EDS Information Solutions

A New Nimbleness In the late 1990s, Electronic Data Systems customers had been complaining about service, and the company’s net profit margin slid from 8.5% in 1993 to a sickly 2.3% in 1999. Clothing retailer J. Crew went to EDS for its data center, but not for other services. “I

Ad Hoc Networks

What are they? Temporary, short-range networks created when devices using the same protocol connect. Typically based on short-range wireless technology, these networks don’t require subscription services or carrier networks. When you beam a business card from your PDA to another, or use an IrDA port to print from your laptop

Gotcha!: Supply Chain Management Software

Did you know that: Supply chain software relies on modules that can be assembled into “templates” serving particular industries? But all templates are not created equal. Templates guide users through a workflow that covers each phase of the implementation. “As long as you adhere to the guidelines, you get a

i2 Technologies

A Fading Star As economic events of the past year abruptly put the tech market into a nosedive, i2 Technologies was among the previous high fliers that suddenly found itself in a tailspin. And that was an uncomfortable position for a company whose hard sell sometimes outstripped its ability to

Code Blue

September 6 may go down as a defining date in Kmart chief executive Chuck Conaway’s effort to turn around the one-time king of discount stores in America. Five days before the twin towers tragedy, Conaway announced that Kmart would write off $195 million of assets held on its books that

Star Search

The revolving door in the CIO’s office can’t help Kmart in terms of continuity on its supply-chain projects. At some point, talented people ask themselves if signing on as the sixth CIO in seven years is a wise career move. “Good candidates will ask what’s wrong with a position that

The Probability Problem

It’s Monday morning, and the chief operating officer calls you in for advice. The new sales-commission structure is too complicated for the current finance application, so several staffers have been calculating percentages and inputting payments by hand. The upgrade planned for the financial software will take care of this, but

Qwest Cyber.Solutions

Learning on the Job Qwest Cyber.Solutions hosts, manages and integrates big hard-to-handle software packages from vendors including Oracle, SAP, and Siebel. But parent company Qwest Communications International likes the revenue driven to its networking and hosting businesses. “We are unequivocally committed to the ASP industry and to QCS,” says Lew

Case 008: Home Depot – Chilling Out

Home Depot is becoming an ostrich about the penguin. Just two years ago, the $46 billion home improvement giant became an outspoken proponent of Linux, a variant of Unix that the company championed as a key to overhauling the technology in its stores. But silence surrounding the project certainly won’t

Case 007: Office Depot – Making Liquid Code

When Sherry Young needs to order supplies, she opens up her Office Depot catalog, calls 1-888-GO DEPOT, and punches in numbers using her touch-tone phone. Young, a personnel assistant for a Holiday Inn in St. Petersburg, Fla., tends to follow a routine in how she buys supplies from the $11.6