Outlining Workday tenant access for individual Workday users, building internal and external support teams after Go-Live, and keeping up with new releases and upgrades… OH MY!
Read on to learn about what a Workday tenant is, how Workday tenant access works, and how our Workday consultants can help you get the most out of your Workday investment and save you some valuable time and money in your business process.
What is a Workday Tenant?
A Workday tenant is any application within the Workday system that requires its own secure cloud-based environment to function correctly. All Workday customers have tenant access which their own tenants that only they can access with a protected IP address.
Workday also offers a multi-tenant functionality that isolates each user’s tenant within their core data, but integrates it within the same operating system as other users. With this multi-tenancy Workday tenant access feature, users can manage their user experience more effectively and take advantage of the full functionality of their Workday solution through a single application server.
And, with this isolated (but still integrated) Workday tenant access, companies can save money in the long run by consolidating necessary IT resources without compromising the security of each user’s tenant.
Main Types of Workday Tenants
When it comes to managing your Workday tenants, understanding the main differences between each type of tenant is crucial to your success…
1) Production Tenant
Production tenants are a company’s real production system and the tenant environment in which your organization’s active data is managed and stored. Only users with authorized permissions can access the data located in a production tenant.
Because a production tenant houses the majority of a company’s data, including confidential employee information and other critical business information, it’s important that these production tenants are secure and limit access to users with defined authorization.
2) Sandbox Tenant
A Workday sandbox tenant is designed to help administrators and consultants in any Workday environment develop and test new features in your product environment, customizations, and configurations before implementing them into the main production tenant.
Data located in the Workday sandbox tenant is typically a copy of the data in the actual production tenant. By making copies of critical data to use in the sandbox tenant, users can not only test new functions for their Workday tenants, but they can also maintain data integrity for the data already in production and keep their main tenants operating smoothly in the process. It’s important to note that sandbox tenants aren’t allowed to be used as implementation or learning tenants.
3) Training Tenant
A training tenant provides a secure space for new users to learn how to navigate their Workday environment and use new features within the system.
Training tenants also use copied data from the production environment to maintain data integrity and security, regardless of where or how the data is being used in the training environment.
Training tenants offer a simplified way for your Workday support team to ensure new and existing users get the proper training for new modules, applications, integrations, or a new Workday system altogether.
4) Sandbox Preview Tenant
A preview tenant is a copy of the production tenant, but it also includes added functionality that will be available in upcoming Workday releases.
The purpose of a sandbox preview tenant is to help Workday users understand both their pre-existing Workday system and additional functionality that will be included in future releases to ensure all users are on the same page and their Workday solution is operating as optimally as possible.
This type of tenant will also align with your Go-Live timeline, and it will remain functional after your initial implementation to provide a test environment to help your team keep up with new Workday releases and application upgrades.
Key Considerations for Supporting Your Workday Tenants
After your Workday tenants are created and assigned to individuals, and you’ve reached your Go-Live date, the search for ongoing support teams and activities becomes one of the priorities at the top of your list.
Here are a few things to consider when choosing support solutions for your Workday users…
Build an ongoing support model.
From handling all Workday support needs with internal team members to utilizing ad-hoc or contract-based support from functional Workday consultants (like the ones at Surety Systems), teaming up with a Workday partner for recurring support, or anything in between, finding the right support model to meet your needs is critical to your success.
Outline support team responsibilities.
After you’ve decided on a support model, you need to assign specific roles to team members and ensure everyone involved understands their responsibilities.
Whether your team is entirely made up of internal employees or you’re leveraging the support of external parties, it’s essential to ensure roles and responsibilities are well-defined to keep everyone on the same page.
Effective tenant management processes.
Navigating Workday tenant management processes such as tenant assessments, UAT support, release impact analysis, configuration support, data load, security management, and more can get a little complicated without clearly defined activities or the right resources to do the job.
Ensuring your tenant management activities are completed as effectively and efficiently as possible can make or break the functionality of your Workday software.
Maintain governance.
Oversight and governance of your Workday tenant environment are crucial in ensuring all individual and group requests are managed and fulfilled properly within the system.
Building a team that can handle demand management, strategic planning, oversight, and risk management activities and establishing a set process for end users to request and track changes in their Workday software can improve user adoption and enhance satisfaction across the board.
How Can We Help?
Whether you need help aligning your implementation timelines with creating a functional Workday tenant, outlining Workday tenant access for each individual in your organization, accessing online tutorial videos for new Workday tenant functionality, or anything else Workday-related, Surety Systems is here to help.
Your company. Your priorities. Our expertise. That’s the name of the game at Surety.
Getting Started with Us
Our team of senior-level Workday consultants has the technical skills, functional expertise, and real-world experience needed to help you address tenant access inquiries and lead you to success, regardless of the complexity of your Workday tenants or the scale of your Workday project.
Next Steps
Interested in learning more about our Workday consulting services? Ready to get started on a project with one of our Workday experts?
Contact us today!