Salt River Project (SRP) is a nonprofit public utility in Arizona. As the largest electricity provider in the Phoenix metropolitan area, SRP serves approximately 1.2 million electricity customers in a 7,250 km² service area and manages an approximately 34,000 km² watershed for the water supply of Arizona.

“Our primary goal is to meet the needs of our customers and communities, which is why reliability is critical to SRP,” explains Drake Winfrey, ERP Solution Architect at Salt River Project. “We must ensure that this reliability is not compromised by anything we implement in our technology landscape – and that our team members are able to provide the best possible service.”

WalkMe offers unparalleled capabilities for seamless connectivity to both SAP and third-party systems, creating the conditions for reliable use of technology without business interruptions. SRP came into contact with WalkMe for the first time as part of the implementation of SAP SuccessFactors. At the time, Drake Winfrey was an IT administrator for SAP Concur solutions at SRP. Since the SAP SuccessFactors implementation was such a success, he wanted to take advantage of the opportunity to add WalkMe to the solution to support the company's expense reporting processes.

“Our employees usually only go on business trips once or twice a year. No matter how user-friendly the system is, there will always be some problems and friction,” explains Drake Winfrey. The SRP team was also sure that employees who are often on the go would benefit from in-app instructions that ensure processes are completed quickly and correctly.

SRP's expense reporting processes were the perfect use case for this WalkMe digital adoption solutions. At SAP Sapphire in Orlando, Drake Winfrey shared five benefits that Salt River Project benefits from using WalkMe.

1. More efficient processes

SRP employees can submit various standard expense reports via Concur Expense, for example to record personal mileage and to account for expenses for protective equipment and telecommuting.

To make the processes more efficient, Drake developed Winfrey WalkMe “Smart Walk-Thrus”. These consist of step-by-step instructions that guide users through a series of actions to complete a task. With the Smart Walk-Thrus, SRP employees receive assistance in filling out and submitting their expense reports. “With WalkMe, we automate the completion of some fields by automatically entering important information for users, thereby eliminating some of the dependencies that are not immediately apparent,” he explains.

With this proactive guidance during the process, SRP employees benefit from easier expense reporting. But there are also domino effects when it comes to IT support costs. The in-app instructions for important steps ensure that employees submit their statements correctly the first time. This reduces the number of support tickets and the time required to correct incorrect billing. “There are far fewer support tickets and we have to give employees less help than before,” reports Drake Winfrey.

2. Less risks and better compliance

Drake Winfrey integrated WalkMe solutions into SRP's payroll system to support better compliance. With in-app reminders, SRP ensures that employees comply with company procedures, especially during important times such as holidays. This results in more accurate data and processes.

When users log in to the system, the application displays pop-up messages reminding them of important appointments, such as: E.g. submission deadlines and approval times for season tickets. Users then have the choice to take action immediately or have a reminder sent to them. If a user decides to take action, they are automatically redirected to the company's time and attendance system via another WalkMe solution. “WalkMe solutions are very easy to develop and implement – ​​and the solutions are much more effective than sending emails or chasing people at the end of the billing cycle.” Drake Winfrey knows what he's talking about. Using WalkMe's analytics features, he can get an overview of how many users viewed the in-app reminder and how many subsequently opened the timecard. “All of this can be recorded in reports,” he explains. “There are many metrics behind the scenes that can be used to analyze trends and uncover opportunities to improve the user experience.”

3. Shorter cycle times

Changes to company-wide systems can be time-consuming because companies usually have to adhere to the development cycles specified by the IT department. “At SRP we have monthly releases. Unless it's a major update or fix, a change typically takes a few weeks,” explains Drake Winfrey. “With WalkMe, I can now create and deploy content in 15 to 30 minutes.”

This agility is crucial for real-time communication and ensures a seamless employee experience. Drake Winfrey explains how SRP can provide targeted support to users during routine system updates or maintenance windows, for example. If a specific tile requires temporary maintenance, his team can immediately display a real-time alert right above the feature. In this way, employees are kept informed and redirected to alternative workflows. This makes it possible to ensure business continuity and provide users with a seamless experience while IT does its work in the background.

4. Greater cost efficiency

By providing employees with self-service support options, “they have more time for value-added activities. This allows my team to add value to the entire company without requiring additional staff,” says Drake Winfrey.

“We use WalkMe and the analysis functions it contains to examine various aspects. This allows us to identify where there are friction losses and which processes are causing problems,” he explains. “Then we look at the support tickets. If we notice that the same questions are being asked over and over again about a specific screen, we develop a self-help solution.” Users can then view top support questions directly in their workflow and receive guided support. This enables them to complete the task independently without having to create a ticket.

5. Optimized digital user experience

To optimize the digital employee experience, employees must have access to digital tools and support so that they can achieve their full potential. Using WalkMe, SRP anticipates the needs of its users and ensures everything runs smoothly when major interface changes are made. The team uses visual, contextual text boxes such as targeted launchers that allow users to access resources, prominent shoutouts when new features are introduced, and banner reminders during important updates to provide personalized support. This creates a unified, consistent user experience across different enterprise applications. According to Drake Winfrey, there is “so much flexibility and, frankly, so much creativity” when it comes to providing solutions.

In addition, WalkMe's solutions are located above the current system landscapes. “We see how everything is moving to the cloud. That’s why it’s now important to ensure a clean core,” he continues. “I assume that we will only be able to make limited adjustments in the future.”

What's next for WalkMe at SRP?

Salt River Project builds on its success with WalkMe solutions and establishes a Center of Excellence to better balance centralized governance and cross-departmental collaboration. “In order to scale the solutions across the company, we need to develop WalkMe experts within each department who know how to develop relevant content,” says Drake Winfrey.

Because it's clear: WalkMe helps Salt River Project make processes more efficient, strengthen compliance, drive change, reduce support effort and offer its employees a better digital experience. By building internal WalkMe expertise, SRP is poised to extend these benefits across the organization while maintaining the high operational standards for which the company is known.