Frequently Asked Questions

Sightline is a multi-year program across Johns Hopkins University and Johns Hopkins Health System. Sightline aims to modernize business processes and introduce advanced technology solutions that support better ways of working across key mission-supporting functions such as human resources, finance, procurement/supply chain, and sponsored projects. Workday, the chosen technology platform, streamlines the user experience. Read this overview to learn more about how and why these changes are being implemented. 

• Empower and engage people 

• Prioritize mission-critical needs 

• Provide a modern and intuitive user experience 

• Embrace culture of change 

• Strive for simplicity 

• Drive standardization 

• Receive trusted, integrated data and analytics more easily 

• Elevate accountability, service quality, and compliance

Sightline directly aligns with Johns Hopkins Health System strategic goals, including: 

• Enhancing employee experience through simplifying processes and promoting professional growth (Organizational Culture and Workforce Development) 
• Streamlining data access and more efficient data management (Innovation & Discovery Acceleration)  
• Promoting operational efficiency by leveraging Workday to execute and update processes (Operational & Financial Optimization)  

Sightline directly aligns with Johns Hopkins University strategic goals, including: 

• Providing a cohesive digital environment in Workday (Goal 2: Removing barriers to collaboration) 
• Enhancing infrastructure that supports work by faculty and staff to help retain top talent (Goal 4: Advance faculty resources) 
• Enabling the focus on core missions by simplifying business processes and reducing administrative burden (Goal 7: Become the national employer of choice) 

External support for SAP is scheduled to end in December 2027, and technology has evolved significantly since SAP was implemented in 2007. A new technology platform is needed to take full advantage of the considerable updates to business-support solutions. 

Updating business processes is a necessary step with modern cloud-based technologies. Technologies like Workday depend on consistency and simplicity to deliver their full potential in support of business operations. These updates will standardize workflows, enhance user experience, improve data quality and reporting capabilities, and promote greater transparency across Johns Hopkins administrative areas and the mission critical programs they support.  

All Sightline transformations, whether related to process changes, Workday technology, or other optimization opportunities will be closely aligned with other JHHS and JHU initiatives within the HR, Finance, Supply Chain/Procurement, and Sponsored Projects functions.

Workday will provide opportunities for a better user experience, streamlined and intuitive processes, automation, and improved data management and governance. 

Across JHU and JHHS, the areas of HR, finance, supply chain, and sponsored research will be impacted by Workday.

Sightline has a well-resourced team to support communications, engagement and readiness, and training. The team will execute a comprehensive change management plan that includes communication at key milestones throughout the program, employee engagement during each phase, robust end-user training in Workday, and the establishment of readiness communities. 

View the Sightline leadership team, comprised of leaders and subject matter experts from across Johns Hopkins. 

Sightline is led by the following executive sponsors: Laurent Heller (Executive VP for Finance & Administration, JHU), Kevin Sowers (President, Johns Hopkins Health System & Executive VP, Johns Hopkins Medicine), and Rich Mendola (VP & Chief Information Officer). The Sightline Steering Committee is comprised of leaders from across Johns Hopkins University and Johns Hopkins Health System. Sightline also collaborates with several advisory groups to the program. Communications and Engagement Advisors, Faculty Advisors, Training Advisors, Risk Management Advisors, and Nursing Advisors are providing guidance to Sightline teams.

• Reach out to the Sightline team with specific questions: [email protected]  

• Review open positions and consider joining the Sightline team  

• Stay in touch by registering for email updates. Sightline will share opportunities to participate in engagement sessions, the readiness communities, and training opportunities as they arise  

• The Sightline team will reach out to various staff and faculty for engagement opportunities throughout the program 

The Sightline program will promote a culture of continuous improvement and innovation through regular communication, readiness communities, and opportunities for employee engagement and feedback. Sightline aims to improve the experience of users across the enterprise, prioritize mission-critical needs, drive standardization, and elevate accountability, service quality, and compliance, aligning with the values of Johns Hopkins University and Johns Hopkins Health System. By involving employees throughout program phases and aiming to enhance their experience, the goal is to maintain high morale and engagement.  

