systematicHR

The intersection between HR strategy and HR technology

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Time to Upgrade

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Today I got the following message on my browser:

Unfortunately your web-browser is from 2001, which is really, really old in web years. If you would take a moment to upgrade you will find the web has a lot more to offer.

First of all, let me point out that this was not actually my computer or any computer issued by my employer, just in case those of you who know me have any confusion over this.  On my own PC and the one issued by my employer, I run both Mozilla Firefox and Google Chrome, with Chrome as my primary browser.  Let it be known, that this is the first time I have ever seen a message like this, and I thought it was hilarious.

The second thought that came to mind was that if everything was like Google (I also use Gmail, Google Voice, Google Maps, Google Documents, Google Android, Google images for the site – I have no idea about this post’s image – I just thought it was funny (ok, stop advert)) then I would never ever get this message again.  This turned into a nice thought about SaaS.  In a true SaaS environment, you’d never have to upgrade anything individually since someone else is managing it to the latest version release for you.

What is funny is that 2001 is not only old in web years, it’s also old in HR technology years now.  Sure, you might still have some PeopleSoft and SAP sitting around (almost definitely) but I’m pretty sure you’re not on version 8.1 (I’m guessing what was out in 2001) or SAP 4.  Back in 2001, I don’t even know if we were calling “it” talent management yet.  We were still on Web 1.0, and were still getting used to the idea that the internet was going to be around for a while.

The second statement was less humor and more truth.  If I would just get up to date, my entire experience would be so much richer.  This again, is the great thing about SaaS.  While a couple organizations out there are going to semiannual or annual major releases, there are still quite a few companies that are pushing out new functionality on a quarterly basis.  While each of these does not necessarily have features that are either high impact or high need by all client populations, over time, not having those updates would have resulted in a pretty large gap in experience for your end users.  Luckily in a SaaS environment, you don’t have to worry about that.

Certainly there are obstacles to the upgrades.  Every now and then it means that you have a downstream system receiving data that has to undergo a change in the interface, or you may have applied a customization in the system that needs to be thought out.  Perhaps there is just a cost parameter that is prohibitive.  All things considered, these obstacles should have been thought through during the initial implementation cycle.  You never think about your software as “it’s so cool now that I just want to keep it this way forever, therefore I’ll put so many barriers to upgrade in that I’ll never do it.”  Instead, we think we’re doing the right thing for our organizations by allowing modifications and exceptions, but 5 years down the road we realize how much better off we would have been if we were running our users on a current version.

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One response to “Time to Upgrade”

  1. […] Time to Upgrade Systematic HR • Monday, September 6, 2010 This turned into a nice thought about SaaS.  In a true SaaS environment, you’d never have to upgrade anything individually since someone else is managing it to the latest version release for you. Sure, you might still have some PeopleSoft and SAP sitting around (almost definitely) but I’m pretty sure you’re not on version 8.1 READ MORE […]