Transitioning to Digital
There are very few things that are as satisfying as having everything you need to know at the click of a button or a flip of the finger.
Yet very few know how much it takes to have all of that information readily available to just about anyone.
It takes months or even years of planning, communicating, creating, developing, revising, brainstorming, programming and implementing before it gets almost perfected or even just ready for a certain population to enjoy. And most of all, it needs a whole lot of honesty and flexibility.
To some people like me, creating and getting this blog online and working took just a few downloads and uploads, some button clicking to install and prepare some software, and typing of words for people to read. But many are not aware that it took hundreds or even thousands of people to create from scratch and develop the softwares used to put up a blog and its many designs.
How about office software? It depends. If it is going to be used internally, then it just needs a handful of people. But if it is going to be launched on the Internet for millions of people to use, then a handful of people might just not be enough. Or it might be enough but the amount of time allotted from planning to implementation should be multiplied several times to achieve desired results.
Which is why honesty is very important when such a thing is going to be created and eventually implemented.
In the movie Jurassic Park, the lesson of rushing a software project just to meet a deadline turned into something disastrous. Recently I was reminded of that movie as I helped a friend of mine who just started his business to file his tax returns online. Since I don’t have those fancy fast Internet connections, it took me an hour or so to download that software he needed. I was glad that it took just a few minutes to type all the information needed for the forms. It saved us a lot of time. But when it came to creating an account for logging in, we tried to send the form again and again, but it only returned to the form saying there was invalid data but no message on the form itself saying where the invalid data was. Then the browser seemed to be sending the form for almost half an hour only to give us a message that we had an invalid ID which I understood of course, but my dear friend couldn’t. Which is why I understand why he came to me for help in filing the form.
He told me that he just recently found out that they had to file their forms online. Which to him was a really hard thing to do because he just recently learned how to send emails that are actually comprehensive enough and is not in text message form. So he let me read all the manuals, which to me was also rather too much for a new user.
I was about to pull out all my hair when after clicking the “Submit” on the form after validating the contents, the software said we couldn’t send the form as an email because the SMTP wasn’t ready. Then I thought, if I was my friend, I would be pulling out my hair by then. What does SMTP mean? How do I send email using SMTP on my desktop?
It was only after I pored through the other memos that I saw a small ray of sunshine to our predicament. We could send the form using regular email. That was a relief! So we did and it saved the day!
Then I thought of Jurassic Park again as we enjoyed some refreshments after that crazy day, and how the guy who was creating the software for the whole thing wasn’t being very honest as to the readiness of the whole system. And the man who owned the whole place who wasn’t really that knowledgeable about softwares didn’t get to read the signs saying that the system wasn’t ready. So they tried it out and put everyone’s lives in danger, including those that the man cared for.
Why is it similar to me? Because tax forms are an indication of a country’s economic health. The entities represented by each tax form suffer when a country’s economic health is in danger. The guy who created the Jurassic Park’s software, is almost the same as the team who created the systems that collect the information from all the tax forms filed. And since the tax forms are legal documents that when filed incorrectly or after the indicated deadline, they shall incur penalties. Penalties are never paid in kind. They are always paid in cash. And why would penalties affect a country’s economic health?
Simply because, the penalties that are required to be paid by a majority of untrained and technology-unsavvy business owners who cannot comply with the requirements of an information system that is not completely ready, are monies that could be used as working capital for the business or profit that could be used to buy so many more products and services in the free markets . And as many know, when more money is circulated in the free markets, more income is made for more people which leads to more spending, more motivation to put up more businesses which in turn increases the need for additional employment, and so continues the domino effect.
Here’s a simple computation. There are several thousand taxpayers who were required to pay the penalty of a thousand bucks plus a quarter percent of whatever their tax due is just because they couldn’t send the forms on time or correctly as they were only given about a week to understand how to use the whole online filing system. With the thousand bucks penalty alone, that’s a collection of several millions which is only going to go to the public coffers for some type of expense or other that would be decided upon by a handful of people. In the free market, what could several million buy?
That could be
100,000 lunches bought in either fastfoods or carinderias that employ hundreds to thousands of people
100,000 notebooks with writing materials manufactured from raw materials to finished product by thousands of people
100,000 people’s fare to and from work or school for a day as driven by thousands of public and private transport consuming products from the fuel industry to the vehicle manufacturing industries
1,000 executive employee’s half or full month salary who eat at all those fancy restaurants served by thousands of people from various types of food production industries
10,000 pairs of shoes with clothes manufactured from raw materials to finished product by thousands of people
155,555 MP3 songs downloads produced from raw materials to finished product also by thousands of people
100 students’ tuition and miscellaneous fees in private school where hundreds of people work in an educational environment that also contains food facilities, reading materials, electronic equipment, and so much more
It is understandable that imposing penalties is a way to make people comply with transitional procedures. Because realistically, it is the most effective way of making people comply. And sometimes it is hard to distinguish whether the complaints are being made only because they are still cramming their figures and the reports are not in.
But maybe, if a different approach was made, compliance wouldn’t be met by resistance too much.
Here are some suggestions.
- Make the filing schedule grouped according to maybe the last or first digit of some number sequence, or the last or first letter of the business name. Maybe day 1 is only for filers with the letters A-B, day 2 is for filers with letters C-D, and so forth.
- Give all filers, from owners to representatives, a demonstration month where if they do not interact or try the demo, they would be penalized. That way there would be an initial use of the system to help them get oriented with it, a collection of possible reactions from the actual users, and a more realistic report on all the physical and digital needs of such a transition
- Create and develop an online helpdesk with a complete knowledgebase of how to use each and every part of the new system, not just pdf manuals
- Give a guarantee to earn the filer’s respect so they would be motivated to use the system. Why not give the assurance that the system is ready to use, and if they find any problem along the way their penalties would be automatically waived as long as they email a documentation of the error encountered that prevented them from complying with filing requirements and deadlines. It would help the developers see which causes the errors in the system and find a way to fix them, and their bosses understand why things are not working as they planned
To be able to make filers comply with deadlines with the least amount of resistance is a great feat. To be able to make filers comply with deadlines using a digital system that they know nothing about and would rather resist would not only make the planners, implementors, and their bosses become heroes, but might just become models for many other countries who are also undergoing such a transition.
As for me personally, to be able to suggest ways to transform a paradigm of a whole national department from being a villain in the eyes of many into an international model for transition and change of other developing countries is something to smile about. And then some.
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