Wellstar Health System builds a future-ready HR, finance and supply chain platform

What was the challenge?

“Our team had been managing several important back-office processes, like requisitioning and onboarding, inefficiently. Often, this meant disjointed coordination and slower employee processes, including new hires and job changes.

With disparate systems involved, many groups at the organization were often unaware of each other's needs, leading users to come up with workarounds to complete tasks.

In addition, manual processes complicated the delivery of goods and supplies, causing tracking issues between vendors and the distribution system. Many end users experienced complicated ordering processes, and buyers had to manually issue purchase orders.”

Describe the solution delivered by the PwC community of solvers.

“With PwC's help, we created a streamlined process framework and cloud platform covering HCM, payroll, finance and supply chain. 

To make sure we addressed real pain points, we engaged end users—employees, system managers and others— throughout the project to help shape design. For instance, the new onboarding journey incorporated feedback from the workforce, physician groups and HCM shared services, replacing outdated paper methods with effective Workday processes. 

We also developed a supply chain management system that helped simplify supplier searches and requisition creation for faster delivery. A real-time integration with Tecsys further helped improve warehouse management and supplier inventory.”

How does the solution blend the strengths of technology and people?

"From the very beginning, we focused on enhancing the team member experience. We took a holistic approach centered on employee needs. For example, we knew teams often got stuck in supply chain sourcing and scheduling, so we automated those processes to reduce the manual work for buyers while enhancing reporting. These improvements helped provide overall spending information across the organization.

Focusing on the user experience from the start also allowed us to identify potential system limitations early on. Within Workday, we explored possible routes to help design useful system for users, and, in the end, we created an easier and more effective experience for Wellstar clinicians and team members.”

Where or how did innovation and unexpected ways of thinking come into play?

“Workday Extend allowed us to create custom applications and enhancements that meet specific needs. For example, PwC helped build Workday Extend solutions that track employee locations at the site level and designed approval routing based on the hierarchy at a cost center.

By allowing team members to approve certain dollar amounts, we streamlined the process and helped reduce unnecessary approvals. By balancing the end-user experience along with business needs, the platform turned out to be more effective and offered more solutions than we expected.”