NYCHA Rolls Out New IT Initiative to Improve Customer Service  

Management offices across the five boroughs will soon experience a reduction in the amount of time they have to wait for their information technology (IT)-related challenges to be resolved, thanks to a new “Neighborhood IT” initiative launched in March.  

Led by Kim Maxwell (formerly senior driver of NYCHA’s Digital Van), technicians from the new Neighborhood IT team will pay daily scheduled visits to NYCHA’s management offices to resolve IT issues flagged by staff.  

“For many years, we identified that there was a need for IT to be closer to the developments to provide that hands-on support,” said Bartolome Reyes, Client Service Manager of the Neighborhood IT team. “The need for IT support (boots on the ground) was always there, but there was never really anything in place. Chief Information Officer Patti Bayross made it a point to roll out this initiative so that the internal customer has the additional support or direct assistance in closing the gap so they’re not waiting for long periods when they’re experiencing any IT issues.”  

The Neighborhood IT team, currently made up of five IT professionals who are either NYCHA residents or Section 8 voucher holders, is expected to increase in number by the end of this year – the intention is to ultimately assign one IT technician to each Neighborhood Administrator. 

“For now, we’re scheduling the field techs so each field tech will basically have about 25 to 26 sites to visit in total, and every day they’ll be going to a different site,” said Mr. Maxwell.  

“I am thrilled to see this initiative come to fruition,” said Cindy Anderson, Vice President of IT Service Management. “It is often difficult to diagnose issues or to identify trends across the various development locations, and issues often linger for long periods of time without resolution. Now with regularly scheduled visits, the goal is to address these issues much faster and to look for trends and improvement opportunities to provide better IT service to our Property Management staff.” 

The new team is an addition to NYCHA’s main IT department, which means that property management staff should still create a ticket in the IT Service Portal to request support from the new front-line team.  

“The [IT Service Portal] ticket system allows us to quantify and engage how impactful the services are, where the needs are, and how we can improve our overall practice,” said Mr. Reyes.  

In his new role, Mr. Maxwell, who previously provided IT support to residents, will also make field visits when needed.   

“My day-to-day is knowing where all my technicians are, scheduling [them], receiving everybody’s input, and reporting out to Bart [Reyes], who will also report out to the Neighborhood Administrators so we can gain a sense of [the needs] at the developments,” said Mr. Maxwell about his new role as manager of the team.  

The reports gathered from the field will help determine if, for instance, training or technical fixes are needed to ensure staff are able to work most effectively with IT systems. 

As the Client Service Manager, Mr. Reyes will serve as the liaison between the Neighborhood IT team and the Neighborhood Administrators, holding monthly meetings with the Administrators to identify recurring IT problems and make sure staff get the tools and applications they need to best serve residents.