What it is (plain English)
A single, modern portal where employees go for everything the company provides them — raise an HR question, request IT equipment, book a desk, ask legal — without needing to know which department owns what. It's the front door that makes ESM feel unified to staff.
Problems it solves
- Employees hunting across separate HR, IT, and intranet sites for basic services.
- Low adoption of self-service because it's fragmented and unfriendly.
- Each department reinventing its own portal.
What must exist first
Platform Core Setup — users, groups, and departments. Employee Center is the portal; the actual services behind it (HR, IT, legal) can be added incrementally.
What the customer needs to provide
- Branding and content: logo, colors, the top tasks employees actually need.
- Which departments/services go on the portal first (start with the highest-traffic).
- Taxonomy decisions: how services and knowledge are organized for employees.
- Someone to own portal content and curated experiences.
Where it can go next
Add department workflows behind it: HR Service Delivery (HRSD), Legal Service Delivery (LSD), IT via the service catalog, workplace, and procurement. Virtual Agent and AI Search layer on self-service deflection.