I recently spoke at the annual Ways to Work Institute. The theme this year was "The Future is Now" and the title of my talk was "Embrace the Future." In our industry change is the norm. At Handel we always look for the latest greatest technology so that we can evaluate trends and help predict where the technology industry will be moving next. At Handel it has always been our number-one mission to deliver the absolute best information solutions to our customers so that they can spend less time doing administrative work and more time helping their clients. We believe better tools equal less time spent doing "paperwork" (I used quotes because most RiteTrack users don't use much paper anymore) and more time spent delivering services. In preparing for my talk I decided to look back to see where we have come from. As I have often said before, the past is the best predictor of the future. If we look back to see where we are coming from, we will have a better chance at predicting where we are going.
The evolution of technology has been astounding over the past 20 years. But 20 years isn't even a blink of an eye in the history of human development. To really put things in perspective, let's look back to the beginning of modern human development. It is generally agreed that the stone axe was developed around 65,000 years ago. It took another astounding 55,000 years before we start seeing humanity change from a hunter gatherer civilization to farmer. It is only 5,000 years since the horse was domesticated, 1,000 years ago since the Vikings crossed the Atlantic Ocean, and just a little over 500 years ago since Gutenberg invented the printing press. With this perspective on time, it seems almost unfathomable that only one generation ago, it was uncommon to have a personal computer at home and that only a decade ago few homes had broadband internet. As recently as 2003 there were no social media such as Twitter or FaceBook, and today we have over half a billion people using FaceBook.
In short, we have come a very long way and the pace is accelerating at an astounding rate. And what are the consequences for our industry? What does the future look like for delivery of services? With the current development the following either already has become true or will become true in the very near future:
• Data storage capacity has reached infinity
• Wireless broadband Internet is available everywhere
• Everyone carries a portable, camera-equipped device such as a smartphone or a tablet that can access the Internet from anywhere
If we believe this either has happened or is very close to happening let's think what impact this may have on service delivery. We can access a complete client record while visiting a client in his/her own home. We can enter diagnosis or approve a service while meeting with the client. In other words, data is entered as the services are being delivered. No more "catching up on paperwork after returning to the office". We can issue a request for a psychiatrist while talking with a client and then have a psychiatrist “join the meeting” via high-def video, instantly providing counseling services. Meanwhile our request for service delivery has been approved and a client budget created. While visiting the client we notice that the client's 4-year-old daughter appears to be falling behind developmentally. We can instantly do a search for available services and schedule an appointment for an evaluation—all while sitting in the client's home.
All the technology to make these scenarios happen is already available today. All we need is the software that can glue all these different pieces together. This is obviously where RiteTrack comes in. With RiteTrack now fully established as the next generation of human services software platform that runs on the web, it is just a matter of waiting for limitless availability of wireless broadband and widespread adoption of truly portable technology. The future is indeed now.