Simply papering over the cracks of the inevitable digital future

WE live in a curious time of in-between, an interregnum in which we have left many of the demands of the past behind but have not yet embraced the ways of the future. Which is a shame, since the future is so much easier, quicker and more efficient.

For example, our payment system is finally leaving behind the old plastic card technology that demanded a signature on a piece of paper, which then had details of the transaction imprinted through a so-called zip-zap machine.

Soon, all credit card payments will be made through a virtual card stored in an invisible digital wallet on our smartphones.

But, meanwhile, we are stuck in the world of in-between, using machines that take a digital imprint of the card and spit out a paper receipt. It feels more advanced, but in reality it is merely a connected, faster form of the zip-zap machine.

We see the same in-between thinking at work in what was once hailed as the most progressive of South Africa’s state institutions: the South African Revenue Service.

When SARS introduced eFiling in August 2007, few believed it would work. Yet, within a couple of years it was processing hundreds of thousands of tax returns, eliminating millions of printed pages, and dramatically speeding up tax refunds.

But it is almost as if SARS has lost its nerve. Now, when taxpayers experience delays in refunds and visit tax offices, they are invariably told to come back with the “original” print-outs of their e-filed tax returns. Of course, in the digital era, there is no such thing; any print-out from any computer is the equivalent of an “original” print-out, and it can be done as easily at the tax office as at home.

However, anyone who has attempted that argument at a tax office will know the futility of arguing with a bureaucrat. Whether it is bloody-mindedness, inefficiency or a ploy to keep staff busy, it makes no sense and reverses the goodwill eFiling created.

But it’s not only government departments that make demands that waste both physical resources and human productivity. Many finance departments in corporate South Africa demand that suppliers mail or deliver an “original” invoice, even though it would simply be a printed version of the electronic document that had already been e-mailed.

The policy is still in place at some telecommunications organisations, banks and large mining houses. It is archaic thinking and a remarkable form of institutional stupidity.

The intensity of competition today means that businesses must become fully digital to be nimble, responsive and efficient. And that is merely to keep up with competitors, let alone outperform them.

Meanwhile, even in the in-between world, where businesses acknowledge that digital has replaced paper, the future is also not fully grasped. Most companies still e-mail documents in basic PDF format that cannot be filled in electronically and therefore have to be printed out, filled in and signed with pen, re-scanned, and e-mailed.

The only reason businesses get away with this in-between technology is that most of their customers also reside in the in-between world, or even in the old paper world.

But the longer they wait to own their own digital future, the more likely they are to fall through the cracks of this bureaucracy, and no amount of paper will save them.