Why Data is the Starting Line for HCM Transformation

On April 15, 2025, President Trump issued Executive Order 14271, Ensuring Commercial, Cost-Effective Solutions in Federal Contracts. The directive reinforced what many agency leaders have long known: modernization is no longer optional—it’s a federal imperative. Agencies must prioritize commercially available, cost-effective solutions over custom-built platforms. And nowhere is this more urgent—or more complex—than in Human Capital Management.

Yet even with clear policy guidance and mounting pressure to modernize, many agencies remain stuck asking the same question: Where do we begin?

To borrow a line from The Sound of Music: “Let’s start at the very beginning—a very good place to start.” In HCM transformation, that beginning is your data.

Data Readiness: The Prerequisite to Progress

No system, no matter how advanced, can deliver value on top of disorganized, duplicated, or disconnected data. Before agencies can modernize HCM operations with platforms like Workday, they must first confront the structural issues buried in their legacy systems that inhibit auditability, delay onboarding, and undermine workforce visibility.

And just as critically, poor data quality erodes user trust. If employees encounter inaccuracies, especially those that affect their pay, they will lose confidence in the system, resist its adoption, and revert to manual workarounds that further compromise data integrity. In short: if the data is wrong, the user will reject the system.

Groundswell’s federal HCM work—from enabling HR capabilities at the Defense Intelligence Agency to supporting a civilian agency with an international mission and workforce—has shown time and again that data readiness is the decisive factor in driving successful, compliant, and future-ready transformation.

From Clean-Up to Competitive Advantage

Data modernization isn’t glamorous, but it is essential. It’s also something agencies can control today, even before full-scale transformation begins. A structured data-first approach enables:

• Consolidation: Harmonize HR data into a unified, authoritative system of record
• Validation: Identify and eliminate conflicting, outdated, or incomplete records
• Governance: Implement enterprise-wide frameworks to ensure long-term data health

With these steps, agencies can accelerate implementation timelines, mitigate risk, and enable seamless adoption of commercial HCM platforms—all while aligning with the intent of EO 14271.

Want a Modern HCM Platform? Start Like It’s 1995

For those seeking a more current cultural analogy, consider this: your HR data is a lot like the dial-up internet of the mid-90s—slow, fragmented, and not ready for streaming. You can’t plug today’s commercial-grade platforms into yesterday’s data environment and expect mission-ready results. Just as Netflix doesn’t run on AOL, Workday won’t deliver impact if your data is stuck in 17 different silos, two mainframes, and a spreadsheet named “final_v27_revised_approved.xlsx.”

Conclusion: Prepare Now, Modernize Faster

The path to HCM modernization doesn’t begin with procurement. It begins with preparation. EO 14271 has drawn a clear line: federal agencies must adopt cost-effective, commercial-first solutions. To meet that mandate, they must ensure their data is accurate, aligned, and actionable.

The agencies that start with data won’t just modernize faster—they’ll lead.