Sunland Construction, Inc. and Affiliates

Joe Cimbak

Through this article, Cimbak emphasizes how, instead of relying on off-the-shelf HRIS platforms requiring costly customization, AI can enable fully tailored HRIS systems built to an organization’s needs, redefining how HR technology is developed.

If you are an HR pro, then during your career, you have spent many hours behind a keyboard interfacing with a HRIS. The HRIS space was once dominated by just a few legacy systems like PeopleSoft, SAP SuccessFactors, ADP, etc. I started working with HRIS software on “green screens” with homegrown spreadsheet systems. I remember moving to PeopleSoft. We loved that it automated some of the things we were doing with our spreadsheet system, but we hated the fact that it was not designed for us, but was a generic software built to achieve an average implementation across many industry types.

I’ll never forget when PeopleSoft informed us that they were no longer going to service us because we were using an outdated version and they were demanding that we purchase “up” to 9.1. The implementation of that new version was almost as difficult as starting from scratch. Back then these legacy systems didn’t have much of an open architecture and customizations were expensive. To keep the same customization level with the new PS version we had to pay all over again. Complete waste of money!

In the last several years there has been an explosion of “cool name” HRIS systems all competing to do what these legacy systems can do. It seems like the cooler the name the more appeal. Software systems like BambooHR, HiBob, Rippling, Gusto, Zenefits, etc. had cool names and they tried to market the cool names. Even legacy companies tried name changes to make them more attractive. Case in point would be Ceridian changed the name to Dayforce, probably in response to the success Workday was having in the marketplace.

When these “cool name HRIS” systems came out they tried to market themselves as boutique software that was readily customizable and configurable to your industry and workforce type. Today we have a myriad of HRIS system providers ready to sell us their systems.

“Let the AI build the HRIS from the ground up to meet your exact needs, module by module. The developers would have their AI generate a questionnaire to start the intake consulting. From there the AI would take the answers and ask more questions.”

I would like to present a hypothesis here—no HRIS system—whether a legacy name brand system or a “cool name system” truly fits your company and your workforce and your industry. Go ahead and do your due diligence and have a range of these providers come in on an RFP to talk to your team. What you are going to find is that no matter what the company says, they all have one thing in common. They are an OFF THE SHELF system that you then must configure during implementation and you will make a myriad of tradeoffs that you don’t want to make. When you run into a showstopper you will have to ask for customization. They will hem and haw and try to convince you to adopt their standard processes and you will force the issue because you need customization. Especially around interfaces with other existing software you are running. In the end they will capitulate and promise you the world on customization and their tech team will tell you how good their open architecture is for this kind of customization. You will ask them if they have ever done this before and they will bow their heads and avoid eye contact and say “no… BUT…” Then they will send you the bill and there will be no promise they will maintain your customizations as they go through their system upgrades.

Let me make this analogy. At that company I worked for where we were forced to do a PeopleSoft upgrade, our executive team was unhappy about the cost and confusion this was going to entail. They asked me to bottom line the whole thing for them. I said, “Folks, in the year 1999 you all signed an authorization to go from a homegrown system to PeopleSoft because they told you they were Y2K compliant and you were worried about our homegrown system being able to survive Y2K. So, you bought the name brand PeopleSoft. What we wanted was a 17-foot center console boat with a 100-horsepower outboard motor for small day trips. What you bought was the Queen Mary and you did not realize how expense it is to run a ship like that. And now we know the Queen Mary really doesn’t fit our workforce all that well.” Nobody was happy.

How can AI help this?

Instead of buying an off the shelf system that you have to configure and customize, we should bring in a smart AI developer who interviews the HR team to find out what their specific needs are. Later, they can go ask their AI to build the system that is exactly to the company’s specifications? Call it custom design from scratch. You get exactly what you want. Each time they work with a new company they are building a new system made to order just for them.

In this era of AI, why can’t we do this? I don’t know of any AI developers in the HRIS space today doing exactly this, but within hours of reading this article some smart think tank GenZ AI developers could become millionaires doing this. And more power to them! 

Let the AI build the HRIS from the ground up to meet your exact needs, module by module. The developers would have their AI generate a questionnaire to start the intake consulting. From there the AI would take the answers and ask more questions. Then at some point you would say “Ok, you have enough, now go model this for us.” Within a few days you could go from “nothing” to an 80 percent solution. The last 20 percent might take a month. From the start the AI would know what integrations with other systems are needed and it would know how to do those integrations. You would have to coordinate with the other third-party software tech teams which would be the hardest part of this. 

The absolute KEY TALENT needed here is a combination of skills. First you need someone who is gifted at building AI systems married to real skills in HRIS systems. If you could get two people like this to jam their brains together, they could become millionaires overnight. This team could then be paid an annual maintenance fee (mailbox money) and if the company needs upgraded functionality or changes in processes the developer team would get paid change fees.

All they need is a cool name to market their new company with! Smile. Hey, maybe that’s it, call it SmileHR! Haha.