Equipment Reservation SystemAn Online Success Story

By: Michael T. SmithRaytheon Intelligence and Information SystemsMichael.T.Smith@noaa.gov

Mike GerberNWS, Office of Climate, Water, and Weather ServicesMike.Gerber@noaa.gov

Borrowing Shared Computer Equipment

TraditionalProperty

Management

OnlineReservation

SystemE-Gov

Four Categories of E-GovHarvard Business Review, Michael Hammer

1. E-Gov Information

2. E-Gov Automation

3. E-Gov Reengineering

4. I-Gov Innovation – Novel use of information that technology makes possible

Getting to I-Gov Innovation

Customer focus

Move beyond old way of doing business

Enable improvements with technology to ensuresustainable results

Provide actionable information

}Define

Measure

Analyze

Improve

Control

Computer Equipment Loans Transformed

Traditional Way

Paper forms/logs

Availability?

Visit Sys Admin

Unreliable delivery

Equipment Reservation System

Online, pre-populated, pushed

Browse available inventory

On demand

Scheduled pickup or delivery

DemonstrationDemonstration

Confirmation Email

Property Pass Pushed to Customer

Notification Pushed to Admin

- Nag notices follow as date approaches

System Usage(since July 2004)

303 Loans to 47 employees

53% Verizon Wireless Cards

18% Laptop Computers

15% Projectors

12% Flash Memory Drives

1% DVD Writer

89% Presentations/Conferences

61% Telework

56% General Travel}

Performance Measures

37% of OCWWS employees served

94% Say very important or important to getting their job done

94% Overall customer satisfaction

Customer Satisfaction

Traditional Reservation System

Ease of Use 17% 100%

Reliability 36% 89%

What quality of change/effect did we effect on our customers?

Customer TestimonialsPositive:“I am grateful the system is so easy to use.”

“The online Equipment Reservation System is great.”

“This system is a vast improvement over the old system which depended upon individual effort and a lot of time to make the arrangements. It basically depended upon "connections" and sometimes those outside of OCWWS. The creator and developer of this system deserve an award!”

“…glad to be able to get the wireless cards when I need them.”

Opportunity for improvement:“...frequently…a particular piece of equipment that I need is already checked out…

wireless cards. This forces me into paying for Internet service at a hotel, spending an inordinate amount of my personal time in the evenings on dialup service, or just being unresponsive to NWS and customer emails.”

“It would be nice to see a calendar of when equipment IS available.”

Actionable Information

Wireless cards unavailable 33% of the time– Calculate optimal # cards– Analyze reservation request patterns

Actions- Increase card/employee ratio from 1/25 to 1/17 (7 cards)- Consider adding reservation calendar

Shared Wireless Cards ROI

Annual costs:

29 Cards (w/o sharing) = $24,360

5 Shared cards (actual) = $4,200

7 Shared cards (optimal) = $5,880

Return on Investment (ROI):

Actual = $20,160/yr, Optimal = $18,480/yr

Increased productivity and morale

Recommendations

Reservation System– Greater adoption to maximize NOAA’s ROI– More re-engineering and innovation

Innovation in other Areas– Telework– Transportation subsidies– StormReady– Admin and program areas

Final Thoughts

Create innovative solutions that provide customer value and help meet NOAA’s mission

Technology is not the solution, but the enabler of customer focused business strategies which result in the solution!