Monday, September 27, 2010

Thermoses and HRIS

Is your HR Technology staying current?
As I get ready to head out into the pre-dawn darkness I made my final preparations to head off to SIU to visit with my son. This included making the coffee and putting it into my trusty stainless steel Stanley thermos. I paused for a moment and thought this has been a great thermos. Although it is dented and scratched it is seemingly indestructible and continues to perform its intended function. How could it be any better?

While I pondered how could this great thermos ever be improved, I had another fleeting thought. Within the last few minutes I had read something about the upcoming H.R. Technology Conferencce, which is taking place this week in Chicago. I have used an HRIS for many years and I think that it is still exactly what I need. I haven’t wanted to mess with it because it does everything I think it needs to do. There are also several, connections, links and mappings to other applications that my company uses, so we would not want to change it on a whim. However the thought is still out there – is there something better?
 
By attending the H. R. Technology Show this week, the HR community can see what are the latest and greatest applications and hardware that are available to us to make our job easier and making us more efficient. In the applications I am using, I am seeing more products offered as saas (Software as a service). The saas applications do not require upgrades or hard drive space, only internet access. That concept may or may not work for your organization, but you have to know what is out there to make an informed decision.

So attend the show, see what’s out there, and how it might work for your organization. Oh and while you are there, see who else is there, the tweet stream is indicating that many of the “cool kids” will be in town for Mr. Bill Kutik’s big show!.