---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Mon, 10 Feb 1997 12:44:30 +0000
From: Madeline Windsor <windsor@BNLINFO1.BNL.GOV>
Subject: Re: Periodical subscription agents

 If you are just replacing an "automated claiming system" with a "automated
claiming system" the results are going to be the same.  And that is not good
enough in my book.  It takes following through.  That is,  sometimes, many
phone call and/or letters.  We just don't have the staff for that.  (We were
doing it, not all that long ago.)   But I do expect our subscription agent to
make those phone calls and follow through with any problem claims.  The
"automated claiming system" might document the claiming history, but it
often takes a human to interpret it.

And just forget invoicing problems.  I don't even want to think about
that.

The subscription agents of the world are like any other service, you
have to be an educated user to get optimum results.  We just had to
learn to use them better and make them work for us.

I know we would have to hire a FTP if we didn't have a subscription
agent.

Madeline Windsor, Brookhaven Nat. Lab.