Dayforce, with someone on your side of the table.
Dayforce and its delivery partners build the system. We work for you: the decisions, the data, the testing and the people, for firms of 300 to 2,000. The same two leads from the first design workshop to the last parallel pay run.
Bianca HolmanDayforce practice lead
Vanessa SanchezComms and adoption
Bianca leads the practice and owns your side of the programme: the plan, the risks and the relationship with Dayforce and your partner. Vanessa owns comms, training and adoption. Both are on your kick-off call and both are there at the end.
Get a Dayforce health checkWe join at one of three points
Before you sign, just after you sign, or part way through with a partner already building. Pick the one that sounds like your week.
Is Dayforce the right fit, and is now the time
Payroll, time and HR on one platform, usually on a multi-year contract. Our diagnostic tests Dayforce against your requirements, your size and your team’s capacity to run it. It will tell you if Dayforce is the wrong answer.
- Requirements scored against Dayforce and the alternatives
- Licence and partner costs modelled over the full contract
- A written recommendation you can take to the board
You have signed, now you need someone independent
Dayforce and your delivery partner are accountable for the build. Somebody has to be accountable for your side of it. We take that role from design to go-live.
- Two named leads from day one
- Your partner’s statement of work checked before kick-off
- Decisions, data and testing owned on your side
Part way through, and the date is moving
Design decisions reopened, data that will not load, parallel pay runs that do not reconcile. We find out where the programme really is and agree a reset plan with Dayforce and your partner.
- Two weeks to assess what is built and what is not
- A reset plan and a date you can defend
- We stay on as your side through go-live, if you want us
Who the rest of this page is for
You have signed with Dayforce, or you are about to, and you want someone on your side through delivery. Everything below is about that.
One way to run it: on your side of the table
Dayforce and its partners build it. We make sure it is built for you
We hold signed service agreements with Dayforce as a client-side advisor. We are not an implementation partner and we do not configure the system. We work alongside Dayforce and its certified delivery partners, and we answer to you.
Your delivery partner owns the configuration, the integrations and the data loads. Dayforce supplies licences and product support.
- Your requirements and design decisions
- Data readiness and validation before every load
- Test scripts, UAT and the go, no-go call
- Programme, RAID and partner management
- Comms, training and adoption
Dayforce programmes move payroll, time and HR together, and your partner’s plan covers their work, not yours. The gaps open on your side: late decisions, data nobody cleaned, testing nobody owns. That is the work we do.
Your partner builds it. We make sure it fits
A good partner delivers exactly what is in the statement of work. Everything your side has to bring to that build is the part we do.
Your delivery partner’s job
In their statement of work- Configuration of the modules you bought
- Integrations to payroll, finance and SSO
- Data conversion and loads
- System testing before you see it
- Cutover and their go-live support
Nova’s job
Your side of the programme- Requirements and design decisions, written down and signed off
- Their statement of work checked against what you actually need
- Data cleaned and validated before it reaches them
- Test scripts, UAT and a go, no-go call that is yours
- Parallel pay runs reviewed until the numbers match
- Manager comms, training and adoption
- A team ready to run Dayforce the day after go-live
The plan and the go-live date are agreed with Dayforce and your partner before kick-off
Here are the four phases, and where we sit in each.
- 01
Readiness and design
Requirements, policies and data cleaned up before the design workshops. We check your partner’s design against them before you sign it off.
- 02
Build and data
Your partner configures. We validate every data load and keep decisions moving, so the build never waits on you.
- 03
Testing and parallel runs
Test scripts written for your team, UAT run, and parallel pay runs reviewed until every difference is explained.
- 04
Go-live and adoption
The go, no-go call, manager comms, training and cutover. Then hypercare and a team ready to run it.
What we need from your team
One HR owner, plus payroll for every parallel run and IT for the integrations. Your partner builds. We prepare. You decide.
What it costs
Fixed fee, scoped on a 30-minute call. Separate from your partner’s fee, and agreed before they start.
Your side of the programme, live, any time you log in
Status, deliverables and open risks across Dayforce, your partner and your own team, visible to you and your CFO without asking anyone for an update.
Named leads, not a pool
The people on your kick-off call are the people at your go-live. No pooled resourcing and no handover halfway.
Weekly status
One page every Friday: what moved, what is late, and what we need from you and from your partner next week.
One RAID log, shared
Risks are written down the day we see them, and your partner works from the same log.
Two named leads on every Dayforce programme, not one consultant
Bianca leads our Dayforce practice and has run Dayforce from the inside. Vanessa gets your managers using it. If one is on a plane, the other has the full picture.
