I lost my Oyster card at the weekend (for those of you outside of London, Oyster is the branding of London Transport's contactless ticketing technology). Years ago I lost an old cardboard-and-magnetic-tape season ticket, and remember the grilling that I received at the station ticket office to ensure that I wasn't simply trying to defraud the transport company, because in those days issuing a replacement ticket didn't void the old one. This time around, a quick rummage in my wife's handbag to find the spare she had in case of such emergency, a few moments on the Oyster website, and my balance was transferred and the old card (which is either on the floor in Sainsbury's supermarket, or carefully stored somewhere by my 11-month-old son) is now worthless.
A simple and straightforward experience in response to a commonly-occurring problem. But one that took vast investment that is now being expected to reap returns. There have been strikes recently as transport staff protest against cuts in staffing levels in, amongst other things, ticket offices. Putting aside your own views on industrial action (although when did you last believe in something enough to sacrifice a day's salary?), there is obviously a problem here. Quite simply, technology has removed the need for a whole stack of human work, but technology in and of itself isn't providing the full client service that can be provided by flesh and blood human staff (answering questions, a sense of security…).
There is a real risk that the technology ends up automating that that can be automated whilst leaving voids where people once were. The challenge for those of us who are impacted (and as I've proposed many times, that's the vast majority currently employed in IT) is redefining our roles in such a way that we remain the masters of the technology, not just serving it. That challenge is all the harder when roles have traditionally been associated with some sort of authority (like the chap in the season ticket office) are suddenly placed right into a client service spotlight.
mmitII 