Let me reminisce a little.
For the past 25 years or so, automated systems are designed to connect an operator to the oldest call in the line, but it wasn’t always so. In the olden days of manual switchboards, a call to the operator would show up as a flashing red light. Operators had to try to answer the call within a certain time period, or a counter would increment, indicating a late call. Each shift (and totaled each day and each month), the late answer calls would be tallied and measured as a percentage of all calls. So operators could cheat on the service quality metrics by never getting around to answering the really stale calls. After all, once the call is late, it is already scored as a failure. Answering that call would put all of the fresh calls at risk. Automated systems put an end to that kind of gaming, and brought all sorts of new metrics as well.
That brings us to today’s post.
Coming up on two years ago, the federal government launched a multi-faceted consultation to develop a national digital strategy. As I have written many times, the government is embarrassingly late in delivering what was supposed to have been a 12-18 month exercise. I wonder sometimes if we will ever see the output from that consultation, or will it be like the calls that were ultimately abandoned on the switchboards of old.
Late on Thursday, we will see a new federal budget, a new opportunity for the government to demonstrate digital leadership. Will we see a digital strategy line in the budget?
At The 2012 Canadian Telecom Summit, June 4-6 in Toronto, we will explore the issue of Building a Digital Canada. It has a powerful lineup of speakers who discuss a wide range of issues associated with transforming our economy to compete effectively in a digital marketplace.
Have you registered yet?