It is amazing to me how dependent we have become on
computers. Paper and Pencil are still
used but they don’t come first in your mind in today’s work environment. Typewriters have also seen their day. It’s
difficult to even find one. We use
computers for every conceivable work function in some fashion. They exist in vehicles for better operation,
we’re connected by cell phones that really are small computers and all sorts of
electronic devices. The technology is
here to stay.
So when these things go south it is difficult to
manage. The computer server the city has
used since 2006 has seen better days.
Over the past few months we’ve had glitches, bumps and down time with
it. It affects all of those who work for
the city. Aside from the starting and
stopping of the server the email exchange was completely shut down. This contact system we take for granted has
changed the way business is done. We had
to revert to personal email accounts as we still had internet connections when
the server was running.
The reliability of the server shutting down at a critical
moment is really disconcerting. We’d hate to see it go down when doing payroll. One payroll required paper checks as we
couldn’t do electronic fund transfers.
Paying the bills falls into the same category. The city has made the
change to a new system at approximately $15,000. It’s interesting to note the server in 2006
was $16,000 so costs have come down and equipment is better.
The transition to the new server was not without some
problems. The data was saved with
adequate backups. With email shutting
down on December 27th we lost all messages from that date on. If you emailed us during that time we didn’t
get it. Please get back to us if that is
the case. The technology today is great
but it is fussy. Some newer programs
don’t work with old. Updating has
benefits but also detriments.
We now have a system that works well. I’m hoping all the bugs have been worked out
but expect some glitches along the way.
One such glitch is the scanning option on our copier isn’t working and
needs to be reset. Call the copier
repairman! We’ll get there but it hasn’t
been a smooth process. This is a love hate relationship.
