Companies Using Management Information System

Namely, a human resources information system (HRIS) startup founded in 2012 by Matt Straz, bills itself as “the complete people management platform.” That’s an impressive boast, considering just how complicated it can be for an HR department to keep track of a company’s employees – monitoring performances, assessing skills, assigning roles, tracking documents, etc.

Namely is still rather young – the company launched in January of 2012, and its services were initially only available for ad agencies. It was not until October of 2012 that the company began moving outside of the advertising industry. Reviews to back up Namely’s claims, then, are hard to come by, but clients have shared some glowing feedback — Ben Lerer, co-founder and CEO of Thrillist, called Namely an “awesome, easy to use platform that enables [Thrillist] to get the most out of [its] people and build a great company.”

Namely’s HRIS platform aims to turn the somewhat tricky and often complex work of HR professionals into a navigable digital interface. In fact, with its clean lines and blue and white color scheme, Namely’s platform has garnered comparisons to LinkedIn. But what the company offers is far more comprehensive than just another social networking platform. Indeed, a more in-depth, firsthand look at Namely reveals a wide array of services at user’s fingertips.

Namely’s product is focused on keeping an inventory of a company’s employees by allowing HR staff to manage all sorts of employee data. HR professionals can use Namely to coordinate and conduct employee reviews, and to keep the results of those reviews in an accessible digital space. These reviews can be used in conjunction with Namely’s goal-setting function, which allows companies to set specific goals for their employees, to align those goals with larger company goals, and to keep track of employee progression with respect to these goals. Namely’s so-called “reporting engine” allows users to compile data in a variety of ways in order to produce personnel reports relevant to whatever task or assessment is at hand.

Namely also functions as a sort of staff search engine, using a system of skill tags which allows companies to sort through their available employees to find the right candidates for tasks and projects. This search engine service also ties nicely to Namely’s team-building abilities. Employers can use the platform to either create custom teams or to automatically generate teams based on employee reports.

Because Namely’s system allows users to accomplish quite a bit without directly interacting with employees, it is helpful that Namely includes a communication function that allows users to readily share updates and messages with employees, all without ever having to leave the Namely platform.

In addition to all of these more advanced services, Namely also keeps track of the basic nuts-and-bolts information regarding company employees. Users can document salary and work histories, assess competencies, and track and approve requests for time off.