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At the outset of 2001, life at Imperial Sugar was about to turn bitter. As sugar prices collapsed, so did the Sugar Land, Texas, company, filing for bankruptcy protection. But that’s exactly what CIO George Muller undertook. Before the phrase “Web services” had sunk into the information system lexicon, he
In becoming the first major vendor to introduce a customer relationship management product specifically for the Web, PeopleSoft was ahead of the pack. But technology managers who have bought or evaluated the now nine-month-old package say PeopleSoft sacrificed some features and functionality in its rush to market. PeopleSoft8 CRM, the
There’s a lot to be said for Oracle as a customer relationship management vendor. Its core CRM suite is getting better, and the support the company provides is excellent (and doesn’t tail off after Oracle closes the sale). But for all its market power, the company isn’t the leader in
Carreker—a $110.3-million-a-year provider of software and consulting to banks—bought software around which it could organize itself. The company found that the best way to manage that choice was to change itself, not its software or its vendor. The keys to accomplishing that feat: Narrowing the scope of what it was
“People are going into CRM and failing left and right,” says Mark Sklenar, VP and CIO at Underwriters Laboratories, the product safety and testing organization. “There’s a high degree of complexity here that’s not fully appreciated.” Point No. 1 Recognize that CRM is about changing processes, not installing software Chief
Jeff Cohen dogs Microsoft. He calls, he visits, he lobbies his way into every early adopter program he can find that will help JetBlue Airways take advantage of the latest Microsoft technologies. Cohen says he works hard at getting and keeping Microsoft’s attention—much harder than he would have to work
There are reasons Siebel is the leader in customer relationship management software. Its products are technically sound and its interface is top-notch. It’s setting the pace with CRM products tailored for industries such as retail and auto. And it pays close attention to what its customers think—going so far as
INTERACTIVE TOOL Moving to an enterprise portal? Download labor estimates (Excel) and project tasks (MS Project). PDF download of both files The Internet had arrived and Osram wanted to extend its business electronically, taking orders over the Web from its 3,000 distributors on the continent. Osram had decided it would
SAP is a relentless $6.4 billion seller of complex software to large corporations. If customers find any fault with the company, it’s that SAP doesn’t always deliver the sort of clear product roadmap that customers ask for. Some CIOs, who need exact details about current products and specific knowledge about
Don Sunderland arrived in 1999 as chief information officer of Edison Schools, a for-profit company that runs 136 public elementary and secondary schools from Chula Vista, Calif., to Baltimore. A former managing director in charge of global technology for derivative products at Union Bank of Switzerland, Sunderland’s current job gave