HR can serve themselves

My first significant self-serve experience was just after university when I bought my first apartment. It was 2003.

I needed to get a home loan for ￡80,000 (about $150,000). I was frightened to go into the bank and talk about that kind of thing with someone I didn't know. I just wanted to get the job done as quickly and anonymously as possible. After some googling (yes Google existed then) I came across an online bank egg.co.uk that would allow me to apply for the loan online; fill out a form, upload all my documents and fax some verifications before they transferred the money to my bank account. The whole thing took me less than an hour and I didn't have to speak to anyone. Amazing. My family and friends thought it all a bit strange at the time but I loved the experience. I was in charge.

I was hooked and have been an early adopter of technology and digital solutions ever since. I remember that within a couple of months of moving into the apartment I was also fully digital for all my utility bills and personal banking and investments.

Supermarket shopping became a thing of the past too. As I could shop from my desk at work in half the time of a traditional shop and the goods would be delivered same evening without my ever having to navigate the car park at the shopping centre again. Bliss.

Self-serve at the supermarket now is commonplace whether it be in-store or online saving us all time and keeping product prices low. That business model is now available to businesses as well as consumers.

Software as a Service, the stuff that lives in the cloud, means that businesses, especially smaller ones, can self-serve their technology. Providers like Xero, Salesforce and SurveyMonkey are some great examples.

Without wanting to do myself out of a job...gone are the days of needing a sales guy to come out to your office and pitch you. Then come back again to do a demo and take a brief. Then come back again to present a proposal and get sign off. That process just cost the vendor at least $1000!

That's an extra $1000 onto your fees and you've not even turned on the technology yet.

What would it be like if you could do your research online, learn about what others are doing online, join a webinar and hear cost effectively from an expert about what to do, how to do it and most importantly why to do it.

Then with the right user experience and some intuitive support such as eBooks and video you could simply get on with the configuration of the technology yourself and launch it to your business yourself.

That's just what we've done with redii.com; REDs new SaaS recognition technology which allows you to build and run your company's recognition and reward program without ever having to talk to a sales guy.

Okay, so total self serve is not going to be right for everyone. Phew, I'm not redundant just yet. We've got a model for everyone from 100% self service, to telephone and web-based support right up up to full service consulting. It's all about you; what you feel comfortable with and how you want to engage with your technology vendor and the experts.

It's fun for us sales guys too. The job now looks very different to the one I had two years ago. Sure I still do sales meetings but I am also responsible for making sure our product means that you never need to meet me either, if you are that way inclined.

Two years after buying the apartment I sold it. And get this, I sold it myself online without having to use one of those things called estate agents. How cool is that. Self-serve heaven.

(This blog was written in transit to one of the sales meeting events that some of you still want - I hope there's good coffee and biscuits)