Depending too much on technology is not good

By Hanny Agustine

JAKARTA (JP): The banking industry, a sector most affected by the economic turmoil, suffered further when more than 500 bank offices were damaged or burned down in the recent riots.

Angry mobs rampaged and burned not only the buildings, but also ATMs. Bank Central Asia, the biggest private bank in the country, was a major target. Almost 150 ATMs and 122 branch offices were rampaged, looted and/or burned down.

As a result, as reported by the media, there were long queues in front of the bank's ATMs still in operation. Customers waited for hours to get to the head of the queues.

BCA has the most sophisticated online system out of all the country's banks. The bank, which had almost eight million customers before the riots, relies on its almost 1,800 ATMs.

Unlike ATM services provided by several other banks which allow withdrawals only, BCA customers can also pay their telephone, electricity and pager bills or transfer money to other BCA branches which are online. This helps accelerate business transactions across the country.

ATMs became widely used here only a few years ago. Things are very simple, just push in your pin and account numbers and make a transaction. When you need money, you can withdraw from an ATM machine any time of day. Customers do not need to keep a lot of money at home and there is no need to go to the bank frequently.

Due to the ease, it is not surprising that more and more people are using ATMs. People have become used to ATMs, even dependent.

Over the last three years, there has been a growing focus on core business among large users. Indonesian executives are slowly seeing information technology as a strategic tool, which can contribute to business performance. They are beginning to look into information technology to help reduce costs and increase revenue.

The introduction of ATMs banks spread widely and a dependency on technology grew.

From a customer's viewpoint, the simplicity and various features offered by ATMs create more dependency on technology.

It was not easy, though, to convince the public about the benefits of ATMs. Banks actually introduced ATMs a long time ago, but it took years before people accepted the technology.

When the riots rocked Jakarta in the middle of last month, the reliability of ATMs broke down due to vandalism. Many customers had to delay telephone bill payments or postpone business transactions.

There are lots of benefits in online systems, but once the system is interrupted, business is affected. This indicts how dependent we have become on technology.

Obviously, a lot of money was spent on preparing the infrastructure and applying the technology.

Now the banks which were affected by the recent riots have to invest in new machines, rebuild branch offices and install new systems. Even though the destruction of ATMs and branch offices does not affect a central computer system, a backup system has to be set up and disaster recovery system implemented.

However, technology needs infrastructure readiness and therefore bringing back normalcy will take some time.