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The downside of digital transformation: why organisations must allow for those who can’t or won’t move online

<p>We hear the phrase “digital transformation” a lot these days. It’s often used to describe the process of replacing functions and services that were once done face-to-face by human beings with online interactions that are faster, more convenient and <a href="https://www.mckinsey.com/%7E/media/mckinsey/industries/public%20and%20social%20sector/our%20insights/transforming%20government%20through%20digitization/digital-by-default-a-guide-to-transforming-government-final.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">“empower” the user</a>.</p> <p>But does digital transformation really deliver on those promises? Or does the seemingly relentless digitalisation of life actually reinforce existing social divides and inequities?</p> <p>Take banking, for example. Where customers once made transactions with tellers at local branches, now they’re encouraged to do it all online. As branches close it leaves many, <a href="https://www.stuff.co.nz/business/123302983/asb-set-to-close-another-23-branches-as-customers-move-online" target="_blank" rel="noopener">especially older people</a>, struggling with what was once an easy, everyday task.</p> <p>Or consider the now common call centre experience involving an electronic voice, menu options, <a href="https://theconversation.com/sorry-i-dont-understand-that-the-trouble-with-chatbots-and-how-to-use-them-better-171665" target="_blank" rel="noopener">chatbots</a> and a “user journey” aimed at pushing customers online.</p> <p>As organisations and government agencies in Aotearoa New Zealand and elsewhere grapple with the call to become more “digital”, we have been examining the consequences for those who find the process difficult or marginalising.</p> <p>Since 2021 we’ve been working with the <a href="https://www.cab.org.nz/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Citizens Advice Bureau</a> (CAB) and talking with public and private sector organisations that use digital channels to deliver services. Our findings suggest there is much still to be done to find the right balance between the digital and non-digital.</p> <p><strong>The ‘problematic’ non-user</strong></p> <p>The dominant view now suggests the pursuit of a digitally enabled society will allow everyone to lead a “frictionless” life. As the government’s own policy document, <a href="https://www.digital.govt.nz/dmsdocument/193%7Etowards-a-digital-strategy-for-aotearoa/html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Towards a Digital Strategy for Aotearoa</a>, states:</p> <blockquote> <p>Digital tools and services can enable us to learn new skills, transact with ease, and to receive health and well-being support at a time that suits us and without the need to travel from our homes.</p> </blockquote> <p>Of course, we’re already experiencing this new world. Many public and private services increasingly are available digitally <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/public-leaders-network/2014/jan/07/new-zealand-uk-digital-revolution" target="_blank" rel="noopener">by default</a>. Non-digital alternatives are becoming restricted or even disappearing.</p> <p>There are two underlying assumptions to the view that everyone can or should interact digitally.</p> <p>First, it implies that those who can’t access digital services (or prefer non-digital options) are problematic or deficient in some way – and that this can be overcome simply through greater provision of technology, training or “nudging” non-users to get on board.</p> <p>Second, it assumes digital inclusion – through increasing the provision of digital services – will automatically increase social inclusion.</p> <p>Neither assumption is necessarily true.</p> <p><strong>‘Digital enforcement’</strong></p> <p>The CAB (which has mainly face-to-face branches throughout New Zealand) has documented a significant increase in the number of people who struggle to access government services because the digital channel was the default or only option.</p> <p>The bureau argues that <a href="https://inclusioncampaign.cab.org.nz/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">access to public services is a human right</a> and, by implication, the move to digital public services that aren’t universally accessible deprives some people of that right.</p> <p>In earlier research, we refer to this form of deprivation as “<a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/isj.12306" target="_blank" rel="noopener">digital enforcement</a>” – defined as a process of dispossession that reduces choices for individuals.</p> <p>Through our current research we find the reality of a digitally enabled society is, in fact, far from perfect and frictionless. Our preliminary findings point to the need to better understand the outcomes of digital transformation at a more nuanced, individual level.</p> <p>Reasons vary as to why a significant number of people find accessing and navigating online services difficult. And it’s often an intersection of multiple causes related to finance, education, culture, language, trust or well-being.</p> <p>Even when given access to digital technology and skills, the complexity of many online requirements and the chaotic life situations some people experience limit their ability to engage with digital services in a productive and meaningful way.</p> <p><strong>The human factor</strong></p> <p>The resulting sense of disenfranchisement and loss of control is regrettable, but it isn’t inevitable. Some organisations are now looking for alternatives to a single-minded focus on transferring services online.</p> <p>They’re not completely removing call centre or client support staff, but instead using digital technology to improve <a href="https://deloitte.wsj.com/articles/at-contact-energy-digital-powers-human-centric-cx-01643821371" target="_blank" rel="noopener">human-centred service delivery</a>.</p> <p>Other organisations are considering partnerships with intermediaries who can work with individuals who find engaging with digital services difficult. The Ministry of Health, for example, is supporting a community-based Māori health and social services provider to establish a <a href="https://www.health.govt.nz/our-work/digital-health/digital-enablement/digital-enablement-stories/digital-health-hub-supports-taranaki-whanau-access-services-closer-home" target="_blank" rel="noopener">digital health hub</a> to improve local access to health care.</p> <p>Our research is continuing, but we can already see evidence – from the CAB itself and other large organisations – of the benefits of moving away from an uncritical focus on digital transformation.</p> <p>By doing so, the goal is to move beyond a divide between those who are digitally included and excluded, and instead to encourage social inclusion in the digital age. That way, organisations can still move forward technologically – but not at the <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2022/jun/23/the-guardian-view-on-digital-exclusion-online-must-not-be-the-only-option">expense of the humans</a> they serve.<img style="border: none !important; box-shadow: none !important; margin: 0 !important; max-height: 1px !important; max-width: 1px !important; min-height: 1px !important; min-width: 1px !important; opacity: 0 !important; outline: none !important; padding: 0 !important;" src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/186905/count.gif?distributor=republish-lightbox-basic" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" /></p> <p><em><a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/angsana-a-techatassanasoontorn-1292067" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Angsana A. Techatassanasoontorn</a>, Associate Professor of Information Systems, <a href="https://theconversation.com/institutions/auckland-university-of-technology-1137" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Auckland University of Technology</a>; <a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/antonio-diaz-andrade-1361842" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Antonio Diaz Andrade</a>, Professor of Business Information Systems, <a href="https://theconversation.com/institutions/auckland-university-of-technology-1137" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Auckland University of Technology</a>; <a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/bill-doolin-1361879" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Bill Doolin</a>, Professor of Technology and Organisation, <a href="https://theconversation.com/institutions/auckland-university-of-technology-1137" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Auckland University of Technology</a>, and <a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/harminder-singh-1361833" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Harminder Singh</a>, Associate Professor of Business Information Systems, <a href="https://theconversation.com/institutions/auckland-university-of-technology-1137" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Auckland University of Technology</a></em></p> <p><em>This article is republished from <a href="https://theconversation.com" target="_blank" rel="noopener">The Conversation</a> under a Creative Commons license. Read the <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-downside-of-digital-transformation-why-organisations-must-allow-for-those-who-cant-or-wont-move-online-186905" target="_blank" rel="noopener">original article</a>.</em></p> <p><em>Image: Getty Images</em></p>

