In today’s enlightened IT world, "knowing the business" seems like a clichŽ, but in reality, its importance cannot be overstated. Not only was I able to get a crystal clear view of what the issues were with the existing process and what the problems had been with the ERP implementation, but I was also able to build more credibility with the CEO than I could have imagined. I could now speak with him in his own language, and ensure that my future memos, e-mails and reports were not only read but understood. I became an informed adviser. But this was no guarantee that my project would get approved. This was only step one.

My next journey would take me to the CFO’s office. It was important to understand the mechanics of expense and project approval. I worked late into the evenings with the CFO creating a real case for the return on technology spending. We focused on finding the immediate hard-cost reductions and business benefits that made the ROI for the ERP/POS system work. As a result, I had a coauthor for my IT proposals. In fact, they were no longer IT proposals at all; they were business proposals that involved technology expenditures. In the end, my CFO became a strong ally in the boardroom.

Only now could I begin pursuing the classical IT management initiatives. I met with the ERP vendor, GERS Retail Systems, to ensure it took ownership for the project’s success. (Something it should have been asked to do two years ago.) GERS quickly realized the value of lending consulting support at near-zero cost. It knew that a satisfied customer meant continued maintenance fees and license purchases.

I also had to reengineer the IT function itself. I focused on building strong levels of technical support, a rejuvenated spirit of excellence in internal customer service and most important, a campaign to improve the image of IT in the company. To build cross-functional support, I took an indirect path. I made it a religion to always remind my fellow executives gently that anytime they used information based on ERP system data, their decision would not have been possible without the system. (And, by the way, wouldn’t it be great if 100 percent of our stores were online, as opposed to the current 35 percent installed base.)

We also prepared many business metric reports, always with the caveat that they represented only part of the company’s performance. For example, we partnered with our loss prevention department to identify breaches in inventory security. As a result, we were able to recover thousands of dollars in stolen merchandise and manual inventory errors?but only from stores connected to the ERP/POS system.