The seventh grade students of the Fabriczius József Primary School in Veresegyháza were given the task of writing a short essay on e-services in the field of informatics.
We were very pleased that the dissertation presented the Linistry solution as an example of how digital transformation helps our daily lives.
e-services
Electronic services are gaining ground in economically developed countries. One of the basic conditions for this is that people have easy access to the internet. The older generation still believes in traditional forms of administration, but sooner or later they will also have to (or may) switch to its electronic form. The spread of e-services depends not only on the technology (internet, applications, smart devices) but also on their adoption and whether the same service in electronic form is really preferable. Why are e-services better than traditional ones?
Digitization - digital transformation
Some electronic services offer well-used services, but the process itself takes place in digital form. This is called digitization. However, it is important to distinguish digitalisation from the digital transformation so often referred to today, which creates services that cannot be created without IT. A great example of this is a Hungarian solution, linistry, which offers a virtual queuing opportunity, or digital education, in the framework of which this homework was also created. The Linistry e-service is also presented in more detail in the dissertation.
Advantages and disadvantages of electronic administration
I would include in its benefits comfort. There is no line to wait, we can arrange everything from our home, thus saving ourselves time. One of its disadvantages is that although the world of the Internet is quite an attractive and “nice” place, it is not advisable to spend our whole lives there. People move far less away from home, reducing movement in their lives. Their social relationships are also thinning and can result in a number of physical and mental health problems. There are also security risks to using the internet that we need to be aware of when using e-services. The protection of our personal data is of paramount importance.
Types of e-services: e-administration, e-health, e-finance, e-commerce, e-insurance, e-education, e-culture, e-tourism.
E-administration: increasingly common, essential due to continuous technological development. The European Commission defines e-administration as the use of information and communication technologies in administration to improve the quality of service through structural changes and the emergence of new capabilities.
E-health: it represents a new approach to the organization of health care, in which diseases are prevented, diagnosed and treated using various IT tools. The primary goal is to make health information more accessible and to improve the efficiency of the health system.
E-finance(e-banking): banks offer this service, where the customer can access his bank account electronically and manage his finances and investments.
E-commerce: a type of commercial activity in which a transaction takes place over the World Wide Web. There is no need for paper-based documentation, another advantage is the transparency of the transaction. E-commerce includes the turnover of goods and services, order management, promotion and marketing, and in the case of physical products, delivery. Its main forms are electronic auctions, web stores, electronic platforms and catalogs.
E-insurance: in e-insurance, the customer purchases a contract that obliges the insurer to indemnify if the customer’s health or property is harmed. E-insurance includes concluding a contract, contacting an agent, reporting damage, providing insurance advice, calculators and spreadsheets to make your choice easier, determining the amount of payments, and advertising your service. In many cases, this type of insurance is not very popular, mainly due to the fact that there is still a strong attachment to traditional types of insurance.
E-education: with the help of e-learning we can expand our knowledge through electronic media. Teachers and students perform their duties independently, they contact each other in case of difficulties, during which the parties do not have to be in one place in time and space.
E-culture: e-culture includes electronic services defined by information, providing information on cultural events and people involved in cultural life. These include reading online, downloading and using magazines, newspapers, music, movies, and games, listening to Internet radio, and watching online broadcasts. E-culture also allows for virtual viewing of museum exhibitions independent of space and time.
E-tourism: e-tourism is becoming more and more popular in the world. We can organize our vacation, book accommodation, buy tickets for travel, read reviews about the services offered via the Internet.
linistry - My phone waits in line
There are a lot of things in life that we do on a daily basis, but compulsively. Perhaps one of the most time consuming things is queuing. In fact, queuing is one of the basic principles of a democratic society, where those who arrive one after the other in time will receive the desired service in the order of arrival (banking, hairdressing, cosmetics, customer service, etc.). Often the source of dissatisfaction is the long wait, which overall worsens the service experience itself. "I waited 3 hours at the bank", although the service itself, the conversation with the clerk was only 20 minutes.Queuing time can (also) be used for valuable and other useful things. This basic idea guided the Hungarian entrepreneurs who created a company called linistry.
How long are we waiting in line?
The company provided interesting numbers. In 4 years, linistry has saved more than 57 years of waiting for its users in 5 different countries.In Hungary, users can use the linistry service in 129 stores and service providers. The Media Markt electronics store is supported on several fronts by the innovative solution: in addition to the digital customer call used in customer service, the technology is also used in the commodity loan administration process. As a result, in 2019, customers spent more than 1,500,000 minutes waiting in the shopping area instead of queuing, so even other products could be purchased. UniCredit Bank has been using linistry in all its branches since the spring of 2019, and has helped queuing a total of 1.3 million times since then. As part of the partnership with BioHair, the first queue of chatbots has also started, so those who are about to cut or dye their hair will log in and receive a notification via Facebook Messenger. This video shows you how: https://www.facebook.com/BioHairSavoyaPark/videos/2449115952011671/
Social distancing
Many rules must be followed to curb the coronavirus epidemic. One of these is social distancing, where you have to stand a certain distance from each other in shops or other social places. Reducing queuing, which is associated with physical proximity and thus helps the virus to spread, is particularly important. Many stores try to achieve this with signs drawn or glued to the floor, while linistry solves this with a completely innovative solution, technology. There is a need for this. People in the current situation understandably want to avoid queuing.
How does it work?
Using the service is simple. You can book an appointment through the web interface or via the chat bot connected to Messenger. The user logs in and selects the service. Either select a specific time band or join the virtual queue. You get a serial number. The system will notify you via SMS 20 minutes before the queue. You can keep track of the current number of waiting times on the screen. The service continuously recalculates the expected queue according to the development of the current waiting and administration time.
Sources used
https://landing.linistry.com/hu/oldal/hogyan_mukodik
https://biztositomagazin.hu/2020/03/25/az-mkb-bank- uj-digitalis-ugyfelhivo-rendszert-vezetett-be-egyes- fiokjaiban/
https://tv2.hu/mokka/324672_specialis-intezkedesek-a-koronav.html