WorkForceInABox.com

The former ISP of this blog is not 100% well regarded in this part of the world.

I sacked Streamline nearly 12 months ago but now they are trying to debit my account for another year’s fees.  I have been forced to change my debit card to stop them.

I enquired about how to cancel my account using the customer service support ticket system on their website.  This is the system that, as a customer, is the only possible way of getting any response out of Streamline.net.

Now I no longer want to be a customer – guess what?  To close my account I have to call a premium rate number where, surprise surprise, I sit in a queue that costs me more than next year’s subscription.  No reply in 20 minutes.

Am I the only one that thinks this is shoddy?

I’m a bit behind the curve on this story but it is incredible to think that the decision to nationalise Northern Rock was influenced by the inflexibility of its IT systems.

According to a National Audit Office report, the Government considered winding Northern Rock down but IT systems would have struggled to return funds to savers in an appropriate time frame which could have caused another run on the bank.

This is a classic unplanned event.  A major change that requires a super rapid response.  In today’s world where the only certainty is uncertainty, how does a business plan for events that it cannot even contemplate or conceive right now?

A new level of flexibility is needed from tomorrow’s IT systems.  At Blue Prism we are delivering an Operational Agility Platform to various leaders in customer service helping to create an operational capability to manage change – both planned and unplanned.