Saint Luke’s journey to Workday success with Smart Test
The goals
The results
2409%
80%
3000+
“The capability of Smart to systematically assess the key workers and roles for any security alterations is something we lacked the capacity to do previously. This has been crucial in instilling complete confidence that changes don't affect the security or integrity of our configuration.”
About Saint Luke’s Health System
Saint Luke’s is a non-profit health system committed to providing the highest level of excellence in health care and health related services. With 14 hospitals and campuses and more than 200 primary care and specialty offices treating across Missouri and Kansas, Saint Luke’s has been recognised by U.S. News & World Report as one of the top hospitals in the nation. For more than 135 years, Saint Luke’s has been dedicated to enhancing the physical, mental, and spiritual health of the diverse communities served.
A solution for growth: Saint Luke’s invests in Workday
Saint Luke’s made a strategic investment in Workday to elevate employee and patient care across its network. Facing the retirement of their existing finance solution and disconnected legacy systems in HR, recruiting and payroll, they prioritised a Financials-first approach to align with the new financial year timeline.
With outdated HCM, payroll, and recruiting systems, Saint Luke’s aimed to swiftly expand their Workday presence. However, recognising the limitations of manual testing in sustaining this growth, they sought a more efficient solution.
Thanks to Workday’s rapid deployment and user-friendly interface, Saint Luke’s successfully transitioned on schedule, achieving widespread user adoption. While eager to scale their Workday configuration to meet evolving business needs, manual testing proved unsustainable amidst increased demands. Acknowledging this challenge, Saint Luke’s HRIS team and business leaders embraced automation as the key to their future success.
Limited resources heightened testing demands at Saint Luke’s. With insufficient time for manual testing, they prioritised major configuration changes and bi-annual updates. During the five-week update testing phase a team of around 40 individuals, including SMEs and senior stakeholders, was mobilised. However, training inexperienced business partners consumed valuable time, leaving little room to explore new features.
Recognising the importance of compliance and workforce optimisation, Saint Luke’s sought a change to fully leverage Workday’s potential.
Testing setbacks prompt change
Initially hesitant due to budget constraints, Saint Luke’s IT leadership contemplated integrating Kainos Smart Test into their HRIS team’s toolkit. However, a pivotal moment arose during a bi-annual release when major testing challenges surfaced.
Shelly Churchill, Project Manager at Saint Luke’s recounted, “We overlooked certain changes introduced by Workday, resulting in significant impacts on our financial operations. This spurred us to explore Kainos Smart and leverage its automated testing capabilities to prevent such surprises in the future.”
Consequently, Saint Luke’s embarked on a quest for an automated testing solution to proactively assess their security setup, streamline manual testing efforts, enhance test coverage, and enable SMEs to focus on strategic initiatives. With leadership backing and allocated budgets, they acquired Smart Test for HCM, Finance, Security, and Recruiting just in time for the upcoming feature release.
The immediate impact of Smart Test was palpable at Saint Luke’s. During their initial major update using the tool, testing time was slashed by three weeks, while test coverage soared, and the need for manual testers decreased by 80%.
Leadership prioritises strategic enhancements
With Smart Test now handling nearly all testing during feature releases, functional teams can focus on core tasks without disruption, reducing the number of testers involved in update testing from 40 to just eight. Furthermore, Smart Test conducts tests across their tenant on a weekly basis, ensuring the integrity of business processes and instilling confidence in the security of their configuration.
Previously lacking capacity to test security changes, Smart Test now executes 2,409 security tests weekly, substantially mitigating risk and minimising manual intervention.
Previously, HRIS, IT, and finance teams spent hundreds of hours preparing for tests. With Smart Test, these departments now allocate their time to adopting new Workday features rather than testing them, maximising Workday’s value for the organisation. SMEs and business leaders are freed from testing responsibilities, enabling them to invest time in strategic initiatives, enhancing business operations, improving employee experience, and delivering better patient services.
A partnership poised for ongoing success
Smart Test has empowered the HRIS team, enhancing their confidence and control over Workday configuration, security and resources. Impressed by Kainos’ exemplary customer service, the team eagerly anticipates expanding testing capabilities beyond updates.
With Smart Test implementation underway for Payroll and plans to extend into Integrations testing, Saint Luke’s is on track to leverage will the full platform experience. Both parties are excited about the tool’s potential for future projects and modules, foreseeing even greater reductions in manual testing hours ahead.