Why is it that I only hear that noise in airports anymore?
It’s 5:00 am and I’m in yet another departure lounge in one of my two favorite OK airports. I’m actually headed out on a family trip with my husband and son (my volleyball killing daughter is staying home to wreak havoc on the hard court this weekend – while we attend a family wedding) when I hear the old familiar peel of likely an Okidata MI321 – did ya even know those things were still around!
Over my left shoulder I see a stately uniformed gentleman threading through yards and yards of paper as he prepares for his flight schedule of the day. I pull out my smartphone; snap the picture and my husband looks at me like I’ve just violated every line of the TSA regulations for air travel. I explain that over the course of my prof’l travels of late I can’t think of a single airport I’ve been in lately that this isn’t a familiar sound and picture and how I’ve wondered what pearl of productivity or efficiency wisdom the airline industry is hiding that they still utilize the dot matrix printing technology of the dark ages.
Much to my wondering eyes should appear, a quick Google search reveals that my awestruck (and naive, I might add) ideology of our seemingly technologically progressive air travel industry, the presence of the dot matrix printer and “jacked up” paper (per my teenage son) the reason finds itself, not in technology, but the lack thereof. Despite the fact that this “system” manages literally thousands of flights a day and innumerable people, bags, destinations and details – it, like the dot matrix printer it road in on is as archaic as the Fortran class I had in college – card scanners and all.
So my take on it for today – I talk to agents literally every day who are struggling with technology. These folks are making critical business decisions about data conversions, platform migrations, and workflow changes to take them into the next generation of not only their agency, but the technology infrastructure that supports it all. Most are bemoaning their data quality, embarrassed at the “systems” they thought they had in place for certain key functions of their organization only to find out when we dig into the data and what they thought was the case, isn’t at all, but don’t lose heart. More agencies I meet are in this position than not (ah ha, job security!) No really, as much as we’re told the insurance business is in the “dark ages” – at least we don’t have dot matrix printers in our offices anymore. Applied Systems and their Epic product has brought us light years ahead, but don’t let your data quality, or lack thereof be a stumbling block – take the plunge! With a quick series of reports in TAM you can pretty quickly identify a number of key things that you can take the time to cleanup that will make your conversion project much more successful, and trust me, it’s worth taking the time to do it.
Staring a data conversion in the face and scared to death? Contact us to help you navigate the unfamiliar and often intimidating waters with you.
