Today, more than ever before, an organization’s or individual’s level of success often depends on how well they deliver customer service. However, what does delivering customer service mean? Many people would quickly respond by saying, “Giving the customer what they want,” while others may say, “Giving the customer what they want and when they want it.” I would like to suggest that neither of the above represents the most appropriate response. The purpose of this topic is to explore one of the greatest challenges my teams face in delivering world-class, high-quality technology solutions to our customers fast and on time. Three customer service core elements will be discussed: customer wants, customer needs, and understanding related business processes.

Changing e-mail systems in any organization can be a daunting challenge. Recently, the Church switched worldwide from Novell GroupWise to Microsoft Outlook. One hundred twenty-five servers throughout the world were consolidated to just four dedicated servers in the Provo data center. The enormity of the migration is reflected in the following statistics about the rollover:

• Data Migrated: 1.4 terabytes
• Items Moved: 20 million +
• Mailboxes Moved: 15,000
• Users Moved: 10,130

In addition to the technical challenges presented by the transition, a large amount of training and preparation work was done in order to make the transition as smooth as possible.

“Clearly one of the central skills in design is the ability to rapidly become fascinated by problems previously unheard of.” Bryan Lawson

In his book How Designers Think, Bryan Lawson puts many of the problems and experiences involved with design to words in one of the best fashions I’ve read. While the book is written from a mostly architectural design perspective, Lawson’s conclusions are relevant to all disciplines of design. Both architects and interaction designers deal with many constraints that require deep analysis to design. Both strive to deliver solutions.

Lawson describes design as a “negotiation between problem and solution through the activities of analysis, synthesis and evaluation.” As a team of interaction designers at the Church, we strive to provide solutions and experiences to the user that are conducive to the building the kingdom of God. This book conceptualizes many of the problems we face, approaches in providing solutions, and the process of design.
Here are a few excerpted highlights from the book and insights from a design perspective here at the Church.

Thanks to everyone who viewed and participated in the inaugural Online Tech Talk Thursday night (August 28th)! We are very pleased with the success of this event and grateful for the opportunity to collaborate with the community.

For future viewing, this event will be posted here within the next two weeks. Add the LDS Tech feed to your RSS reader to be alerted when the content has been posted. We welcome your feedback and comments in the forum and by This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .

URL: http://maps.lds.org

Description: Maps.lds.org provides a simplified user interface for locating LDS places of worship anywhere in the world.

The Web application leverages spatial data management technologies from Environmental Systems Research Institute (ESRI) and rich base map support from Google and Microsoft.

Unlike the previous Meetinghouse Locator, the new maps.lds.org provides a more visual, dynamic user experience. You can switch from road to satellite or aerial views, zoom in or out, and drag the map around.

I have worked in IT support for much of my career. One of the things I learned early on was that supporting a poor IT product or a poor IT organization is fun and easy. That may seem a little strange, but it is true.

Poor products and weak organizations create many repeatable support incidents. Call center agents and support managers soon have all the answers—many, many answers. Resolution rates are through the roof. You look good.

I remember supporting a particular product when my team and I made code changes over the phone. It was one of the most enjoyable work experiences I ever had because customers loved us. They didn’t particularly like the product, but they loved us. We were brilliant! We were heroes! We worked magic! We had people stop by during vacation trips just to meet us in person because we got to know our customers so well. We were indispensable to the organization. But all “good” things must come to an end.

Over the last year, the Information and Communications Systems Department (ICS) for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has implemented a new process improvement team to assist with process improvements to help facilitate program management. The mission of the Business Process Improvement Team is to improve organizational performance throughout the Church. The tools used in accomplishing this mission are proven tools established over the last 40 years by organizations such as Toyota, Motorola, GE Capital, and Allied Signal. These organizations have introduced and proven tools such as Lean, Six Sigma, Process Reengineering, and Program Management.

Our process improvement team has drawn on this proven body of knowledge and established a methodology with specific process improvement steps to bring about sustainable process improvements throughout the Church and to facilitate program management in the ICS Department. Our team utilizes a six-phase process to achieve this, which include:

    1.  Defining
    2.  Measuring
    3.  Analyzing
    4.  Improving
    5.  Implementing
    6.  Sustaining

This article is a follow up to “People, Processes, and Performance Tools Pt. 1,” published September 18, which details the six-phase process used at the Church to improve processes.

The following example is an illustration of how this approach is currently being successfully implemented. There is a project that the ICS Department is currently working on with the Family and Church History Department. During the PTS “identify” phase, it was determined that an integrated cataloging system (a tools solution) was needed in which multiple systems could communicate together to more effectively manage the operations in the department. Early on, a member of the process improvement team was brought in to review the department’s processes.

Process Improvement Team “Define” Stage

Investigating and defining issues and problems

During the process improvement phase of defining the process, considerable time was taken to identify current processes. Initially, this was accomplished through interviews with key personnel throughout the process. This included management, staff, and missionaries.

We also identified the vision, mission, and objectives of the Family and Church History Department. Some of these were identified as:

I grew up in a home without a dishwasher or microwave. They existed, but my family never bought them. Our source of heat was a wood-burning stove in the middle of the living room, because the electric baseboard heaters were too expensive. Our first computer was purchased when I was in high school, and it ran on MS DOS. I used a typewriter for school reports. Our first video game, given to us as a Christmas gift, was “The Legend of Zelda.” That was the extent of technology in my life, and that was 1992.

Fifteen years later, as a mother of three, my life only remotely resembles my childhood. Besides hustling children to and from school, games, and lessons, cleaning the house, fixing meals, and fulfilling my Church responsibilities, I also find my family life is fully steeped in technology with multiple home computers, cell phones, iPods, Wiis, Tamagotchis, e-commerce, online banking, social networking, e-mail, and family blog sites.

My family is an anomaly, though. Both my husband and I work in the technology industry and follow trends in the market for our employment. There are many times that I wish the Internet was not such an embedded part of our lives and that we could focus more on relationships with our family and neighbors.

I am often asked, “What’s it like to work for the Church?”

The short answer is: it is awesome and undoubtedly unlike working anywhere else.

Church employees have the distinctly unique privilege of participating in the Lord’s worldwide work.

Disclaimer: The following is not comprehensive, definitive, or ordered by importance — and it represents only the author’s observations.