Cushman & Wakefield gain Workday confidence with Kainos & Smart Test
Project Requirements
- Replace legacy ERP with Workday due to cloud migration
- Implement a reliable, high-quality testing solution designed specifically for Workday
- Reduce reliance on manual testing to save time, effort, and increase accuracy
Project Results
- Team of 15 testers reduced by 80%
- 159,796 tests ran annually saving 11,958 hours
- More reliable testing results and greater peace of mind, particularly with payroll calculations
About Cushman & Wakefield
Cushman & Wakefield is a global commercial real estate services company headquartered in Chicago, Illinois. With revenues of $7.8 billion in 2020, the company is among the world's largest commercial real estate services firms. Founded in 1917 in New York, it employs 53,000 staff in 400 offices across 60 countries.
Migrating to Workday calls for greater testing assurance
As part of its digital transformation strategy, Cushman & Wakefield planned to migrate its applications to a cloud environment, selecting Workday to replace the company’s previous, non-cloud ready ERP.
Going live with Workday HCM in 2015, the team soon added other modules, including Finance and Learning, and in 2020, launched Payroll.
Having previously relied on various testing tools not designed specifically for ERPs, the team researched compatible solutions before deploying Workday to mitigate the chance of repeating the costly, labour-intensive processes that had proven burdensome and inaccurate in the past.
Mark Lababiede, Director of Enterprise Solutions at Cushman & Wakefield, oversaw the Workday implementation and explains: “When it comes to testing tools, you need a solution you can rely on. Take Payroll, for example. The calculations for salaries, bonuses and one-time payments must be accurate, especially with around 60,000 employees. We needed a high-quality tool that guaranteed the numbers and gave us confidence in our testing process.”
Selecting Smart Test proves an easy decision
Confident they’d require a robust and scalable testing solution to ensure Workday operated smoothly, the company selected Smart Test based on solid reviews, the support and expertise Kainos offered, and Workday’s recommendation.
“Kainos’ Smart Test was the obvious choice,” Mark said. “Throughout our research, Kainos came top of the list every time. It’s the official testing tool that Workday uses itself—you can’t get a better recommendation than that,” Mark explains.
A strong partnership from the start with Kainos and Smart Test
Kainos worked closely with Mark’s team during the Workday implementation to set up the platform and design a testing strategy, building initial test cases as required and providing bespoke training for multiple teams worldwide. Now, Mark’s team confidently uses Smart Test across all Workday modules of HCM, Learning, Payroll, Finance and Security.
Glad that his team engaged Kainos from day one, Mark confirms: “If you’re deploying Workday, it’s a good idea to adopt Smart Test right from the get-go. Kainos will work with you step-by-step to build test packages and walk you through the process from the beginning, saving you the time and hassle of bringing Smart Test on board after you’ve configured your tenant and added some custom coding.”
“And since Cushman & Wakefield has a highly complex Workday configuration with around 600 custom integrations, during big projects, we use a combination of Smart Test and manual testing during development, system integration testing (SIT), user acceptance testing (UAT) and production—so we really do rely on Smart Test for business-as-usual tasks and monthly testing, but it delivers value during end-to-end testing and big projects.”
Smart Test offers Payroll peace of mind
Smart Test has given Mark’s team confidence in Cushman & Wakefield’s Payroll numbers. The tool confirms all remuneration calculations and ensures that any new functionality or workflow changes have not adversely impacted the system. Smart Test also checks any manual testing the team has carried out along the way, giving them an extra layer of assurance.
“With so much custom code, it’s important that we thoroughly test Workday whenever we make a release,” Mark explains. “Smart Test ensures our numbers tie up, our Payroll calculations are accurate, and our hiring and termination processes are in sync. With Smart Test, we have that invaluable peace of mind that everything is working as intended.”
Faster, more accurate and cost-effective testing
Smart Test has enabled Cushman & Wakefield to cut down on manual testing, saving time and freeing up staff. Previously, the company would require 10 to 15 testers per big project to perform test cases, record results and then report on the results.
As Smart Test now automates many of those labour-intensive tasks, the company only needs a testing team of just four or five people—significantly reducing Cushman & Wakefield’s costs associated with testing.
Mark’s team has been particularly impressed with Smart Test’s comprehensiveness and how specific features help support his team with tasks.
As he explains: “I was surprised to discover that Smart Test can compare result files from two different environments and show the variations between them. I wasn’t expecting this feature. It’s very helpful and saves my team time and manual effort. But what we really value about Smart Test is the sheer volume and speed of testing. With automation, we can test much more than we could before and much faster.”
Looking to the future
Looking ahead, Cushman & Wakefield plans to add more modules to its Workday configuration, such as Benefits, and continues to work with Kainos to create efficiencies and develop new functionality. Mark is also delighted with the support and access to expertise Kainos provides.
“The Kainos team is so helpful, whether it’s building additional features or going through the contract renewal or even doing training sessions. Kainos always makes the process go smoothly, better than any other vendor I’ve worked with,” Mark offers.
“For new projects, where we used to do a hundred percent manual testing in the beginning, and now, whenever we are ready to do end-to-end and add Smart Test in the mix, we don't need as many testers to perform those test cases and record the results or report on the results. The sheer volume and speed at which we can test helps us to achieve our goals and continue to meet project deadlines. Kainos and Smart Test gives you all that,” he concludes.