Salt River Projectâs 5 Benefits of WalkMe for SAP Business Suite
Salt River Project (SRP) is a community-based, non-for-profit public power utility in Arizona. As the largest electricity provider in the Phoenix metropolitan area, it serves roughly 1.2 million electric customers, covering 2,800 square miles of electric service territory, and manages a 13,000 square-mile watershed that supports central Arizonaâs water supply.
âWe operate primarily to serve the needs of our customers and communities, so reliability is critical to SRP,â Drake Winfrey, ERP solution architect at Salt River Project, said. âWe must ensure that anything we implement within our technology ecosystem doesnât impact that reliability in any wayâand, ultimately, enables our team members to deliver the best possible service.â
WalkMeâs superpower to work seamlessly on top of SAP and non-SAP systems helps ensure technology enables reliability without disruption. SRPâs first encounter with WalkMe was part of its SAP SuccessFactors implementation. At the time, Winfrey was the IT administrator for SAP Concur solutions at SRP and, based on the success of the SAP SuccessFactors implementation, saw an opportunity to add WalkMe in its travel and expense processes.
âOur employees only travel maybe once or twice a year, so no matter how user-friendly the system may be, thereâs always going to be some pain points and friction,â Winfrey said. And, for those who travel frequently, the SRP team knew they could benefit from in-app guidance to ensure processes were completed quickly and accurately.
It was a perfect use case for WalkMeâs digital adoption solutions. At SAP Sapphire Orlando, Winfrey shared five wins that Salt River Project experienced by applying WalkMe to its processes.
1 Greater process efficiency
At SRP, there are several standard expense reports that employees can submit in Concur Expense, such as personal mileage, safety gear, and telework.
To improve process efficiency, Winfrey built WalkMe âSmart Walk-Thrusââstep-by-step solutions that guide users through a series of actions to help complete a taskâthat direct SRP employees through the report completion and submission process. âWith WalkMe, we automate some of the fields and fill in critical information for the user, taking away some of those hidden dependencies,â he said.
This proactive, in-flow guidance not only creates a simplified user experience for SRP employees when submitting expenses, but it has domino effects on IT support overhead. Since employees get the in-app guidance they need as theyâre completing key steps, they submit reports accurately the first time, reducing support tickets or time spent correcting inaccurate submissions. âWeâve eliminated a lot of the support tickets and hand-holding we saw previously,â Winfrey said.
2 Risk mitigation and improved compliance
Winfrey applied WalkMe solutions in SRPâs payroll system to help with policy reinforcement. By adding in-app reminders, especially during important times of the year like holidays, SRP ensures employees are following procedures, boosting data and process accuracy.
When users log in to the system, they see in-app pop-up messages to remind them about key dates, such as time card due dates and approval timelines, and can opt to take action immediately or receive a reminder. If the user opts to act, theyâre automatically redirected to the companyâs time and attendance system via another WalkMe solution. âWalkMe solutions are very simple to build and deployâand very effective compared to e-mails or chasing down people at the end of the pay period,â Winfrey said. He knows this for a fact because he can use WalkMe analytics to see how many users have viewed the in-app reminder and how many have clicked through to the time card. âItâs all reportable,â he said. âThere are a lot of metrics behind the scenes that you can use to understand trends and find ways to improve the experience.â
3 Faster cycle times
Making changes to enterprise-wide systems can take time, as organizations are often constrained to the development cycles set by the IT department. âAt SRP, we have monthly releases, so unless itâs a critical update or fix, getting a change is usually going to take a few weeks,â Winfrey said. âBut with WalkMe, I can build and deploy content in 15 to 30 minutes.â
This agility is especially powerful for real-time communication and keeping the employee experience seamless. For example, Winfrey explained how SRP can instantly support users during routine system updates or maintenance windows. When a specific tile requires temporary maintenance, Winfreyâs team can immediately place a real-time message directly over the feature. This keeps employees informed and guides them to alternative workflows, ensuring business continuity and a smooth user experience while IT completes its work behind the scenes.
4 Boosted cost efficiency
Empowering employees with self-service support âfrees up their time for more value-added activities. By achieving this impact, my team can deliver enterprise-wide value without increasing headcount,â Winfrey said.
âWe use WalkMe and the analytics it provides to look at different pages and see where the friction is and what processes are causing issues,â he explained. âThen we look at the support tickets and say âOkay, these are the same questions we get on this screen every time, so weâll build a self-support solution.ââ A user can then see those top support questions in the flow of work and get guided assistance. As a result, theyâre able to complete the task themselves. No help ticket required.
5 Enhanced digital user experience
Optimizing the digital employee experience means empowering employees with the digital tools and support needed to perform at their best. SRP uses WalkMe to anticipate user needs and ensure seamless change during major UI transitions. Using highly visual, contextual callouts like targeted Launchers that connect users to resources, eye-catching ShoutOuts for feature adoption, and Banner Reminders for critical updates, the team delivers personalized support that provides a unified, consistent user experience across multiple enterprise applications. âThereâs just a lot of flexibility and, honestly, a lot of creativityâ about the solutions they can deploy, Winfrey said.
Whatâs more, WalkMe solutions exist on top of current system landscapes. âAs we continue to see everything moving to the cloud, itâs all about clean core,â he added. âI think weâre going to be limited on what we can customize going forward.â
Whatâs next for WalkMe at SRP
Salt River Project is building on its success with WalkMe solutions and establishing a center of excellence to better balance central governance and cross-departmental collaboration. âIn order to scale it, we really have to start building department-level WalkMe experts who know how to develop impactful content,â Winfrey said.
Itâs clear: with WalkMe, Salt River Project can improve process efficiency, strengthen compliance, accelerate change, reduce support burden, and create a better digital experience for employees. As SRP expands its internal WalkMe expertise, it is positioning itself to scale those gains across the business while maintaining the high operational standards the organization is known for.