Sightline is designed to enhance the experience of Johns Hopkins administrative teams by reducing time spent on manual, outdated processes, allowing staff to fully utilize their knowledge and skills.  Sightline also aims to enable employees to focus on strategic work, professional growth, and innovation. Sightline’s guiding principles reinforce this commitment to investing in people and creating a more agile and effective administrative environment. 

While implementing a modern technology platform like Workday involves IT expertise, Sightline is much broader than an IT project. While IT@JH plays a critical role in configuring Workday and integrating it with existing systems, functional experts are reimagining and streamlining administrative processes across HR, Sponsored Projects, Finance, and Supply Chain to fully leverage Workday’s capabilities. Sightline is led by executive sponsors from both Johns Hopkins University and Johns Hopkins Health System, with a team of experienced leaders from core administrative functions with many years of experience in those roles at Johns Hopkins. 

Workday will bring improvements to business activities that faculty and their teams interact with across finance, HR, supply chain, and sponsored projects activities. Examples include pulling reports for grants, purchasing lab equipment, hiring staff, and receiving travel and other cost reimbursements. Improvements will become clearer as the program works through business process design and Workday implementation over the next two years. Sightline will frequently communicate what is changing and training will be available in early 2027 to support all Workday users. 

The Design and Build phase will involve the Sightline team working together with subject matter experts (SMEs) from the university and health system to ensure comprehensive input and validation on designs for future Johns Hopkins business processes and Workday configuration.

Here is the proposed Sightline timeline:   

• September 2023-August 2024: Planning & Readiness 

• September 2024-March 2025: Prepare  

• April 2025-March 2026: Design & Build 

• April 2026-March 2027: Test & Educate 

• April 2027-June 2027: Train & Deploy  

• July 2027: Go Live 

• July 2027+: Production Support 
   

Review a detailed breakdown of these program phases.

Workday is anticipated to go live in the second half of 2027.

The Prepare phase laid the foundation for the Sightline program including reviewing current state processes, meeting with employees and subject matter experts across the organization to continue understanding pain points and opportunities, socializing the goals of the program with stakeholders, and initiating data clean up. The Design and Build phase will incorporate the Prepare phase work into the development of future business processes and the configuration of Workday for Hopkins. 

Workday training for end users will begin approximately three to six months prior to the implementation date, depending on the user’s role. However, other learning opportunities around Workday and key process changes will be shared throughout the program to ensure varying users and stakeholders understand the changes and benefits of Sightline before training is implemented.

Participants will be provided with support during the implementation period and will receive ongoing resources and assistance from the Sightline team through the period of stabilization. More details will be provided as Sightline approaches the last implementation phases prior to go-live.

Workday training and resources will be provided for an extended period of time after go-live.

• Benefits 
• Compensation 
• Contingent Workforce 
• Employee Data 
• Labor Relations 
• Learning 
• Organizational Relationships 
• Performance Management 
• Reporting and Analytics 
• Talent Acquisition and Onboarding 
• Timekeeping
• Unified Engagement Layer 
• Workforce Planning 

HR leaders who evaluated the Workday demonstrations say it will bring an enhanced employee experience through its ease of use and reduction of manual tasks. This benefits HR practitioners who pull reports and review HR information regularly and employees accessing pay stubs and W2s.  

In the current state, HR practitioners move in and out of systems. Everything is connected in the future state, including onboarding, recruitment, employee experience, and data. This connection leads to a reduction in errors and greater ease of processing and receiving pay.   

