Datacom helping Southern Cross get more out of their Workday

• Datacom has provided expert support to help Southern Cross maximise its use of the Workday platform - a cloud-based software platform that helps organisations manage their people and finances.

• The collaboration has improved how data processes resulting in more accuracy and fewer queries to the team.

• Freed-up capacity is enabling the team to explore strategic Workday functions like talent retention and succession planning. 

Southern Cross Health Insurance is a household name in Aotearoa providing health insurance for more than 940,000 members.

Southern Cross saw the value of Workday early and has been using the platform for the past seven years to help manage its large workforce. Naturally, the organisation has changed a lot since 2018 and the team knew that they could be doing more with the platform.

“We love Workday and knew we could be getting a lot more value out of the platform to support our people,” says Jessica Hayes, People Operations Lead at Southern Cross.

“It’s a small team – just three of us – so we were looking for an external support partner to add to our Workday support model. It was important to us that we had support available for complex troubleshooting, developing our skills and expanding our capability in-house.”

Workday is an AI-powered platform for managing people and finances, seamlessly connecting payroll and HR. More than 10,000 customers around the world rely on Workday, including around 650 clients in Australia and New Zealand. Globally, the Workday customer community represents over 60 million workers.

Workday’s cloud-based suite of applications has a wide range of features. It’s easy to get started with Workday, which can be a fantastic tool for streamlining HR and finances at any organisation. But learning how to get the maximum value out of the platform’s many capabilities is trickier, particularly as an organisation grows and evolves. 

Which is where Datacom often steps in with support for local organisations – Datacom is a Workday partner and can provide Workday implementation, integration, training and on-call support to help companies get more out of the platform and take advantage of more of its functionality.

With a long-standing partnership already in place, Datacom was an ideal fit to provide external consultancy services for Southern Cross. After starting with a trial in early 2024, Datacom now provides on-call Workday support.

“Having that escalation point is really valuable,” says Chanelle Christiansen, People Systems Lead at Southern Cross. “We’ve built up a great relationship where we can talk to them about what we want and Datacom can give us examples of how they’ve solved the issue for other companies.”

Datacom has supported Southern Cross through reviews of its processes and documentation, providing suggestions for improvements to Workday and scoping out new challenges.

“If we’ve got a high-level problem with complex requirements, we can escalate to Datacom and they will outline what is possible, so we can figure out the next steps,” Christiansen explains. “If we were having to do this on our own, we would be spending hours on the Workday community boards, so it’s really helpful having experts to advise us. They give us suggestions and we can take them back to the business and work out how to proceed.

Datacom’s GM Core Business Solutions Ross Fodie says his team works alongside their customers to ensure Workday delivers real, measurable value.

“Whether it’s streamlining operations, improving data accuracy, or enabling strategic workforce planning, our goal is to help organisations turn Workday into a true engine for transformation.”

“Workday is a powerful platform, but unlocking its full potential takes more than just implementation – it requires deep expertise, ongoing optimisation and a partner who understands the evolving needs of your business. 

“We’ve done a huge amount to make it easier and simpler, which has saved time and led to fewer errors and queries,” according to Christiansen. “Our accuracy is a lot higher than 18 months ago and our leaders are really starting to see the value of the insights – which was previously more ‘behind the scenes’.”

The other bonus is that Datacom provides a level of key personnel insurance for the organisation. Instead of all the system knowledge being held internally, there’s now an off-site backup that can help Southern Cross maintain operations in the event of business disruption.

“This has alleviated key person dependencies, which is vital for our business continuity plan,” says Hayes.

"The Datacom Workday support team have become an integral part of our Workday support model ... Datacom provides an added layer of security to our functioning of Workday," says Hayes.

"We're impressed by the calibre of our consultants and the way they focus on upskilling our people to ensure there is constant development happening." 

Because it’s saved time and streamlined processes, the work with Datacom has freed up capacity within the Southern Cross team. That’s giving them extra time to consider how to make even better use of Workday, including Workday Journeys and Skills Cloud, functions that they’re keen to utilise in future.

As the continuing relationship with Datacom develops, Christiansen would also like to explore more of Workday’s AI capabilities.

“I’d like to see us leverage all this accurate data we’re collecting to help us make data-informed decisions. As we keep building on our foundation and implementing more functions, more parts of the organisation will notice the real value add.”