Changing money in Patagonia

When I went to the Argentine Patagonia to see the glaciers I stayed at El Calafate, a small town that seems to exist for tourism only. Realizing that most guides did not accept dollars, I needed to change money, so I went to the local branch of Banco de Tierra del Fuego.

The branch was a single room, with the manager's office was in a corner, a desk separated by glass walls from the rest. On the other side of the room, two tellers took care of the customers, who waited in a single line. I walked in and saw there were half a dozen people in front of me. "I'll be out of here in five minutes, ten minutes at most".

Nearly half an hour later I was still there and there were a couple of people in front of me. A long line had formed behind. Exasperated, I tried to see why the tellers were taking so long with each customer. Gradually I understood that all their processes were manual. It reminded me of the way things were a quarter century ago, when I opened my first bank account.

Back then in Brazil – and still today in El Calafate - there were no computer records. If you wanted to withdraw money you had to go to the branch where you had an account because that's where the cards with your signature and your balance were. You'd hand the teller a check, he would find the paper file with your signature, check it (that's where the word "check" comes from), find the paper file with your balance, update your balance by subtracting with a pen the amount you were withdrawing, and only then give you your money.

Today we can go to an ATM at another country because your balance is in a central database, updated in real time across the world via a wide area network and the Internet. Plastic is replacing checks and, increasingly, paper money. Banking has never been easier.

Technology is a big part of it, yes, but banking wouldn't be so easy today without major restructuring of business processes. It must have taken an unbelievable amount of work, wrong turns, frustration and small victories to get to where we are today. If you compare the ways things were not so long ago to how they are now you'll feel a shock, as if you used to live in another world.

BPM is hard, no doubt about it, but when you see the rewards of constant work you remember that it's worth every drop of sweat. Even if you have to go to Patagonia to realize it.