The KISS Principle, or Keep It Simple Stupid, has become a widely recognized design doctrine that builds upon two fundamental foundations; that people like things that are easy to learn and use, and a company that provides offerings that meet these consumer requirements, will position themselves for competitive advantage through reduced costs, quicker time to market and increased sales by meeting market demand.
KISS is not meant to imply stupidity – quite the opposite in fact. The term is associated with intuitive systems of intelligent architecture, designed to keep underlying programs manageable over time.
We all know that the best and most useful technologies are the ones that keep things simple, and that we can easily integrate into our daily lives. Think about the items that we now use every day in our personal lives without a second thought – television, our cars, cell phones – all of these follow the KISS Principle – or at least the ones that continue to be successful on the market do.
It seems though, that on the business side, we are much more willing to struggle at times with more complex technological offerings. How many times have you become frustrated with a counter-intuitive software interface or followed a process of seemingly inane steps to try and accomplish a task? Sometimes it can seem like the old Infinite Monkey Theorem is being applied to design whereby if enough product versions are released, eventually through trial and error, and market testing and rejecting, the engineers will finally get it right.
One corporate interface and processing center solution that can and should subscribe to the easy-to-access, use and follow principle is the portal to human resources. And thankfully it does – if your organization employs an HR Shared Services Solution. The main access display for employees is a Personalized Portal – providing targeted information – specific to whoever logs in.
When you enter a shared services Enterprise Portal, you’ll find information displayed that speaks to you directly. For instance, if you’re single, benefit plans will be displayed that speak to individual insurance and other options, versus family plan information. The flexible nature of this architecture is built upon the unique profile data of each person in the organization – to best provide the human resources content and tools (forms, policies, procedures and more) relevant to their role and needs.
The portal may be accessed at anytime from anywhere via web browser through PCs, tablets and smartphones; and the configurable interface may be personalized for ease-of-use. Using an HR Shared Services system powered with an Enterprise Portal truly provides an intuitive and comprehensive HR Content Management System – for instant access to the company information employees want and need – all targeted directly to them based upon their unique profiles.