Huh? Much easier?!? You gotta be kidding.
Plug your phone into your computer, start Kies and hit 'update'. How can it possibly be any easier?
IF you have the german edition.... OTHERWISE, doing what you recommend nets -zero- result.
So:
-Put your phone into download mode (Vol down+Home+Pwr button)
-Run odin (as administrator in Win 7)
-Plug in your phone through USB
-Navigate to the downloaded ROM file under the "PDA" header
-Flash the rom
-Phone reboots itself into ICS and updates apps
...................................................
But by all means, If you want to sit there and plug into Kies and have it say that your phone is "up to date" then go right ahead.