MIT Business Process Reengineering Project

The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) began a business process reengineering project in 1995 to reengineer many of its business functions. In particular, the information systems (IS) department was targeted as an area that needed to become more process-oriented and much more focused on the customer. This transition required a completely reengineered customer assistance approach that would include self-help resources, customer training, online documentation, and an IT partners program (Goguen & Hogue, 1997). Furthermore, the reengineering process needed to consolidate four separate help desks the Network Services, Vax Resource Center, Microcomputer, and Mainframe Help Desks into a single, unified support center that could receive over 60,000 contacts per year from a diverse and demanding user community (Help Desk Reengineering Project Community Update, 1996).

A help desk reengineering team conducted interviews by phone and in person to gather information and developed a process model to identify the major components of the help desk process. Three primary components surfaced during this activity: self-help, problem resolution, and prevention. Based on this process model, the team piloted a redesigned help desk approach to the second primary component, problem resolution. Customer calls were transparently routed through the pilot system, and some customers were asked to call the pilot help desk directly (Help Desk Reengineering Project Community

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Category: Business - M