Case Study: Brown University achieves modern HR self-service, anytime access, and regulatory compliance with Workday Adaptive Planning

Brown provides its talented staff with tools to do groundbreaking work

Brown University, an Ivy League institution with about 11,000 staff, faced a critical HR and finance challenge: a legacy mainframe from 1991 that was inaccessible to most users, required extensive manual and paper-based processes, and could not accommodate new compliance or reporting needs. The outdated system forced disparate data sources, limited self-service for employees and managers, and constrained the university’s ability to perform seamless, timely analytics.

Brown moved to the full Workday suite (HCM, Payroll, Time Tracking, with Financials and Procure-to-Pay underway), delivering employee and manager self-service, mobile access, workflow notifications, and Section 508 accessibility. The cloud solution eliminated on-premise maintenance, enabled unified reporting, streamlined compliance (EEO, union rules, FLSA), and freed staff—including eight former data-entry roles—for higher-value data analysis, while regular Workday updates keep the university current without costly upgrades.

Brown

Karen Davis

Vice President for Human Resources