Tech is vital but it’s just a tool

The march of all things tech has been gathering momentum over the recent years and the present lockdown has both crystallised our thinking on the subject and accelerated all sorts of initiatives as we try to adapt to a remote working situation.

Some practices have adapted easily some have had issues that needed resolving but I suspect every practice is using tech more than before or perhaps in a different way.

The automated practice is still a glean in the eye for some but some commentators are pushing tech as the all encompassing solution to small practice ills as if a goodly dollop of tech will make the patient feel better and you know what in many instances it will definitely help.

Now rather than start a list extolling all things tech I thought I’d take a step back and think about way that Tech cannot help and the first thing that struck me was that the tech revolution didn’t make me my clients number trusted advisor and the important word here is “Trusted” Tech AI etc etc can do all manner of things but does it engender trust? Obviously not. It can help me with the advisor bit of the challenge naturally but “Trust” that’s a whole other issue altogether.

Thinking about that word “trust” for a moment do we actually trust the tech that we use? The answer is usually a resounding Yes but take for example Mailchimp which we all know is an email platform used to send emails to groups of people. I recently sent our email via Mailchimp at 9:15am one morning and accordingly was informed that all were duly sent. Strangely that evening at 8:00pm I was getting “Out of office” emails and people wondering why I was sending emails at 8:00pm some not very complimentary. Did I get a satisfactory answer for this phenomenon from Mailchimp? Not all nothing to do with us. Do I trust Mailchimp now? No definitely not.

So, we see tech cannot build or covey Trust nor can it handle dealing with a tax investigation or combating an over zealous HMRC.

Tech is profoundly important and we are nowadays able to do so much more in such less time and at a lower cost but the same was said about the steam engine and the industrial revolution.

Tech is a tool and lets never forget that.