Driving success through hybrid support
Quality Technology Services (QTS) is known for powering mission-critical environments, but behind the scenes the data center provider is just as intentional about optimizing its own systems. Recognizing the power of a hybrid support model, QTS signed up to Workday Success Plans (WSP) while maintaining services from its Application Managed Services (AMS) partner. As Melinda Ragan, senior Workday manager, puts it, “WSP acts as a strategic thought partner for us, guiding us on next steps to achieve our goals using Workday. WSP helps us to discover and define our path forward, including features to adopt and configurations to make. We complement this with support from our AMS partner who provides the hands-on execution.”
If you know what you want and what you’re doing, you’re going to AMS. But if you have something you want to be better but aren’t sure how it would look, that’s when you should go the WSP route.
Senior Workday Manager
Empowering functional leads to pave their own path
In particular, WSP provides the QTS team with direct access to personalized one-to-one, in-tenant guidance on configuration and adoption using Ask-an-Expert. “Ask-an-Expert empowers our functional leads to get expert guidance directly from Workday, gain knowledge and generate new ideas within their functional area. Once they have a clear understanding of how to achieve their functional goal using Workday, we engage our AMS partner to execute the change itself,” says Ragan. The result? Empowered functional leaders and visible progress toward QTS’s business goals.
One standout example came from the accounts payable (AP) team.
As QTS continued to grow, so did its invoice volume. The AP team was overwhelmed by the sheer number of incoming invoices, creating bottlenecks and making it difficult to maintain accuracy and turnaround time. A quick, clear understanding of Workday optical character recognition (OCR) capabilities was critical to get automation efforts underway.
QTS turned to Ask-an-Expert to request a demo of Workday OCR functionality. Within days, a hands-on demonstration showed how OCR could streamline invoice processing. The speed, clarity, and specificity of the guidance gave the AP team—and key stakeholders, such as the controller—confidence in the path forward.
As Ragan explains, “We said to our AP leader, ‘Hey this is an area where you’re struggling; we’re gonna get some quick answers direct from the source—Workday—to help solve the challenge.’ That was via Ask-an-Expert, and they were super impressed.”
The Ask-an-Expert session not only solved an immediate business challenge but also laid the groundwork for long-term efficiency. By validating the approach up front, WSP helped QTS accelerate planning and prepare its AMS partner for seamless execution. The collaboration between Workday and AMS ensured that once the project moved into execution, it did so quickly, cleanly, and with full alignment.
Transforming the learning experience for end users
The QTS team was on a mission to refresh and revitalize the Workday Learning experience for its end users. As part of its WSP subscription, the team signed up for a Workday Learning Functional Review; an in-depth tenant assessment designed to identify opportunities to optimize the configuration of its Workday Learning instance, boost operational efficiency, and improve the end-user experience. The review provided a clear path forward—offering 39 actionable recommendations to improve reporting, enhance user experience, and make quick fixes that would significantly improve daily operations. Of these recommendations, 40% are already complete and 30% are in progress.
Clay Boatman, Workday manager, reflects, “I went into it with a bit of skepticism, but I was pleasantly surprised. The Functional Review ripped Workday Learning down to the studs . . . and provided guidance on what we can improve, fix, and do differently.”
One of the most immediate wins came from rethinking how compliance training completions were tracked. Tracking annual compliance training was a highly manual, hours-long process of running and scrubbing reports, making it difficult to identify and follow up with noncompliant individuals. The Functional Review identified the need for a compliance dashboard, providing an immediate overview of training status and completion. Now QTS can quickly see completion percentages, identify outstanding individuals, and confidently report accurate data.
That same review also revealed opportunities to redesign the outdated Workday Learning home page—refreshing content and simplifying navigation—an improvement that will improve the user experience for more than 1,800 end users.
As Boatman adds, “The Functional Review validated what we believed to be true—that Workday can do all the things that we need it to do and that we want it to do.”
The Functional Review validated what we believed to be true, which was that Workday can do all the things that we need it to do and that we want it to do.
Workday Manager
Turning 3 billion formulas into one clear vision
The QTS finance team also faced a massive challenge—3 billion formulas bogged down its Workday Adaptive Planning performance. Through a Functional Review of its Workday Adaptive Planning instance, consultants uncovered a more efficient linking strategy that cut formulas to 1.2 billion, helping to improve system speed, accuracy, and peace of mind. The Functional Review consultant also recommended a follow-up Ask-an-Expert session for additional support.
“The Functional Review helped bring to light some areas for improvement that we maybe weren’t aware of, if we had a particular setup that was not best practice, or if we had certain inefficiencies in our processes,” says Boatman.
But improving system performance was only part of the story. As QTS continued to optimize Workday Adaptive Planning, the company also wanted to make sure its people could keep pace with the technology.
When three new team members joined, the team turned to the Workday Adaptive Planning Administrator Training Kit through WSP to help with onboarding. The new hires needed to quickly learn the product and confidently manage Workday Adaptive Planning tasks. Utilizing the training kit as a guide, the team developed a series of 3- to 5-minute microlearning videos tailored to its environment.
The results were immediate. New team members were able to onboard faster, retain more, and operate independently—boosting self-sufficiency across the finance team.
QTS now plans to use these videos for all new hires to help ensure consistent onboarding, reduced training time, and a stronger foundation for continuous learning.
Through WSP and AMS, QTS has transformed its approach to optimization, using features such as Functional Reviews, Ask-an-Expert, and the Workday Adaptive Planning Administrator Training Kit to proactively pursue ongoing opportunities for growth.
Every engagement—from simplifying financial planning systems to reimagining learning experiences for end users—has strengthened the team’s confidence and expanded team members’ Workday skillsets.
That transparency and momentum extends beyond QTS’s Workday team. “We heard the feedback that we’ve gotten from end users, and we want to make sure that we are telling them that we do hear them,” says Krissti Turpeau, senior manager of Learning and Development. “We’re not leaving things status quo—we want to show that we’re making improvements to the system.”
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