It’s interesting what sorts of conveniences really take off with the public, and which do not. Personally, I like doing some errands, and hate doing others. Grocery shopping and laundry, or tasks handled at a ward office, that stuff is fine. What I really loathe is managing a huge amount of paperwork. Applications are irritating, and bills are perhaps the worst. As a result, I’m always happy to speed up the process should it be possible to conduct online.
This sentiment is apparently not shared [jp] in a number of prefectures. Saga prefecture’s police department is shutting down their online system for various document forms at the end of this month, after shouldering roughly 400 million yen in startup and maintenance costs. The project went through a pre-launch prep period between 2004-2006, and was rolled out soon after. In the subsequent two year period (2006-2008), there were roughly 14,000 requests made in person at their offices, and zero users of the online service. What?
I decided to check out the site for myself: Saga Police Prefectural Homepage. Just try and find what you’re looking for. I’m not going to hound them for the archaic web design, but one attempt to use the “system” illustrated clearly to me why there were no users. You need to click on the 「申請・届出等様式提供」button down towards the bottom, which since it’s a button is not searchable, and the text is challenging to read due to the various color contrasts. Then you find yourself at the information/explanation page for their system.
Yikes! I mean, it is straightforward. They’ve got a big pile of documents online with a standard format outlining certain pertinent details about each one, plus PDF/Word file download ability. I actually do like that, but it is extremely difficult for me to imagine any scenario in which the development of this system would cost 400 million yen over the course of 4 years, with half of that being pure development. They mention server costs, but really, how did they calculate that cost? Including the total annual salary of anyone who tested it? Ridiculous!
The point of this post is actually less about online conveniences, and more about seeking quality over, well, tradition. This project is clearly something that should not have been handled in-house. The fraction of the time and cost in which this could have been handled should really be a lesson to other prefectures who are considering online development (or who are considering shutting down in the same way as Saga, or Fukushima before it).
In Canada the ePost service is quite helpful. Participating companies, of which there are many, send your monthly account statement/bill to epost and you can view all your bills in one place. It also provides the opportunity to pay the bill from the site. epost also archives your statements for a long period of time. The alternative in to receive electronic statements direfctly from each company and deal with the archiving on your own.
Santana Bay!
I always wondered how the ePost business worked. That’s extremely convenient, I know I’d appreciate a unified system like that here. While I don’t think it could incorporate all that many companies, there are a few big, regional bill-takers that seem to fit the, er, bill. For example I’m in Kyoto but I’m still with Osaka Gas and Kansai Denryoku for utilities, same as when I was in Osaka. The spread of the two is quite huge.
While not quite the online setup, I did go through the rigmarole of having it set up so that my rent and gas charges are automatically withdrawn from my bank account. That’s very nice, and leaves only the power bill to pay manually.