Bianca Holman
Dayforce practice leadOwns your side of the programme: the plan, the timeline, the RAID log and the working relationship with Dayforce and your partner. Led workforce planning and HR technology across a European group before Nova, where she took over a Dayforce set-up that was not working and fixed it. Built the assistant that keeps our PMO honest.
Vanessa Sanchez
Operations LeadOwns comms, training and adoption, from the first manager briefing to the day your managers stop asking how Dayforce works. HR at AbbVie, Amgen and Allergan before Nova, so she knows what managers will and will not use. Works in English and Spanish.
Start at the step that matches what you already know
Some firms know exactly what is wrong. Most do not. Each step below contains the one before it, so you can start at the left and stop whenever you have what you need.
- Step one
Dayforce health check
7 to 10 daysWe review the programme or the live set-up, interview HR, payroll and a sample of managers, and hand you a written report with the issues ranked by effort and impact.
For you ifYou know something is wrong, but not what.
- Step twoMost firms
Health check and reset
About four weeksThe review, then we agree the fixes with Dayforce or your partner and own the list until every item is closed. You get a working system without becoming its project manager.
For you ifYou want it sorted, not diagnosed.
- Step three
Managed Service
Set days every monthA named Nova advisor for a set number of days each month. Releases reviewed, change requests checked, and the relationship with Dayforce and your partner run for you.
For you ifDayforce keeps changing and nobody owns it.
Fixed fee at every step, confirmed on a 30-minute call. No day-rate surprises.
Work out which step you needOr go straight to the one you need
- One proposal, or up to three side by side
Partner proposal review
Before you sign a statement of work, we check scope, assumptions, days and exclusions against what you actually need.
You get- Every assumption and exclusion listed
- Gaps priced before they become change requests
- A side by side if you have more than one
- Longer where more than one country pays
Parallel pay run assurance
Your side of every parallel run: each variance traced, explained or sent back, until payroll signs off.
You get- A variance log for every run
- A cause for every difference
- A sign-off pack payroll can stand behind
- For firms already live
Release readiness
Each Dayforce release read against your set-up, so new features arrive on purpose and nothing breaks quietly.
You get- Release notes read against your configuration
- A switch on, switch off and test list
- Manager comms where something visible changes
Each one is a defined piece of work with a start date and an end date. Any of them can also be picked up inside Health check and reset, or run on the Managed Service days you already have.
In their own words
“We brought Nova in because we wanted an independent view of our HR technology options, not a sales pitch.
That’s exactly what we got. Nova gave us the evidence and the clear choices we needed to take a confident decision to our leadership team.
They took the time to understand our business and our team’s capacity, and they were honest with us throughout. I’d recommend Nova to any organisation facing a significant HR systems decision.”
Marilyn PhillipsGroup Head of HRAurivo
What happens to your people data while we hold it
GDPR
We act as your processor under a signed DPA. Sub-processors are named, and nobody works on your data without an NDA and a contractor agreement.
Data validation
We validate inside your environment or your partner’s wherever IT allows. Where files have to move, they are encrypted, access is logged, and deletion is certified at close.
Where we contract
Nova HCM Ireland Ltd for EU and UK work, Nova HCM US Inc for US work. Same team, the paperwork your legal team expects.
Five questions we get most weeks
- Dayforce and our partner already have project managers. Why do we need you?
- Their project managers run their plan. Nobody on their side owns your decisions, your data or your testing, and that is where Dayforce dates slip. See the split
- Are you a Dayforce partner?
- We hold signed service agreements with Dayforce as a client-side advisor. We are not an implementation partner and we do not configure Dayforce. Ask us on the call how we are paid and we will tell you. Book a call
- We are halfway through and the date keeps moving
- Start with a Dayforce health check. Two weeks to assess what is built, then a reset plan agreed with Dayforce and your partner. Talk to us this week
- Can you handle Irish, UK and US payroll together?
- We contract through an Irish or a US entity and work across both time zones. More than one payroll country is where parallel runs take longest, so we plan for it in week one, not week twenty. Book a call
- We have not chosen yet. Can you help us decide?
- Yes, and we will tell you if Dayforce is the wrong answer. The diagnostic tests it against the alternatives before you commit to a contract. Start with the diagnostic
Talk to the team that will sit on your side
Thirty minutes, no deck. Tell us where you are with Dayforce and we will tell you what your side of it takes, including when you do not need us.
hello@novahcm.iePartner proposals on the table?
Send them ahead. We have compared Dayforce partner proposals line by line, and we will show you where the days and the assumptions differ.
Send us a proposal