Automatic, but not quite

I say good job BESCOM as far as automation is concerned. Those hand-helds to instantly print out your monthly electricity bill, and these automatic payment accepting machines.

Before this machine came in, paying my BESCOM bill used to be a 4-5 minute job. But now, it takes double that time. Why? Because, there is an attendant standing in front of the machine helping you with the payment process. He follows the steps as listed in an instruction board next to the machine (see pic above). He feeds all currency notes in the right way (Mahatma Gandhi facing up). Old and wrinkled notes, you know, the ones with crumpled edges give him no joy either.

I can guess that there is a man proxying that machine for a reason - there is no way everyone in Whitefield and nearby hallis can use it. Two things to say after watching it for a few months now - 1) it merely replaced the PC and printer at the billing counter, and 2) made the process twice as lengthy for bill-paying customers. You may doubt if this has been a wise investment.

A nice case study for either going overboard with automation, or not doing it right. Good try and start though, and may be that a better usable, multilingual, and talking machine will someday not require a front-man.