About the client
Our client is a leading loyalty provider designing and managing programmes for major global brands. With over 600 employees, they serve tens of millions of members across global markets.
To support their continued growth, the client selected Workday to modernise their people operations, implementing HCM, Talent, and Payroll for a workforce of over 750, with plans to grow by more than 50%.
The challenge
As the client approached go-live for its Workday implementation, their team identified the need for additional project management capacity. With their internal team focused on business-as-usual responsibilities, critical payroll deadlines on the horizon, and no room to extend the timeline, they recognised that bringing in specialist support would maintain momentum and keep the programme on track.
The client engaged Change Associates to provide client-side project management expertise during the final stages of implementation.
The approach:
Phase 1: Change Associates – Client-Side Project Management
Change Associates joined the programme to provide focused client-side project management support. Working alongside the client’s internal team and the Workday implementation partner, we conducted an implementation review, prioritised remaining activities, and co-developed the path to go-live.
Within just four weeks, the programme was stabilised and the client went live with Workday and processed payroll on schedule.
Phase 2: Workday Enhancement Services by Preos
As the client moved beyond go-live, Preos, Change Associates’ sister company, became its ongoing Workday support partner. Working as part of the same group ensured continuity and institutional knowledge was retained, allowing immediate focus on optimisation.
Workday Enhancement Services (WES) by Preos combines expert issue resolution with continuous system enhancements. Each client works with a dedicated, highly experienced Workday consultant who develops deep knowledge of the organisational goals, tenant, and team. This model delivers faster resolutions, more relevant enhancements, and strategic input that extends beyond traditional support. For the client, WES has supported over 200 requests, including:
- Onboarding and payroll workflow optimisations
- Outlook integration configurations
- Custom report building
- Salary review processes
- Complex configuration updates
Our approach focuses on enabling the client’s internal team through documentation, guided problem-solving, and knowledge transfer. Resolutions include walkthroughs and validation to build internal capability over time.
Preparing for Future Releases
To prepare for future Workday releases and improve operational efficiency, the WES team implemented 21 Change Job Templates ahead of Workday’s 2026 R1 release, when this functionality will become mandatory.
These templates bring structure and consistency to job changes, reduce manual input, and support the future rollout of manager self-service. This enables managers to take ownership of specific tasks, improve user experience, and reduce administrative overhead for HR teams.
Impact
• Project stabilised and a successful go-live delivered in 4 weeks with no payroll disruption.
• Over 200 support requests resolved.
• Embedded roadmap planning aligned to business growth.
• Proactive implementation of new Workday functionality ahead of mandatory releases.
• Continuous capability building through knowledge transfer.
• Integration support for a newly acquired business, including employee data migration into Workday.
• Security group review, identifying and rectifying problematic assignments that could pose security risks.
True partnership
This experience demonstrates the value of integrated support across the full Workday Journey. Change Associates provided the client-side project management capacity needed during implementation, while Preos has delivered the ongoing expertise to continuously optimise and get more value from Workday. As the client continues to scale globally, its Workday foundation supports its growth with a partner who has been with them from implementation through long-term enhancement.
