CIO —
EARLY ADOPTER:
ABNA
EXECUTIVE IN CHARGE: Mysia Benford, information systems and logistics director
PROBLEM/OPPORTUNITY: Outdated, inefficient logistics were a money sink
SOLUTION: Service-oriented architecture (SOA) and enterprise service bus from Sonic Software
YEAR IMPLEMENTED: 2002
RISK: Technology was unproven; some end users strongly resistant to change
MITIGATION: Found forward-thinking sponsors willing to prove SOA would work, then used their success as leverage with other groups
REWARD: 5% to 10% logistics savings and more flexibility
EARLY ADOPTER:
Cox Communications
EXECUTIVE IN CHARGE: Mark Cotner, database architect
PROBLEM/OPPORTUNITY: Needed a high-speed database to collect data from millions of broadband subscribers’ modems
SOLUTION: MySQL open-source database
YEAR IMPLEMENTED: 2001
RISK: Product was new
MITIGATION: Extensive testing before implementation; making sure in-house staff could manage most support issues; disciplined monitoring changes to software
REWARD: Faster than commercial alternatives, with dramatically lower acquisition costs
EARLY ADOPTER:
PPG Industries
EXECUTIVE IN CHARGE: Jim Johnston, IT director of enterprise architecture and advanced technology
PROBLEM/OPPORTUNITY: Needed a way to discover and manage ideas for new products
SOLUTION: MindMatters idea-tracking system
YEAR IMPLEMENTED: 2000
RISK: Very small company with a limited track record; failure would have created employee resistance and hurt flow of new ideas
MITIGATION: Exhaustive prepurchase research; source code escrowed
REWARD: Collaboration facilitation extended to all PPG employees; functionality expanded beyond discovering new product ideas
EARLY ADOPTER:
Pilkington North America
EXECUTIVE IN CHARGE: Bill McCreary, VP, CIO and operating excellence; Doug Wait, plant manager
PROBLEM/OPPORTUNITY: New sales contract required Pilkington plant to increase output dramatically and quickly
SOLUTION: JRG’s hosted supply chain management software
YEAR IMPLEMENTED: 2004
RISK: Small vendor with short track record; product failure would dramatically reduce profit margins on new contract
MITIGATION: Limited rollout to single plant
REWARD: Rapid deployment—took only five months from first contact to live app
EARLY ADOPTER:
Epsilon
EXECUTIVE IN CHARGE: Mike Coakley, VP of marketing technology products
PROBLEM/OPPORTUNITY: Small company needed technology to leapfrog much larger competitors
SOLUTION: Netezza data-mining device
YEAR IMPLEMENTED: 2002
RISK: Epsilon would be Netezza’s first customer
MITIGATION: Careful vendor vetting by non-IT groups, including finance
REWARD: New product features increased sales; turned off expensive mainframe system