Technology

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The downside to loyalty schemes

<p>Loyalty schemes are everywhere – petrol stations, supermarkets, clothing stores, online shopping, airlines – all offering customers discounts and rewards in return for sticking with their brand.</p> <p>But the relationship may not be so clear cut. Big business don't just join loyalty schemes to make you loyal, they collect information on what, when, and how, you make specific purchases.</p> <p>Massey University business analytics professor Leo Pass said data gives businesses an overview of your entire purchase history.</p> <p>"Not only at your company but at other companies, and that way you get a more complete picture of the person you're dealing with," he said.</p> <p>But the potential for what companies could do with purchase data is huge.</p> <p>"Many companies have these tremendously large data sets on consumers' transactions. And there's so much more they could do with our data, but they can't analyse it, you need highly statistically knowledgeable people to do this," he said.</p> <p>Companies are gathering more information on their customers' buying habits, but may barely be making use of it.</p> <p>Companies increasingly felt it they had to join loyalty schemes to attract customers.</p> <p>"There's a lot of possibilities. One is advertising directed towards the right person and predicting what people would be worth in the future," Pass said.</p> <p>"One area is lending money - banks can know whether people are going to pay off the loan, or if someone is an insurance risk."</p> <p>Do you join loyalty schemes? Or are you concerned it’s an invasion of privacy? Share your opinion in the comments below.</p> <p><em>Written by Rachel Clayton. First appeared on <a href="http://www.stuff.co.nz/" target="_blank"><strong><span style="text-decoration: underline;">Stuff.co.nz</span></strong></a>.</em></p>

Money & Banking

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The downside of separate bank accounts

