Message-ID: <3A5F8324.A3DAD6F1@mit.edu>
Date: Fri, 12 Jan 2001 17:20:20 -0500
From: Greg Anderson <ganderso@MIT.EDU>
Organization: MIT Information Systems
MIME-Version: 1.0
To: infosys@mit.edu
Subject: Discovery Project Announcement:  Voice/Network Installation Transaction  System
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Good evening,

I am pleased to officially announce the work of an I/T Discovery project
to investigate improvements to the voice and data installation
transaction
processes. Project planning has been underway for several months to
scope the work and to determine the proper approach to this specific
Discovery effort. Because this project is based on extensive work
already
accomplished, we anticipate that the actual Discovery phase should be
very
fast. 

The project builds extensively upon the work done by the NTIP
(Network/Telephone Installation Process) team last year and will expand
on their recommendations for a transaction system.

This team's recommendations will focus on two areas:
1) providing a clear, easy to find, well-documented web front end for
customers to submit requests for voice and data services
2) developing requirements and assessing options for a system to track
customer requests for voice and data services.  Currently, order
tracking is done using a number of separate systems and databases. 
Order
tracking needs to be streamlined, the number of separate systems needs
to be
reduced, and the remaining systems need to be integrated with each
other.

The work will focus on accomplishing the above objectives for "simple"
installations.  It is expected that the recommendations and ultimate
solutions can be leveraged for more complex uses, such as construction
projects.

This project fits with the IS Strategic Plan Theme 3 of the IS Strategic
Plan to Operate and Improve IT, and is part of the Initiative to operate
and maintain services for Voice/data activities. 

The team is sponsored by Directors Dennis Baron, Nate Johnson, and Roger
Roach. The team consists of Lorraine Rappaport as the project team
leader and members of the VDIST and other teams are involved to provide
content and
guidance.

The project notebook is http://web.mit.edu/is/discovery/vnits.  If you
are interested in learning more, please contact Lorraine Rappaport
<ljr@mit.edu>.

The team will complete its work by late-January, 2001.

Many thanks,
Greg