"The issue of re-engineering is to make sure the people in place have the skills to manage that budget well without 55 steps in the process," Demong says. "And they should be held accountable for the quality of their work."

Demong says HRE is following the lead of the University-wide administrative data task force, which is reviewing purchasing and human resources within Harvard.

"We really have been tracking what they've been doing," Demong says

Strategic Planning

The re-engineering process at HRE has coincided with the onset of a strategic planning effort by its top management.

HRE officials are billing their planning as analogous to the academic planning process completed by President Neil L. Rudenstine and the various graduate school deans last year.

"This is a microcosm of the academic planning process," says David A. Zewinski, senior vice president for property operations and construction.

The early stages of the strategic planning process have consisted largely of interviews with HRE staff, customers and University officials.

Top executives of the real estate firm met late last month to begin reviewing the results of the interviews.

Zewinski says the first meeting "didn't have broad, conclusive results." But he says the ultimate process will.

"I would like to plan to develop areas in which we are strong, and move away from areas where we are weaker," Zewinski says.

He also says he wants the company to make better use of new computer technology, including the high speed data network Harvard has set up.

"There are major breakthroughs in the way things get done and business processes work," Zewinski says.