<p>My husband and I were barely out of our teens when we walked into the bank to open a joint account. And close our personal ones.</p> <p>We weren't married, we didn't even live together. I was 20 and my friends were horrified. It wasn't so much the opening of the joint account they took exception to, but the closing of our personal ones, so that all money was shared. No his and hers, just ours.</p> <p>We are the daughters of the first generation of women who earned their own money their whole lives. We were born and raised to be independent women, with our own careers and our own money.</p> <p>I get that. A man is not a financial plan. And that works really well while both partners are earning money, but what happens when you have children? In Australia, most women stay home longer than their paid maternity leave lasts (and it is still mostly women staying home with children), while their husbands continue to work.</p> <p>But when men are the only ones in paid employment, what happens to the money?</p> <p>For my husband and I, the answer is easy. Everything continues as it always has: it is our money and we both have equal rights and responsibilities over it.</p> <p>But this is not the answer for many other couples.</p> <p>A friend of mine, Janine*, works in the finance industry. She is ambitious and earns good money. When she had her daughter six months ago she was entitled to the government paid parental leave, but when that dried up after 18 weeks, she was earning nothing. And, because she is staying at home for the 12 months unpaid leave from her employer she is entitled to, she was staring down the barrel at about 8 months of earning nothing while performing the daily grind of child-rearing.</p> <p>Janine and her husband do not share money. They have a joint account for bills and household expenses, but they have never shared disposable income. To prepare for having a baby, Janine saved money so she would be able to afford to have coffee and go out with her friends and buy clothes that would fit and go to the gym once her daughter was born.</p> <p>I don't mean Janine and her husband saved up. I mean Janine saved up her money, while her husband carried on, and carries on, as normal.</p> <p>Scrolling through the various mum groups on social media, it seems Janine's lack of equal access to family funds is quite normal.</p> <p>Just last week Vanessa* posted in one of these mum groups about her ingenious ways of saving money on the weekly grocery shop so she could "keep it for a rainy day and spend it on little luxuries for myself like a cup of coffee and piece of cake!" Vanessa's husband transfers $200 each week into the joint account to be used on food shopping for their family of five.</p> <p>To my astonishment, the post was celebrated, with other mothers thanking her for these tips and looking forward to what they would buy with their new-found cash.</p> <p>In my naivety, I thought women squirrelling money away from what their husbands gave them for food shopping was part of a bygone era. Apparently not.</p> <p>Kelly, a stay-at-home mother of two aged three and 8 months, had to miss a friend's birthday dinner at a restaurant and bar in the city because she couldn't afford to go. Nothing unusual there; a lot of family budgets are very tight and it makes sense that this means sometimes you can't go out.</p> <p>But Kelly's husband went. He could afford it. Because Kelly and her husband have an agreement where he transfers her an amount of money every month. Yep. Like an allowance. Her husband doesn't have an allowance. Like many women I know and have come across, Kelly says it's "his" money.</p> <p>Why is it "his" money, but "our" children?</p> <p>This is not independence. It's certainly not a partnership. The lack of access to funds may even tip into economic abuse.</p> <p>A man is not a financial plan. Absolutely. I completely agree. But neither is paupering yourself in service to the family while your husband goes out earning his own cash.</p> <p>It's not as if these women aren't working. They're working their guts out. Never mind keeping the kids fed, clothed, bathed, rested, and teaching them to be decent human beings, have you ever tried getting dried Weet-Bix off the floor?!</p> <p>Without his wife to stay home and look after the children, a husband would be forking out thousands of dollars a week in childcare costs. And probably hiring a cleaner and cook too. These women may think they are independent, but in fact they are being taken advantage of and undervalued by the very person who should value them the most.</p> <p>I don't ask my husband for permission or funds to get a cup of coffee or a new shirt just because he's the one in paid employment while I look after our son at home. And he wouldn't dream of arguing that I haven't "earned" the money so I'm not entitled to it.</p> <p>We believe that each of us contributes equally to the family and is of equal value to the partnership, and so we are equally entitled to any money brought in. And yes, that cup of coffee.</p> <p><em>*Names have been changed.</em></p> <p>Do you have a joint, or separate bank account with your partner?</p> <p><em>Written by Polly Dunning. First appeared on <a href="http://www.stuff.co.nz/" target="_blank"><strong><span style="text-decoration: underline;">Stuff.co.nz</span></strong></a>. </em></p>

Money & Banking

Over 60

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