Flight Progress Strips
Plazbot
Very interested to reads your comments. My career ended just as the prospect of EFPS raised its head. My sentiments were very much along the lines of unnecessary technology replacing a flexible, efficient & user friendly system with one which had limitations on its flexibility & which was far from user friendly & flexible. I say this in the light of being at Jersey Airport, which is hardly one of the "challenging ATC stations" nowadays & which handles a lot of GAT & light aviation (much of it presenting itself without much prior notice).
Since I retired EFPS has come in &, certainly in the beginning, caused a lot of problems (restrictions on GAT had to be introduced). That may well have been because the ATCOS' recommendation & requirements were ignored by an Operations Director who knew little (or nothing) about ATC; & the fact that she did not allow her ignorance to deter her from ordering the equipment which she had chosen.
My understanding of its operational use nowadays is that it is still restrictive & problematic at times & that it would simply be unable to cope with the type & amount of traffic that we used to handle (lots of light a/c calling out of the blue, no FPLS etc).
It is interesting to hear the opposite point of view - although you may work at a much busier IFR station.