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USING PROCESS TEAMS TO RECOMMEND ORGANIZATIONAL 
CHANGE: HELPDESK TO CUSTOMER SUPPORT --
HOW? WHY? WHEN? WHERE?

Linda A. Cabot
Director, Customer Support Center
Office of Information Technology
Georgia Institute of Technology
Atlanta, GA 30332-0710
linda.cabot@oit.gatech.edu
(404) 894-6145
FAX (404) 894-9548


In January of 1995 an eleven member process team 
was selected to examine the current Helpdesk 
process and how users were receiving computer 
support. The team found that the users often 
preferred to contact someone they knew in the OIT 
organization rather than using the centralized 
Helpdesk. This informal process was labeled the 
"good ole boy" system and recommendations were 
forthcoming to formalize that process and still 
capture the activity and time spent on problem 
resolution. Twelve recommendations were submitted 
to senior management that would continue to grow 
what worked as well as change how requests for 
assistance were handled to a consistent process for 
everyone. The new process was defined, charted and 
implementation began in September. Intitial 
response from the user community has been positive. 
The implementation will continue as noted below.


HOW TO IDENTIFY THE BROKEN PARTS OF THE EXISTING 
PROCESS

In order to examine the existing processes and 
identify what needed to be changed, several 
perspectives were solicted. Since our users come 
from the research, academic, student and 
administrative support communities, each was 
represented on the cross functional process team. 
With leadership's commitment to a renewed focus on 
customer service, we needed to segregate what 
worked currently and recommend how to scale that to 
the entire organization.


WHY INSTITUTE CHANGE IF AT LEAST THE MAJORITY OF 
CUSTOMERS WERE BEING SERVICED?

Delivering quality computer support becomes 
increasingly difficult with the rapid changes in 
the computer industry and is only aggravated as we 
continue to stretch personnel and budget resources 
to meet the support needs. Support personnel were 
consumed with fire fighting and with the "good ole' 
boy" system working for some of the users. OIT 
personnel were being pulled in many different 
directions with little focus and no way to account 
for time spent putting out the fires. All users 
needed to receive quality service, not just the 
ones who found their way through the maze.


WHEN SHOULD A NEW PROCESS AND/OR ORGANIZATION BE 
IMPLEMENTED?

With new leadership, the opportunity to refocus on 
the customer was possible. To be able to redirect 
funds and resources to implement the process teams' 
recommendations, decision had to be made prior to 
the new fiscal year (July 1995). Appointing the 
process team in January, with recommendations due 
by March, allowed three months lead time to 
redirect resources. The three months lead also gave 
ample time for input and reactions from the OIT 
organization.


WHERE SHOULD THE RESOURCES BE DIRECTED AND HOW TO 
COMMUNICATE THAT TO THE STAFF

Several "all hands" meetings were held to discuss 
the proposed changes, the renewed focus on the 
customer, and to solicit feedback from all 
departmental staff. OIT staff were invited to 
suggest changes in the proposed organization, to 
address personal concerns with the plans, and to 
understand how and where they fit in.


NOW.....

Ten of the teams twelve recommendations have been 
implemented. Data is tracked and presented weekly 
to reflect the customer's satisfaction to the new 
process. A new software application (Remedy) has 
been acquired and installed. Significant effort is 
underway to scale the recommended process to all 
OIT departments with the use of one consistent tool 
and members of all departments are in the process 
of being trained.


FUTURE......

Plans are to provide internal training to all OIT 
staff on basic project managment, use of the 
software tool so that we track all requests for 
service, and to validate the data collection 
methods to ensure they accurately reflect the level 
of service provided to the campus. The process and 
tools will then be introduced to our distributed 
support structure on campus.