Instant Coffee: Speeding Up Request-Processing TimeInstant Coffee: Speeding Up Request-Processing Time

While much of the economy has fallen asleep this year, Seattle's Starbucks Corp. continues to expand at greatly caffeinated levels. To keep up with the demand for IT support at its more than 4,500 locations worldwide (and growing at a rate of three per day), Starbucks plans by the end of August to implement newScale Inc.'s RequestCenter software to automate the provisioning of shared IT services.

Most companies deliver IT, facilities management, finance, and human-resources services to their employees through centralized departments that manage requests from the company's entire employee base. Typically, workers must submit a request for a particular shared service, whether it's for a new computer, a change in insurance coverage, or a new chair. Whereas these requests have been made in the past by filling out paper forms, RequestCenter puts this process on the Web, cutting the amount of time to process the requests and deliver the services.

RequestCenter will allow Starbucks' IT users to request new IT equipment, software, and even phone service via an intranet site. Starbucks' previous paper-based system took as long as six days to deliver a request to the right department for fulfillment, but the coffee company is hoping to cut that wait time in half, says Ray Schutte, Starbucks' program manager for systems management.

Although Starbucks has more than 49,000 employees scattered at offices and retail locations worldwide, the company has one centralized IT department to support its administrative, manufacturing, and retail systems. "As a business we're growing rapidly, so we need a tool that speeds up the provisioning of supplies and equipment to our staff," Schutte says.

While Schutte says it's too early to determine when Starbucks will see a return on its investment in RequestCenter, he anticipates his IT department will be better able to control its inventory and personnel immediately. "We can see how many IT user requests are in the pipeline through RequestCenter and hope to reduce the wait time for IT products and services by 30% to 50%. When people have to wait for IT requests to be fulfilled, it affects their productivity."