WASHINGTON - Howard University has signed a contract with Workday to transform the institution’s financial administration system. The project scope will encompass financial data, business processes, and systems integration and is part of Howard’s new five-year strategic plan, “Howard Forward 2024,” aligning with the Improve Efficiency and Effectiveness pillar.

“This transformation is expected to enable Howard University to more effectively and efficiently achieve its strategic goals by leveraging the latest technology and creating a unified financial and business experience for the campus community,” said Associate Vice President and CIO Jonathan Piersol. “The new system is leaps and bounds better than what we are replacing.”

After beginning the initiative in 2019, the Enterprise Technology Services group assembled a cross-functional team to engage the campus community and Howard University stakeholders in a collaborative discovery process, in pursuit of a cloud-based system. Workday was deemed the best provider after a comprehensive request-for-proposal process. The project kicked off June 1, 2020.

The new system will replace PeopleSoft and integrates a range of financial administrative functions across the university, including financial planning for university, departmental budgeting, greater integration between payroll and human resources activities, payroll, procurement, and distribution of grant funding.

Piersol pointed to the Workday system as a way to streamline and improve grant management, a key process for Howard University, one of the nation’s leading comprehensive research-oriented universities. 

Coupled with its mission to provide an educational experience of exceptional quality and the commitment to produce distinguished global leaders, Howard University is embarking on a forward trajectory that positions the institution as a model of excellence in academics and operations.

“Howard Forward 2024 articulates attainable aspirations for a more sustainable future and outlines five over-arching priorities that we are uniquely positioned to address,” said Piersol.

Workday, Inc. is a leader in enterprise cloud applications for finance and human resources, today announced continued momentum with higher education and government organizations with new customers selecting and deploying Workday, including County of Maui, County of Riverside, Erie Community College, Georgia Tech, Hamline University, State of Colorado, State of Oregon, the University of Pennsylvania, and the University of Waterloo.

For more information on Howard Forward, including recent news and an overview of the five strategic pillars, visit https://www2.howard.edu/howard-forward.  

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About Howard University

Founded in 1867, Howard University is a private, research university that is comprised of 13 schools and colleges. Students pursue studies in more than 120 areas leading to undergraduate, graduate and professional degrees. The University operates with a commitment to Excellence in Truth and Service and has produced one Schwarzman Scholar, three Marshall Scholars, four Rhodes Scholars, 11 Truman Scholars, 25 Pickering Fellows and more than 165 Fulbright recipients. Howard also produces more on-campus African-American Ph.D. recipients than any other university in the United States. For more information on Howard University, visit www.howard.edu.