Smash the Machine?

Smash the Machine?

Smash the Machine?
The whole fracking debate has got me thinking about how we fail to embrace the opportunities that new technologies bring.

The fracking protesters seem, to me, to be a combination of modern-day Luddites and NIMBY[1] reactionaries with a blinkered view of the world based on either ignorance or self-interest.  Or maybe they are they saving the planet from our greed; our materialism and… ourselves.

Whatever the truth, whoever is proved right, it’s the Luddite mentality that interests me.  Not the mentality that results in someone camping out or even trying to physically destroy the things they fear but the general sense of the word.   The definition of a Luddite is someone who is opposed to new technology.  The description is definitely negative and most us would want to avoid being described as such — yet we all have a bit of Luddite in us.
Remember when it was common to hear co-workers grousing about technology at every turn and blithely claiming ignorance of anything technical? We just didn’t describe it as a Luddite mentality.  But it was, and it still is. The thing is that it is no longer acceptable or fashionable to think this way.  With managers, employees — and customers – having grown up with technology, the Luddite is now regarded as an inflexible dinosaur.
Focusing on conveyancing and, in particular, my area of expertise — the provision of conveyancing searches – lawyers have moved a long way from the days when a lawyer once (2001) asked me what the Internet and the World Wide Web were.  The small number of inflexible dinosaurs remaining will not be insulted by this blog because they will not or cannot read it.

In addition, they are definitely not the sort of conveyancers we at Search Acumen want to work with.  Not only have we embraced technology and harnessed it to the conveyancing search process we are looking to distinguish ourselves from our competitors by innovating new ways of applying technology to the process that creates real business benefit for our customers.

And therein lies an interesting discussion –  how far can, or should, technology reach into the conveyancing process?  This is a question about ensuring the integrity of the process on behalf of the client.  However, if we are honest, it also, for some conveyancers, presages a threat to the their livelihood. This is different to being an ignorant grouse about technology — but it does mirror the original Luddites fear that they would be replaced by technology.
I believe that this prediction is misplaced and further that the integrity of the process can be enhanced and the conveyancer’s productivity significantly increased by new applications that, for example, Search Acumen will be bringing to market this year.
Conveyancing speed, efficiency and security can be further improved and this will be financially profitable for law firms that continue to embrace technology — do not let dinosaurs lead you to an uncompetitive position.  The end of that road is extinction.
For those conveyancing firms that embrace technology but are still mindful of process integrity, increasing productivity without reducing service quality is going to be a key issue going forward – given the diminishing pool of conveyancers and the increasing numbers of conveyances. Technical innovation and insightful process re-engineering offers a route to coping with increased volumes.    Will conveyancers embrace this opportunity? Or will Luddite fear and denial weigh in to smash the new, shiny conveyancing machine?
This is not about replacing the conveyancer.  The conveyancing process entails much more than conveyancing.  It’s about enabling a more intelligent, efficient and secure process to support their productivity. The climate has changed, the dinosaurs are dying and their successors are adapting to what is available in their new environment.

 

[1]Not In My Back Yard

Mark Riddick, Chair at Search Acumen

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