How 2U kept payroll in-house while scaling through rapid growth

Managing higher education payroll at scale means keeping up with growth without losing control of your data. 2U, Inc. found flexibility and stability with OSV’s Workday payroll services.

“Partnering with OSV allowed 2U to maintain control over our payroll process and data, while being able to scale resources during our hyper-growth phase. With OSV, our payroll team is able to focus on more strategic initiatives.”

Roehl Navarro, Sr. Director, Financial Business Process and Systems, 2U, Inc.

A structured launch, a confident team, and room to focus

When 2U, Inc. partnered with OneSource Virtual (OSV), they weren’t looking to hand payroll off entirely. As a company expanding through acquisitions, they needed to protect their Workday investment while gaining the capacity to scale without adding new systems or losing visibility into their own data.

OSV’s in-tenant approach made that possible. From the start, the relationship was built around structure and transparency. OSV presented a clear implementation timeline, identified who owned each task, and held weekly check-ins with 2U’s team to keep milestones on track. When an early kick-off meeting got off to a rough start, OSV course-corrected quickly — and the rest of the implementation went smoothly.

Lauri Andrews, senior manager of financial business process and systems, summed it up plainly: “The service readiness team provided the methodology and technical expertise, which made my life a lot easier.”

2U went live on time. Their first payroll ran without issue. And with Workday payroll services, payroll tax compliance, and garnishment administration in OSV’s hands, the team gained bandwidth to focus on the work that’s instrumental to the business during a hyper-growth phase.