Before I start this post know that I love technology and understand how it has made things easier for most of us most of the time. But I worry that we are barreling towards a world where the only option is “self-serve” and it frightens me a bit, because every now and then, things go wrong.
I typically used the self-serve check out at the grocery store. I frequently just need a couple of things, so the self- serve typically works great. When it doesn’t, an employee is right there to help me. Recently a different self-serve experience took a bad turn: in December, the automatic baggage check at the airport almost left me wearing the same track pants for 6 days. Maybe I had it coming for travelling during the holidays, but this was something out of a movie… and it took days for the airport to sort it out. Luckily for me, a seasoned employee with override capabilities came to my rescue.
We are always working to make more areas of iCONECT ‘self-serve’. A novice user should be able to create a project, upload simple data, then look at their data with a few clicks. iCONECT makes this easy with drag-and-drop, templates and embedded processing. As soon as the data is processed, a user can organize their data into folders, search, view and redact and even complete a production. This self-directed flow is awesome when everything follows the “happy path”. But, when a project falls off the “happy path”, we need an experienced person. We need help to get back on the “happy path”, and if that isn’t possible then the exception path needs to be braved. This is why I think that there is a real need for valuable human input in any technology. As we continue to rely on technology to make our lives easier, we need to remember that we will need human intervention from time to time, and trained professionals to help redirect us to the path to achieve our goals.
The group of people who administer iCONECT, the users who search, organize, and find the facts of the case, and attorneys who use those facts to illuminate the truth and get justice are pivotal to successful outcomes. Their training, on-going use and understanding of their software solutions are what helps win cases. And while nobody wants to ship boxes of paper back and forth anymore, there are reasons for sending something to the printer, and experts with “override” power are needed once in a while.
Anyone looking to sharpen their skills can visit iCONECT’s training page for all our training options.