e-Finance: E-citizen - a catalyst for growth

When did you last receive a letter from an old college friend by post? If you have a son or a daughter or a younger sibling away, have you ever received any postal mail from them? When did you yourself last send a mail by post to friends? When did you last visit a branch to know your account balances? When did you last stand in a queue to pay your telephone or utility bills?

Answers to most of these questions are in the negative today.

If our business card does not have an email address, we are not considered worth contacting. In any case, one is not contacted by mail in today's world if one does not have an email address.

If a recruitment company or an organisation does not have an email address, more than half of the suitable candidates do not care to respond, even if they are looking for change and even if the job advertised looks very attractive. Today, can we find an organisation spanning two buildings and not having email based communication?

I recently tried to reason with an extremely brilliant boy to respond to a job advertisement by a well-known organisation. The organisation is reputed for good pay and perks. The only hitch was there was no email address in the advertisement to which he could forward his CV and I thought he was feeling too lazy to go to the post office and post his application. He disagreed with my interpretation of him not applying.

In his opinion, the organisation had not yet come out of the Stone Age and he did not want to be part of such an organisation which was not responsive to changes. He considered joining them as a serious professional risk. All the talk of competition, missed opportunity, lack of good jobs, stability, etc did not appeal to him at all.

This is the change we are seeing around us today. A new generation has emerged. This generation has the mindset to adopt technology to its full potential. This generation is showing a lot of enthusiasm and effort to change the way people around them conduct their routines.

This generation is showing less tolerance for rigid people who refuse to change in spite of seeing the advantages. This is the e-citizen, all set to make the society around him an efficient place.

Today, if we have to make a holiday travel plan, or even a basic enquiry about flight availability, we seek the help of a travel agency. We spend a good amount of time locating the right travel agent and using multiple contacts to do so.

The e-citizen does not. He takes much less time in finding the answers than we take to explain our requirement to the travel agent. And, in most cases, he comes up with better answers.

Today, if one has to make a deposit or take a loan from a bank, one calls different banks and spends a good deal of time finding out basic information. The e-citizen does not. He finds the information much faster and, when talking to banks, he is much better informed and in a much better position to negotiate. He not only saves his time, but may also get a better deal.

The e-citizen does not send his photographs or letters to his grandparents staying away. Instead, he makes the effort to install a webcam on the PC so that they can see each other and talk to each other, which is a much better improvisation on their communication mode. The e-citizen has stopped going to his bank or standing in a queue for any financial transaction.

In fact, he has slowly moved out of relationships with organisations which do not show a compatible mindset and are slow to embrace technology to provide convenience and efficiency. Where he does not have a choice, he waits for alternatives.

Fortunately for this generation, the government in most countries is allowing them to develop the e-citizen mindset. The governance model is shifting slowly and steadily from department-centric governance to citizen-centric governance.

The governments in the region are taking a lot of effort to drive this theme. In fact, we have separate departments called e-government departments to steer the projects and ensure that the vision does not get blurred.

The same can be said about the banking community, which has traditionally been more aggressive in embracing technology. This community is always ready to participate and test any new technology and any new concepts such as Internet-based finance management, virtual banking, online service requests from service providers, online payments from payments gateways connecting banks and service providers to customers, etc. We have B2C, B2B, B2G, C2B, C2G, and G2G models where the e-citizen feels at home.

We are stepping into an era where the e-citizen becomes a catalyst for the growth of his community. Soon we will reach a situation where every citizen will be an e-citizen and the world will truly be a borderless, efficient and seamless place.

The author is Assistant Ganeral Manager of Doha Bank.