In the climactic moments of Greek theater, the deus ex machina—the god in the machine—would descend in some contraption (the machine) to work out or eliminate the hero’s difficulties.

But what worked for the Greek playwrights rarely works for CIOs. A new machine, a cutting-edge technology—that’s almost never the answer to a CIO’s or an organization’s problems. But the intelligent use of bold technology can offer companies a chance to achieve significant competitive advantage or save significant money. The keys to using technology boldly and successfully, according to those honored in this year’s CIO 100, are risk management, change management and gaining the trust of your users.

Content Management Becomes Sales Magic

Beer, wine, liquor. Since ancient times, not much has changed about how you make them. And the beverage distribution business reflects that. "Sales culture in the wine and spirits industry moves pretty slowly," says Bill Healey, corporate vice president for information technology at CIO 100 honoree The Charmer Sunbelt Group, a privately held, multistate wine and spirits distributor. But The Charmer Sunbelt Group’s winning application demonstrates the company’s desire to revolutionize the business, and to do it quickly.

Local autonomy is built into the wine and spirits business because distribution is highly regulated, and state liquor laws vary widely. As a result, sales and marketing efforts are localized by state, and silos of data grow up around state lines. For Charmer Sunbelt, this created redundancies and inefficiencies. The company turned to Healey to eliminate them. Healey was certain he could streamline processes by eliminating some of local distributors’ cherished autonomy (though, he would argue, for benefits they would soon realize). It was, Healey thought, a risk worth taking.

Using Microsoft’s Content Management System (CMS) and a SQL Server database, Healey’s group bucked the industry culture by creating a centralized application that he says reduced headcount for managing brand content from 16 to four while simultaneously increasing the overall quality of the product materials. Instead of numerous regional content managers designing sales materials—often with varying outcomes—now a single person with a strong background in the spirits industry and a knack for creating compelling content can, leading a small team, put together sales and marketing materials for reuse throughout Charmer Sunbelt’s operations. Visit the website for Premier Beverage Company of Florida, look up Alain Paret Syrah, and you’ll get the same information ("medium- to full-bodied flavors with a deliciously rich, round, pure, sweet, ripe raspberry fruit concentration...") as you would from the Connecticut distributors site.