How Simplicity in IWMS Will Make Your Life Easier

Simplicity, I love the word.

Life is really simple, but we insist on making it complicated.
– Confucius

Everybody knows what it implicates; few actually apply simplicity in their lives.

Simplicity is a property, condition, or quality which things can be judged to have. It usually relates to the burden which a thing puts on someone trying to explain or understand it. Something which is easy to understand or explain is simple, in contrast to something complicated. (Source: Wikipedia)
In particular, I really like the words “burden … to understand it”.

Now, let’s extrapolate the concept of putting a burden on someone trying to explain or understand something to Integrated Workplace Management Systems (IWMS).  Systems, procedures, authorizations, tasks, etc. need to be measured against their ease of use.

Why should anything be so complicated you can’t even explain it to your colleagues? I really don’t understand why some IWMS vendors have (technical) solutions for business problems which can’t be understood by anyone except the vendor itself?

Although this can seem beneficiary in the short-term,  in the long run complexity causes nothing but trouble.

Simplicity in IWMS (or CAFM, or CMMS, or any other…)

So how can you apply the principle of simplicity in your IWMS?
Focus on the essential, eliminate the rest.

You should always ask yourself following question:

Is this…¹ essential for…. ² ?
¹ workflow, procedure, authorization, interface, step, report, etc.
² our mission, our vision, my boss, our bottom line, our goals, the system, our competitive edge, etc.

If the answer is ‘no’, eliminate it.
Simplicity comes from the things you remove.

IWMS, Productivity, Simplicity