Reputable Service

Any city employee in Springfield, Mo., will tell you the City's Department of Information Systems is the standard to beat when it comes to technical support and PC maintenance. Pam Cummings, Help Desk Coordinator for the City of Springfield Department of Information Systems, has maintained that reputation since she took her position seven years ago.

Cummings' arrival coincided with a first-time deployment of Gateway desktops and laptops. The hardware and service change helped her achieve her mission to reduce time spent on technical support and obliterate lengthy repair turnaround times.

For years, the department struggled to maintain knowledge of the numerous different desktop systems used throughout the City. Gateway offered the performance and service that Cummings demanded, so she made Gateway the standard in Springfield City government.

"It is much easier to support a single platform," she said. "It's definitely been a real blessing."

Speed and Performance
When Cummings joined the department, an abundance of old equipment made troubleshooting and repairs a challenge.

Her department has five support technicians who serve 1,500 users, averaging 1,200 work orders per month. She needed to ensure all agencies used reliable hardware because equipment quality determined how much time staff spent servicing it.

Each Springfield agency has its own computer budget, meaning Cummings couldn't control the frequency with which they replaced their systems.

She ensures her staff services quality machines, however, by controlling what kinds of machines agencies purchase when they open their purses.

"They have to go through me to get the specs for their computers," Cummings said, "so we can standardize everything."

Technical support staff mostly assists users over the phone, accessing desktops remotely. Working almost exclusively on Gateway machines enables them to use that remote desktop functionality without any problems, she said, adding that the machines are easy to physically open and work on when technicians need to visit them on site.

To streamline the office, Cummings simplified her parts inventory process.

"When I first started, they had a lot of little parts lying around. Now we keep very few parts on site. If something goes wrong with a computer, we simply send Gateway an e-mail telling them what part we need. They ship it to us the next day, and we replace the part," Cummings said, adding that the quick part replacements helped slash repair turnaround times.

She said some agencies resist replacing computers for long periods because they prefer to use scarce budget dollars elsewhere.

"For example," she said, "the Fire Department would rather focus on buying things like fire trucks."

For the past seven years, she has used a process that keeps those agencies using top-drawer computers. When an agency replaces its Gateway computers with new models, Cummings gives agencies like the Fire Department the old Gateways.

The machines perform so well at an advanced age that they seem new to agencies that wouldn't buy anything new otherwise, she said.

"Our department received new computers, so we recycled 15 Gateway computers to the Fire Department. That department had obsolete computers, and now they see the benefits of keeping technology current," Cummings said, adding that the change has empowered the Fire Department staff to finish their work and return to the field more quickly.

Equally important, those agencies' resistance to buying new computers doesn't keep her technical support staff from servicing quality machines.

More Horsepower
Cummings said many of the high-end users follow technology news and routinely bring information to her, asking if Gateway is keeping current. The answer is consistently "yes."

"They get really excited about ordering their new computers because the machines always have the latest technology," Cummings said.

"They like the horsepower