairs SIS Team Update

The migration to Workday Student represents an enormous undertaking, so the Student Affairs Team has launched a dedicated Workday Student Project website to keep their division’s stakeholders informed of the latest updates and ongoing work. Student Affairs website’s focus is to provide more detailed information about process improvement efforts as part of the SIS Modernization Project and other specific SIS topics related to Student Affairs.  

The Student Affairs SIS team also is publishing a monthly SIS Modernization Project newsletter to keep their staff informed on how the SIS Modernization Project impacts them. The targeted newsletter is intended to provide relevant information to specific departments and will supplement the SIS Modernization Project Newsletter distributed by the SIS Modernization Project Communication Committee. 

For specific questions and inquiries concerning Student Affairs engagement, email [email protected].

Instruction SIS Team Update

The Instruction SIS team is scheduling initial stakeholder interviews to gather information about existing processes and get opinions on areas for improvement. These interviews will provide crucial insights and enable the team to refine its understanding of the processes performed at the college.

A website specifically designed for ACC’s Instructional faculty and staff is under development. It will be the source of project information and a means for all Instructional faculty and staff to give feedback and ask questions. 

For more information regarding the progress of the Instruction SIS team, questions about the instruction component of Workday SIS, or training suggestions, contact [email protected].

For specific questions and inquiries concerning faculty engagement, contact:

Next Steps

Based on input from the May 8-17 Planning Sessions, Workday representatives prepared a detailed plan for ACC that outlines the processes to be configured and related timelines. This plan was received earlier this month and core teams are currently reviewing it for accuracy.  

The next major project milestone is tentatively scheduled for August when Workday representatives will return to finalize the playbooks — collections of objectives and processes developed during the Planning Sessions — and begin working with ACC on initial Workday configurations. The core teams are currently in training to learn the process of configuring Workday Student.

A collegewide SIS Modernization Project website will be launched soon. The college is appreciative of the ACC community’s participation in the project and looks forward to even more involvement in the next phase.