Comment by makeitdouble

This is the same difference irl between:

- a post box you can leave your application

- a filing tray at the registration desk next to the clerk

For the later they have a real time handling of how much registration are coming in, and from who. They don't have to look at it realtime, but they have full control of the input and can either shut it down if needed, or immediately react to errors or issues.

It was a long time ago, but I once had a school clerk phone me right after I submitted a request, to tell me their system is dead and they want me physically come fill out the papers. For them it was a straight equivalent to the tray at their office, except it's digital.