Last Friday’s global CrowdStrike systems outage raised multiple, highly justifiable concerns about our increasing dependence on IT. It showed how most of us (except the techies in the backroom) have almost no idea about the complex network of interconnected systems the puts information onto our glowing screens. Yet we rely on ‘technology’ to do our jobs.

In the case of CrowdStrike, the impact of the global systems glitch was particularly widespread because the ubiquitous cyber-security service is delivered through the nebulous cloud (i.e. Amazon, Microsoft, or Google), and also sits on many of the dwindling number of corporate in-house servers. But knowing that doesn’t help when all we can do is drink coffee at our desks while staring into the Blue Screen of Death.

As multiple businesses and services ground to a halt, it may have crossed minds that  we shouldn’t rely entirely on IT to do our jobs. Digital technology is no panacea. It’s nowhere near creating a Jetsons-style world, where all human needs are served by machines, leaving us to live a life of reclining luxury. In stark contrast, people remain critical to all processes in the insurance sector. We can’t do without us, and we have to work harder than ever before, even with the machines at our backs.

No matter what the latest gadget does, and regardless of the promises made by eager business development reps about their firm’s newest platform, insurance technology exists to serve us efficiencies, not drinks as we lounge around by the pool. Our constant goal at Quotech is to develop systems that make people more effective, and help them to do their jobs more easily by removing as many pain-points as possible.

We try not to crash the matrix while we do it.