Reduced expense report submission workflow by estimated 25–30 minutes
Drove 50%+ user enrollment rate for critical system notifications
Delivers real-time support to 1,800+ employees

Executive Summary

The City of Chandler, a growing city in Arizona with a reputation for innovation, has several business-critical systems that staff use to complete workflows of varying complexity. Faced with the challenge of providing a diverse workforce (including full-time staff, temporary workers, and volunteers) with the support they needed to complete key processes, Chandler set out to find a solution that would streamline ongoing change management, enable teams without relying on in-person assistance or job aids, and improve overall productivity.

As part of its digital adoption strategy, Chandler’s IT department turned to WalkMe. The IT team focused on developing a scalable and data-driven approach to change management, enabling more than 1,800 employees to access just-in-time support that simplifies complex processes across multiple systems. By implementing WalkMe’s digital adoption solutions, the city has enhanced staff experience, improved accuracy, and reduced the time required to complete essential tasks, such as submitting expense reports, managing time and attendance data, and managing contracts and documents. Reinforcing its commitment to innovation and operational excellence, the City of Chandler continues to explore new ways to expand WalkMe to new use cases and systems.

THE CHALLENGE

Supporting a large, diverse, and evolving workforce across multiple systems

The City of Chandler has a large and varied workforce that includes 1,800 full-time employees along with 800+ temporary workers, volunteers, and contractors across 15 verticals. The city’s tech stack includes multiple systems, some of which are enterprise-wide: Oracle’s HCM and ERP systems, IntelliTime for timekeeping, and an electronic document management system (eDMS). With an ever-evolving roster of staff members who need to know how to use these systems to complete various tasks, Chandler needed a scalable way to enable staff, ensure processes were completed quickly and accurately, and to communicate updates and changes.

Chandler also wanted to develop a system to ensure that knowledge wasn’t lost when employees retired or moved to other departments, and give employees more time to focus on high-value work and developing soft skills.

“We want to help our staff use the digital tools they need for their work, as well as help develop people in their professional lives. Classroom systems training wasn’t effective for long-term retention and relying on job aids wasn’t scalable. We needed to deliver guidance and training just in time, and improve productivity, so employees would have time to both develop new skills and focus on skills that are critical to their roles,” said Traci Tenkely, IT Project Manager at the City of Chandler. “We wanted to be able to transfer knowledge to new employees quickly, and ensure that all employees could perform core tasks without assistance.”

THE SOLUTION

Digital adoption solutions and a data-driven approach support real-time change management

Chandler turned to WalkMe to guide employees through various workflows on its key systems, reduce the need to engage support, and drive data integrity and accuracy. The IT department branded its WalkMe solutions as the “COC Help Center” to help staff recognize it across several platforms.

Chandler started with self-service workflows in Oracle’s HCM and iProcurement systems. “Employees need to be able to change their tax withholding or check their pay statements on their own. Supervisors need to understand how to initiate the transfer of an employee or promotion of an employee,” said Kristen Poe, IT Project Manager at the City of Chandler. “With WalkMe, we guide users step-by-step through important tasks they don’t perform every day, as well as provide in-app tips and quick access links to simplify frequent processes and help them save time.”

Now, employees can search for the action they’d like to take via a WalkMe Menu, then a Smart WalkThru automatically directs them to the right section of the system and takes them through the required steps. This simple solution eliminates confusion and frees supervisors to focus on the important workflow at hand – without needing to contact support or a peer.

On the finance side, the team uses digital adoption solutions to simplify expense reporting, making it easy for employees to understand policies and categorize their expenses – not only speeding up the process in general, but also eliminating the need to save and exit the report, ask a peer, or search their intranet, as well as mitigating any errors and processing delays.

After the IT department’s initial success with its Oracle HR and finance system, they quickly expanded WalkMe to other enterprise-wide platforms. One early success was the use of WalkMe for IntelliTime, the timekeeping system where employees submit leave requests and complete timecards, and where supervisors review and approve employees’ requests. WalkMe is also deployed on Chandler’s eDMS, where city staff look up and retrieve any documents and records such as contracts, ordinances, and resolutions. “WalkMe guides employees through the process of searching for and viewing these critical documents,” Poe said. “We need to be confident that information is accessed and managed correctly, so this is particularly important for departments that rely heavily on document storage.”

Chandler also uses WalkMe to improve communication and reach the right employees at the right time. Instead of sending emails that are easily missed, the city uses strategically placed ShoutOuts that appear when users log in to relevant systems to share important updates and nudge users to take action. In one campaign, a ShoutOut encouraged and guided employees through the steps to enable Oracle email notifications: an important setting that was off by default and could lead to employees missing crucial updates related to expense reports, notifications, and workflow approvals.

“Instead of using traditional methods like email blasts, with WalkMe, we can ensure that only the relevant staff members and affected users receive important communications when they log in, making continuous change management far more effective,” Poe said.

As Chandler evolved its digital adoption strategy, the team has taken an even more data-driven approach, including using tracked events and funnels to understand user patterns and potential friction points. “With WalkMe’s analytics, we can dig into data to make informed decisions about where to build and focus our efforts where they’ll have the most impact,” Tenkely said.

The IT department also leverages WalkMe’s keyword reports to identify what users are searching for and which tasks they’re trying to complete, then adjust their guidance accordingly. “We get a lot of value out of looking at keywords that didn’t return results and identifying how we can adapt our solutions to make sure staff get the guidance they need,” Poe said.

WalkMe empowers Chandler’s IT team to simplify staff’s experience workflows in its enterprise-wide applications. “These are systems that either impact someone’s pay, like IntelliTime, which accurately records hours worked into our Oracle system or help them find critical documents ” Tenkely said. “WalkMe helps us ensure that our employees are able to efficiently and accurately navigate complex systems.”

THE BENEFIT

Simplified workflows, time savings, and better staff experiences

Chandler’s digital adoption strategy has brought tangible results across various workflows. For example, their WalkMe guidance for expense submission and management saves staff an estimated 25-30 minutes per report – and a ShoutOut prompting employees to sign up for email notifications led to more than half the workforce enabling the setting. “WalkMe ShoutOuts encouraged over 50% of employees to sign up for email notifications, which is a huge win for us, as it prevents staff from missing critical or time-sensitive information,” Poe said.

The IT department has a strong working relationship with WalkMe’s Customer Success and Professional Services teams, who help them develop and implement content that meets the unique needs of a municipal government. “WalkMe’s Professional Services team helped us think differently and find creative solutions,” Tenkely said. “They showed us their own personal building styles, inspired us about what’s possible, and taught us how to build impactful content. They’ve been a huge asset that keeps us moving forward.”

“Every time we get together, our WalkMe Customer Success Manager has information and data that helps me better understand our program and where we can go next,” Poe added. “Having WalkMe experts on the journey with us has been incredible.”

Building on its success, the city is planning to introduce new WalkMe capabilities and expand to more systems, such as introducing an ActionBot on the Chandler employee intranet. As the City of Chandler grows, its IT department will continue to evolve their tech stack and plans to use WalkMe solutions to introduce new technologies.

About the City of Chandler:

Chandler, Arizona has built a reputation as a Community of Innovation. Life in Chandler goes beyond a thriving and dynamic business community with progressive entrepreneurship. Known for its rich diversity, the city offers an outstanding quality of life for all generations with great schools and recreational opportunities. Chandler has grown to become the state's fourth largest city with a population of more than 285,000.