One thing that attracted me to technology those many years ago was the promise of a paperless world. I was drawn in after my first BB session ‘85/’86…hooked like a digital crackhead. To my young mind, I was simply amazed @ people sharing ideas in some distant magical world! Of course, the magical world is now where ideas and civility go to die, for the most part, but, I can still get excited by it. It’s the little things, really.

Digital documents and distribution methods make more information available to more people. At best, this information is highly available and readily update-able. This was the promise of the internet and I believe it continues to deliver on this promise. Partially out a want to be more Green™, but, mostly for efficiency, I seek out ways to make my life void of paper clutter. When I come across smart folks working to help me achieve this goal, I get giddy like a school lad. Insurance/banking giant USAA has done just this type of thing, again.

A while ago ( years ago, actually), USAA instituted paper-less distribution of insurance cards. No more need to get your whole insurance packet snailed to you- you’d just log in an print the card sheet with it’s cut lines and all…clip and save in the glovebox. I use this feature and all of their other electronic methods and they are awesome. Well, today, I needed to fax over said proof of insurance cards to someone. Facing having to download the latest version of the cards, printing them, then, manually fax them, I logged in only to see a few new options for getting the document: Download, Email, and FAX. Brilliant, absolutely brilliant. The UI is so well thought out as well- just choose Fax, fill in recipient name + number and hit Send.

Aside from the convenience factor for customers, imagine what USAA has saved in staffing by spending a little up front to make it virtually human-free for a customer to get direct access to their stuff. Win is abound here, folks.