READER ROI
* Discover how IT can help drive a nontechnical business
* See how the Hard Rock CafŽ converts Web surfers to restaurant patrons
* Find out how this restaurant chain uses the Web to capture demographic data about diners

There isn’t much of a wait at the Orlando Hard Rock CafŽ, even though it’s right outside of the ever-crowded Universal Studios theme park. The music is loud as you await your vegetable fajitas or burger. Chuck Berry memorabilia shares a wall with Johnny Rotten and the Backstreet Boys. In the early ’80s, customers used to party at the Hard Rock CafŽ with the likes of John Belushi and the Ramones. It was the hippest place on the planet. But tonight it’s celebrity-free.

Similarly, no celebrities are in evidence down the road at the Hard Rock’s Orlando headquarters. Just bell-bottoms worn by Elvis, John Lennon’s jacket and a Lenny Kravitz guitar. Certainly enough to interest most music fans, but the company needs to do more than warehouse

celebrity castoffs to regain its luster in today’s market. Over the past two decades, an army of theme restaurant imitators like Planet Hollywood has sprung up, ready to copy the Hard Rock’s every move. The Hard Rock--the original theme restaurant, which first opened in London 30 years ago--will consider its new branding program a success if it’s known as an exciting music place. Right now, even that may be a stretch, judging by the sedate dinner scene in Orlando, but it’s the expressed goal of CIO Ron Ward and CFO Scott Little. And the pair believes that information technology will help the chain recover its edge.

For Those About To Rock

At the end of 1998, when both Ward and Little came to the Hard Rock from Disney, some IT systems--like the financial system--didn’t work well, and others--like a planned data warehouse--never worked at all. With such systems in place, naturally the IT staff had a bad reputation. IS spent much of its time trying to fix old problems and didn’t have the time to address other workers’ needs--or treat them nicely. In fact, the IT department "was the most hated organization in the company," Ward confesses. Ward and Little’s turnaround strategy for the Hard Rock CafŽ is straightforward: First, fix the infrastructure and the existing corporate systems, and then invest in customer-facing programs and technologies that will drive traffic to Hard Rock’s website (www.hardrock.com) and from there to the restaurants.