Q. The IT technicians are drowning in a sea or work and work for clients is not being done in an optimum manner. Clients call and e-mail both to the general office and to individual consultants whenever they have any kind of hardware or software problem. Consultants manage the requests that come directly to them. Kathy Grey, the receptionist/bookkeeper, passes on requests that come through the general office. If the problem is complex it may require multiple trips and the technician has to keep track of illustrate what he or she has done to try to fix the problem. Sometimes a second technician has to be dispatched, necessitating communication concerning the previous work.

The president, Peter Charles, wants to develop a system that is both more responsive to clients and helpful to technicians. He would like to see a system that allows clients to directly enter their service requests. The system would track the status of each request along with the hours spent for billing purposes. Mr. Charles also wants the system to be able to generate statistics and reports so he can pursue continuous improvement in this area.