Computer System to Improve Phone Service By Insuring Response to Repair Requests

The installation last month of a $50,000 computerized record-keeping service is the latest of the Harvard Telephone Office's attempts to improve service, University officials said yesterday.

"We are trying to change our image," said Robert A. Carroll, a manager in the Office for Information Technology.

"The system was running us. We looked like a switch. We felt if we didn't change [our image], there was no reason for our existence," Carroll added.

The new high-tech data system--which contains information on 495-prefix numbers--will enable the office to schedule repair and installation service regularly with the New England Telephone Company and to insure the work is being completed.

Until the arrival of the new system, the telephone office received orders for repair work and passed them on to the New England Telephone Company. But because minimal records were kept, Harvard's telephone office heard nothing more about the problems unless a customer called a second time to complain.

Since Harvard has begun scheduling work itself service delays have been reduced by up to two weeks, Carroll said.

The telephone office has also begun calling customers and checking on a daily basis to make sure the work has been completed satisfactorily.

And Harvard has continued its policy--begun last year--of allowing students to order touch-tone phones for an extra $1.50 per month plus installation fees. Students who place special orders first receive a normal rotary phone, which is replaced by a touch-tone phone within two months.

Officials at the telephone office added yesterday that this year's student directory will be published as early as the first week of November.

In the past, the directory has usually been distributed by Thanksgiving. Last year students did not receive their copies of the directory until they returned from Christmas vacation.