India is a land of surprises. It surprises me too sometimes, though, of course, I'm a native and have been one for more than 35 years.
Since about a year or so, utility bills in our city can be paid 24x7x365 - bill payment has been automated. The machine scans your bill, accepts your cash/cheque, and gives you a receipt. But there are two catches. Some people don't know how to operate it. Simple voice-based instructions/prompts in Kannada, Hindi, English would have probably helped, but this has not been provided. So there is a person standing next to the machine to help you. He gets the machine to scan your bill, feeds the cash into the machine, and hands you your receipt. The other catch is that the machine refuses to accept some notes. New notes, old notes, big notes, small notes - it rejects them all at one time or the other. And the solution is again the same - the human interface to the machine helps you - he folds the note down the middle, so that a V shape forms and then feeds it. Sometimes the machine plays along. Other times he goes into the utility office to get change or replacement notes.
I went to pay my electricity bill two days ago. There were three people already there. I saw the helping hand shoot into the main building as I entered the gate. He's gone to get the change I thought to myself. A customer was in the process of handing out cash to the machine. He was at the end of his patience I could see. I've felt like that many times myself. But I was a bit taken aback all the same to hear him talking to the machine - he was asking it something. And I have just got over the shock of seeing mobile phone users, for all practical purposes, talking to themselves in droves. But then something else happened which was more astonishing - the machine was talking back. And the voice was human. Strange. It was asking him if he had put the note inside. He replied yes, and the machine asked him to put the next note. A real conversation. Then the whole thing became clear. The human interface had somehow got into the machine from behind - and he was doing something there to help the afflicted customer. Who can deny the fact that ours is a land of surprises?
Finally the man was done. Before leavng he helped the next person in line with the initial part of the process. He chose the mode of payment as 'cheque'. But the person actually had only cash. So he was left staring at the screen prompting him to enter the cheque date and number. There was no way to cancel or exit. I entered some date and cheque number expecting the heavy hand of the law to fall on my shoulder any moment. But it worked and we began his transaction anew. The next person in the queue had two bills to pay and two five hundred notes. But the bills were for Rs 600 and Rs 400. Things looked like dragging on for sometime so I left.
I went back today. And there was the good samaritan (he must be getting paid though). And the machine was talking again. How was that possible? Someone else was working behind the scenes. And the earlier manual cash counters had been re-opened (I don't know since when). So there we have it. Automated bill collection has led to additional employment as advocates of computerisation have always claimed. The two men at the manual cash counters still have a job, and there is one additional person to man the machine, with an additional part-time employee doing an inside job.
Since about a year or so, utility bills in our city can be paid 24x7x365 - bill payment has been automated. The machine scans your bill, accepts your cash/cheque, and gives you a receipt. But there are two catches. Some people don't know how to operate it. Simple voice-based instructions/prompts in Kannada, Hindi, English would have probably helped, but this has not been provided. So there is a person standing next to the machine to help you. He gets the machine to scan your bill, feeds the cash into the machine, and hands you your receipt. The other catch is that the machine refuses to accept some notes. New notes, old notes, big notes, small notes - it rejects them all at one time or the other. And the solution is again the same - the human interface to the machine helps you - he folds the note down the middle, so that a V shape forms and then feeds it. Sometimes the machine plays along. Other times he goes into the utility office to get change or replacement notes.
I went to pay my electricity bill two days ago. There were three people already there. I saw the helping hand shoot into the main building as I entered the gate. He's gone to get the change I thought to myself. A customer was in the process of handing out cash to the machine. He was at the end of his patience I could see. I've felt like that many times myself. But I was a bit taken aback all the same to hear him talking to the machine - he was asking it something. And I have just got over the shock of seeing mobile phone users, for all practical purposes, talking to themselves in droves. But then something else happened which was more astonishing - the machine was talking back. And the voice was human. Strange. It was asking him if he had put the note inside. He replied yes, and the machine asked him to put the next note. A real conversation. Then the whole thing became clear. The human interface had somehow got into the machine from behind - and he was doing something there to help the afflicted customer. Who can deny the fact that ours is a land of surprises?
Finally the man was done. Before leavng he helped the next person in line with the initial part of the process. He chose the mode of payment as 'cheque'. But the person actually had only cash. So he was left staring at the screen prompting him to enter the cheque date and number. There was no way to cancel or exit. I entered some date and cheque number expecting the heavy hand of the law to fall on my shoulder any moment. But it worked and we began his transaction anew. The next person in the queue had two bills to pay and two five hundred notes. But the bills were for Rs 600 and Rs 400. Things looked like dragging on for sometime so I left.
I went back today. And there was the good samaritan (he must be getting paid though). And the machine was talking again. How was that possible? Someone else was working behind the scenes. And the earlier manual cash counters had been re-opened (I don't know since when). So there we have it. Automated bill collection has led to additional employment as advocates of computerisation have always claimed. The two men at the manual cash counters still have a job, and there is one additional person to man the machine, with an additional part-time employee doing an inside job.
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