Table of Contents
- More Than Just Taking Tickets
- Choose a Partner That Fits Your Culture and Needs
- Define Clear Goals, Roles, and Success Metrics
- Build a Support Model That Prioritises What Matters
- Don’t Just Outsource… Collaborate
- Keep the Dialogue Going with Rhythm and Reviews
- Invest in Internal Capability, Not Just External Support
- Shift from Issue Resolution to Continuous Improvement
- Know When It’s Time to Rethink the Model
- Your AMS Partner Is a People Business
You’ve made it past go-live. Your Workday system is live, your teams are learning, and the dust is settling. But here’s the reality: success with Workday only begins at implementation and continues into different stages.
Between system bi-annual updates, evolving team needs, and the complex nature of enterprise systems, your internal resources can get stretched fast. This is where your AMS (Application Management Services) partner should become your co-pilot.
More Than Just Taking Tickets
However, too often, these partnerships fall into a reactive rhythm; fix the ticket, close the loop, move on. How about you flip the script?
In this guide, we’ll explore how to transform your AMS partnership from a basic support vendor into a strategic force multiplier. We’ll explore team alignment, culture fit, communication rhythms, and the kind of collaboration that turns “support” into scalable success.
And we’ll ask the one question every Workday leader needs to pause and reflect on: Are you truly getting the most out of your AMS partner?
Choose a Partner That Fits Your Culture and Needs
AMS partners can be dynamic in their approach. Some excel in back-end configurations. Others specialise in strategic advisory. A few rare gems manage to do both while truly embedding themselves into your culture.
Ask yourself:
- Do they understand the industry’s nuances and idiosyncrasies?
- Do they interact and communicate effectively with the team?
- Are they proactive or just reactive?
- Do they behave like an extension of ours, or a distant vendor?
The best AMS partners align with your rhythms, your people, and your purpose. They go beyond support – offering insights, empathy, and true partnership. You’ll know you’ve found one when they celebrate your wins.
Define Clear Goals, Roles, and Success Metrics
A good partnership and collaboration begin with mutual clarity. Without it, even the best intentions are wasted.
Here’s how you create a strong foundation:
- Set measurable goals: turnaround times, ticket trends, system uptime, etc.
- Establish clear ownership: break-fix, enhancements, security, documentation
- Create a shared source of truth: dashboards, status reports, and shared playbooks
Your Service Delivery Manager (SDM) needs to be a strategic point of contact, keeping conversations transparent and open, priorities aligned, and positive momentum.
Build a Support Model That Prioritises What Matters
Let’s be realistic: All tickets are not created equal. Some demand immediate attention. Others can wait. Without a prioritisation strategy, your teams may be bogged down in low-impact tickets.
Design a tiered model:
- Tier 1: Critical problems that have a direct impact (e.g., security, payroll)
- Tier 2: Functional issues impacting small teams
- Tier 3: Enhancements, how-to’s, documentation requests
This not only improves focus, but it also reduces fatigue. It allows your partner to move from firefighting to fire prevention mode.
Don’t Just Outsource… Collaborate
The trap? Assuming AMS is all about sending problems and getting fixes. The opportunity? Bringing your partner into your planning sessions, process conversations, and feedback loops.
True collaboration looks like:
- Co-creating solutions, rather than their imposition
- Reviewing data together to reveal patterns and trends
- Troubleshooting before they fail
Your partner can only be as strategic as you allow them to be. When you include them in your world, they impart insights from their world to you.
Keep the Dialogue Going with Rhythm and Reviews
Working across time zones, departments, and systems means misalignment is just a silence away. That’s why cadence matters.
Consider our recommended Rhythm of Business (RoB):
- Weekly: At least one to two weekly status calls with your SDM
- Monthly: Dashboards to review SLAs, volume, and enhancement requests
- Quarterly: Strategic initiatives and roadmap planning
The more you converse, the fewer surprises, and the more predictable your progress becomes.
Note: The above initiatives depend on the scalability and adaptability of the business. Every business model is unique and the support it requires is customised accordingly.
Invest in Internal Capability, Not Just External Support
Here’s a powerful mindset shift: Your AMS partner isn’t here to replace your team. They’re here to support, compliment and educate it.
Use the partnership to:
- Transfer technical knowledge through shadowing
- Create internal documentation with partner input
- Run training sessions with shared goals
- Map ideal hires based on skills, gaps, and team fit
This allows your organisation to expand with your system. It creates resiliency, flexibility, and a genuine sense of ownership among your HRIS or IT staff.
Shift from Issue Resolution to Continuous Improvement
Instead of chasing fixes, start chasing impact.
Ask your AMS partner to:
- Analyse ticket history for patterns and root causes
- Recommend automation, configuration changes, or training
- Help benchmark your usage against other organisations
They should be bringing you optimisation suggestions unprompted. If you only hear from them when things go wrong, you’re leaving a lot on the table.
To stay ahead, you need more than just continuing AMS support. You also need to keep up with each new feature release.
Find out how to handle Workday’s new releases and schedules in the best way, look at the guide
Know When It’s Time to Rethink the Model
Even good partnerships can outgrow their original design. Maybe your needs have changed. Maybe you’ve scaled. Maybe the value no longer matches the cost.
Signs to watch for:
- Delayed response times or repeated misunderstandings
- Misaligned expectations or unclear accountability
- Minimal strategic input
You may need a named consultant, more flexible hours, or even a new partner who fits where your business is going, not where it was.
Your AMS Partner Is a People Business
Technology changes at lightning speed. So do business needs. The one constant in this equation? People.
Your AMS engagement must be a partnership. One where your partner helps you scale, adapt, grow, and lead. One where your team feels supported, not sidelined. One where momentum replaces burnout.
At Coreteam, we believe great AMS is more than just about clocking tickets; it’s about building trust, ownership, and growth. That’s why we’ve designed our support to be:
- Always On: 24/5 availability to keep you moving forward, not waiting in line.
- Risk-Free: Updates and compliance handled proactively, so you’re never caught off guard.
- Scalable: Flexible support models that match your pace, and your budget.
- Truly Yours: A dedicated Service Delivery Manager, named consultants, and a partner who feels like part of your team.
- Tailored Expertise: Experts across all levels, from technical configurations to strategic planning, offering customised support aligned to your growth stage and evolving needs.
So, take a moment. Reflect. Are you really getting the most out of your AMS partner?
Align AMS with your business goals to gain efficiency, flexibility, and scalability.
Read how our client, a leading hotel chain, turned Workday into their growth platform
