By Suzann Dodd, ContributorTHE OTHER day I had to renew my insurance. In ancient days I would go in to the company, the clerk would crack my file, ask if the information was the same, and when I replied affirmatively, scribble it on a cover note as I paid the cashier.
In a month or so they would mail me the policy.
Usually, even if two people were before me, it didn't take ten minutes to be in and out, for after all, there wasn't all that much information to be copied.
That was before information technology (IT).
Today it takes thirty five minutes. Same two people in front of me, but thirty five minutes from taking that seat to leaving the building.
Why? Because this company has no clue what computers are for, and it takes the clerk longer to 'cut' and 'paste' the information from one file to another on the computer than it takes her to write it afresh by hand.
I have been going to the same broker since 1986 and each year it takes longer. I suppose that's because they keep upgrading their computers to more complicated systems.
To make this company efficient one need merely remove all the computers.
Sure, if the company understood the purpose of a computer and could set certain 'macros' (that is, create a kind of template so that typing my name once could automatically fill it into all the boxes, as well as the premiums I'm paying) then by all means, give each clerk a computer.
But considering the reason it has moved from five minutes to thirty five is due to the fact that the clerk not only hand writes my information onto the cover note but has to type it into the computer (as well as having to make copies of my documents and attach them to the paper file).
It's a study in unnecessary duplication.
This company is not the only one which has no use for computers but feels it has to use them. It is just one more casualty of cyberspace.
Suzann Dodd is an attoney-at-law.
