Software-based administration

I once heard a broadcasted interview with a founder of the on-line employment agency monster.com. He said that when their software was working well, everybody in the office could have fallen over dead and the software would have kept making money for the next three months. The company would only grind to a halt when its bills were unpaid and suppliers cut off services. Some on-line banks are now like that: simply a server in the corner of an office.

Automation is also essential to administrative processes. Bank automated tellers and online banking are excellent examples. First, it greatly reduces costs. Second, "software-based policy" is the notion that the software only permits users to do the right thing. If there are clear rules about what people can and cannot do, the software will do it without requiring service personnel. The outcome is then evidence that the correct procedure was applied. This affects procedures, in that there needs to be much fewer cases where people can plead for exceptions based on their particular circumstances. If this isn't possible, it provides behavioral incentives to do right or disincentives to do wrong.

Automation is also essential to administrative processes. Automated bank tellers and online banking are excellent examples. It offers the following advantages:

1. It greatly reduces staffing costs.
2. It greatly reduces the possibility of human error and corruption.
3. It provides 24/7 instant service.
4. It allows for the use of language packs to serve a wide variety of languages.
5. It allows for "software-based policy," which is the notion that the software only permits users to do the right thing. The outcome is then evidence that the correct procedure was applied.
6. Technology should be invisible. The medium is just a way to communicate the message and shouldn't be a distraction. We want operations to be efficient and effective. The purpose is not to make people think: "What a cool website."
7. Data is entered only once, preferably by the client. Most data needs at least one of the following processes:
• Validation. The database has an automated procedure that checks whether data complies with a set of rules for acceptable data. It can ask for instant correction if the data does not meet the rules.
• Checked by a person.
• Approved by a person.

Software-based policy has the following requirements:

1. Software must be proven to be fairly glitch-free. Open source software is at least fixable, but an institution often needs programmers on hand capable of fixing glitches.
2. It needs clear rules about what can and cannot be done.
3. The system doesn't accept a form that isn't fully filled in, or isn't filled in with the required kind of data.

During a system review, you can easily evaluate whether a digital system can do a task. If the answer to both questions below is "Yes," then you probably can and there's probably already software out there:

1. Can the elements of a system be expressed as digital data (text, sound, pictures, video, electronic controls, etc.)?
2. Can its procedures be expressed as a flowchart?

Let's add the obvious. Your data must be secure from hackers. The simplest way is to keep the main data computers off-line, but it can be much better to have them online but have excellent data security.