• Accounts Payable 
• Finance Accounts Receivable 
• Acquire to Retire and Capital Projects 
• Banking and Cash Management 
• Close and Consolidate 
• Gift and Endowment Management 
• Master Data Management 
• Planning, Budget, and Forecasting (limited to integration or functionality not in current solutions) 
• Reporting and Analytics 
• Tax 
• Travel Management and Expense (potentially limited to integration) 

For the finance team, a critical and early step for the Workday implementation is the design of the foundational data model, also known by the abbreviation FDM. Beyond a traditional chart of accounts, the FDM will serve as a core structure of the Workday platform, supporting transaction processing and reporting. Because the FDM is crucial for all functions, including HR, Supply Chain, and Sponsored Projects, the design will require a collaborative effort involving a diverse and cross functional group of stakeholders.  Read more about the FDM. 

Payroll, including some systems currently outside of SAP.

Broadways Services (BSI) and Kennedy Krieger Institute (KKI) payroll will remain outside of Workday.

• Closeout Activities 
• Data Collection & Reporting 
• Execute Funding Activities 
• Pre-Award Preparation 
• Receive and Account for Funds 
• Sponsored Program Administration 
• Sub-Recipient Monitoring 

 The sponsored projects integration team is currently reviewing all research administration systems that interface with or exist outside of SAP. The goal is to optimize integrations with Workday and reduce reliance on external systems when possible. Examples include integrations with Fibi, the pre-award platform, and Maximus, used for effort reporting. 

Workday will introduce exciting reporting and dashboards to the community. The Sightline program places a strong emphasis on user experience, with a commitment to developing intuitive reporting, dashboards, and metrics that are clear to faculty and staff. These tools will be accurate, updated in real time, and designed to support decision-making and the management of sponsored projects. 

Sightline’s Faculty Advisory Committee is helping identify gaps and opportunities for sponsored activities reporting and analytics improvements. Today, faculty and their teams often must pull several reports from disparate locations or bring together Principal Investigators (PIs) from across academic divisions to create consolidated views of project expenses and activities. Workday’s integration of HR, finance, and supply chain data will increase reporting quality to support grants planning and execution. Sightline will continue working with the Faculty Advisory Committee to define improvements based on this consolidation and will share them more broadly in future program phases.

• Inventory 
• Logistics 
• Master Data Management 
• Procurement 
• Reporting and Analytics 
• Sourcing & Contracting 
• Strategy & Execution 

Any new work or requested changes in SAP before and after the Workday transition (January 1, 2025 through August 31, 2028) will be limited to approved projects only. This limitation includes new or updated integration requests and fields, logic, and more. The SAP/Sightline Resources Request must be used for approval.  

The Sightline team will conduct multiple rounds of data validation, conversion, and testing to ensure accuracy and integrity. The data conversion strategy includes detailed mapping, warehousing, and cleansing processes, along with regular audits to identify and resolve any discrepancies. 

Data cleanup refers to reviewing, organizing, and standardizing information to ensure accuracy and consistency. Current efforts focus on refining vendor data, job titles, and naming conventions, as well as determining which historical data will be migrated and within what timeframe. Older data that is not migrated will remain accessible through other systems. 

Customizations can make software platforms difficult to maintain and upgrade. Modern software packages like Workday keep choices limited with configuration, allowing Johns Hopkins to more easily manage software updates and quickly adopt new capabilities released by Workday. Best-of-industry choices are continually enabled in Workday because it is hosted in the cloud. Customizations should be thoughtfully considered and deployed where there is truly a unique need and advantage for Johns Hopkins.  

Workday offers advanced analytics capabilities. Johns Hopkins will leverage those tools to collaboratively create template reports and data governance principles for administrative work that ensure data integrity.  

A single, institution-wide Workday implementation ensures alignment from day one. Johns Hopkins’ administrative processes and data are deeply interconnected, making a phased approach complex and inefficient. Splitting the transition between SAP and Workday would require maintaining dual systems, leading to integration challenges and increased costs, and a longer timeframe to optimize the new solution. A unified implementation improves data consistency, enhances user experience, and streamlines workflows. While this approach necessitates coordination and strong change management, it fosters collaboration across all entities, ensuring a smoother and more cohesive transition.