(Sorry for the length of this, but it is a subject I have been harping on for a decade.)  The French first used sewing machines in 1841 to mass-produce uniforms for the French Army, but rioting tailors destroyed the machines. The Luddites were 19th-century English textile workers who protested newly developed labor-economizing technologies from 1811 to 1816. “The stocking frames, spinning frames and power looms introduced during the Industrial Revolution threatened to replace the artisans with less-skilled, low-wage labourers, leaving them without work.” (Wikipedia)
There will always be fear of new technology “taking our jobs”, but history shows that for every job technology destroys, there are multiple NEW fields that open up because of it. The trick is to stay ahead of the curve. I first entered this field only 15 years ago, but knew that as the internet grew and municipalities embraced the technology, that my job might be finite. The trick would be how to capitalize on the new direction. Most of us resist change – resist what works in favor of something that MIGHT work better. I didn’t want to give up faxing...but I did, as have the vast majority of you, and honestly, was that a bad thing? It saves me hundreds of dollars a year on toner alone.
County records are not going to take records off line. This is PUBLIC information that the public should be able to access. I’m not exactly happy that foreign countries have that access themselves, but it is what it is so adaptation is key to survival. Embracing the idea that we should charge big money for searches that aren’t do-able on line by India will work....for a year or so. Until MORE counties are on line and MORE counties put very old records on line. In a couple of years, you’ll be out of business.
Instead, we need to band together and use new technology better, faster, and stronger than offshore competitors. If the clients can get a high-quality product at a price at or near what they can get off-shore, they’re going to go with home-grown abstractors.
This is what Tom is talking about and what Boxi Software’s business philosophy is based upon. The baby version was built for Argent. Tom saw abstractors as a niche market in need of a software product designed with our workflow in mind. The original “alpha” version of Boxi was built so that I could remain competitive and take advantage of the new technology as more counties came on line. Boxi Software is designed to do that for everyone in our business today and into the future.to post a reply: login - or - register