In the first half of the year, I had the pleasure of visiting a Queensland Department Of Transport office. I turned up in my lunch break, with the expectation that I’d be in and out in a jiffy. What I was confronted with was an automatic ticketing system which seemed to be at a stand still and an ever growing number of people. The swift expectation was shot down when 20, 40, 60 and 80 minute markers lapsed while waiting to get served.

With the previous experience under my belt, I arrived at the Department Of Transport on Friday morning at about 7.40am. As expected, the office wasn’t open yet and it didn’t open until about 8.30am. What I couldn’t believe was that there was someone there before me! In the next hour, another fifteen people turned up to get in the door when it opened. Once the doors opened, the stream of people was unrelenting and by about 8.45am, there would have been close to 50 people waiting to get served.

When waiting for the office to open, I chatted to a man who works near by. He informed me that it was normal to have lines of people at that hour and that it got worst. Apparently in the 9am to 10am window, there are close to 100 people waiting in their office. To help with processing, there were two people in the public area of the office, trying to shuffle fast service queries through. The last time I was there, it was very busy but this was unbelievable. I wonder what it must be like in the lunch hour period now?

I think this experience has become common in many service industries. Companies and employers are trying to decrease costs but at the same time, they are frustrating their customers. You can turn up to nearly any bank, any time of the day to find the same scenario – 15 tellers and only 3 of them are active. Meanwhile, the queues continue to grow and customers become more and more frustrated.

It surprises me that more companies aren’t turning to technology to ease the pressure. A vast portion of queries that people go to an office can be done online or voice prompted over the phone. To me, it’s about working smart, putting resources where you get the best return. Having a good quality, clear and functional website would reduce load on these offices by significant percentages. A normal website can service hundreds, even thousands of requests per second – no matter what sized offices you had, it’d be impossible to match those figures. The numbers are compelling, so what’s stopping them?

A new article about Australian Idol 2006 finalists Damien Leith & Jessica Mauboy is now available.

Tonight saw the culmination of the third Australian Idol. For the last three months, contestants have been battling and belting out their biggest and brightest notes, in an attempt progress through the aggressive selection progress to make it to the grand final at the Sydney Opera House. What happened tonight, is sure to have gob smacked a vast portion of the Australian public. In some strange twist, Kate DeAraugo managed to out vote Emily Williams to win the grand final.

Kate’s performance throughout Australian Idol has been quite good, however compared to other singers – her overall package and skills were lacking. She has progressed through the weeks, by giving good performances and relying on other singers delivering an ok performance. As the competition crept towards the business end, her weaknesses were starting to show. Week after week, Mark would criticise her for not letting go of her voice, not connecting with the music, not transcending. Yet through all the criticism, the public continued to vote for her.

In stark contrast, Emily Williams has been delivering high grade performances week after week. She has received the ultimate ‘good job’ stamp (read: Touchdown!) from Mark no less than three times in the last few weeks. They suggest that she do something, next week she comes out and delivers it bigger and better than they could have imagined. Kyle went as far to say, that he hasn’t heard someone sing Whitney Huston, that isn’t Whitney Huston and make it worth listening too – yet he gives complements like that to Emily.

I have to believe that Kate DeAraugo has won Australian Idol, not through her ability to sing, nor her ability to perform – but in her Barbie Doll like appearance. No sane person could honestly believe that Kate was a superior singer to Emily, yet Kate stands in utter disbelief that she has won. The organisers of Australian Idol, need to some how factor in who is voting – not just the raw number of votes. Assigning the same importance to a 12 year olds vote as to an adults isn’t fair to the performers, they are just being cheated.

One can only hope that Emily Williams soars to the top, just like her amazing voice.