I worked in the tech space for grocery during the period where a lot of states were converting from paper WIC checks to an eWIC or SmartWIC setup and jesus is that system just an obtuse mess for everyone involved. It was confusing for customers, it was confusing for employees, and it was confusing for the retailers. It was damn near impossible to support and troubleshoot issues.
It’s interesting how some govt programs literally fly, faster than sound, if the end result is a loud bang.
Meanwhile ones that are ostensibly meant to help people (SSA, VA, WIC) have the lowest quality programmers and program managers fucking it up for everyone.
I can’t speak for the others that you mention, but truthfully the WIC programs were actually fairly well fleshed out and the transitions introduced a lot of much needed changes to make the program more efficient. There were just a lot of moving parts and every state handled things a little differently.
Most of the friction was coming from the fact that the changeover introduced a lot of validation and oversight that customers and retailers were not used to with the older systems.
I worked in the tech space for grocery during the period where a lot of states were converting from paper WIC checks to an eWIC or SmartWIC setup and jesus is that system just an obtuse mess for everyone involved. It was confusing for customers, it was confusing for employees, and it was confusing for the retailers. It was damn near impossible to support and troubleshoot issues.
It’s interesting how some govt programs literally fly, faster than sound, if the end result is a loud bang.
Meanwhile ones that are ostensibly meant to help people (SSA, VA, WIC) have the lowest quality programmers and program managers fucking it up for everyone.
I can’t speak for the others that you mention, but truthfully the WIC programs were actually fairly well fleshed out and the transitions introduced a lot of much needed changes to make the program more efficient. There were just a lot of moving parts and every state handled things a little differently.
Most of the friction was coming from the fact that the changeover introduced a lot of validation and oversight that customers and retailers were not used to with the older systems.