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The article discusses the significance of monitoring the level of service for each transaction to gain better insight on the service for customers and employees of service industries. Monitoring the experiences of the users in businesses such as Starwood Hotels and Resorts Worldwide Inc. in White Plains, New York, has become critical, according to sources. If customers fail to receive the service they need, they would take their business to the competition. Thus, Starwood and other companies turn to new appliances and software tools to monitor the level of service for each transaction. According to the author, although monitoring tools may not be the complete solutions, they provide a different view of the situation and improve the problem-solving process. INSET: Monitoring to Improve Best Practices.

The article focuses on the approach of Judith Spitz, senior vice president of New York-based Verizon Communications Inc., in addressing the information technology (IT) service needs of her client companies. Spitz adopted a strategy that placed his information technology workers right in the call centers, engineering centers and dispatch centers to get job run smoothly. She believes that through this way, IT workers could primarily see how to ameliorate business processes. Executive Mary Jane Johnston revealed how the system has benefited her company's operations.