Harriet Edelman
Chief Information Officer
Role: Edelman, a 22-year Avon veteran, rose through the ranks to become CIO in January 2000. She’s done it all, from helping test the Avon.com site in the eleventh hour of its launch, to helping the company sort out its supply-chain strategy.
Len Edwards
President and GM, Avon.com
Role: Was Avon’s point man as the company considered whether it was wise to “disintermediate” the Avon ladies, as part of its online business-plan evaluation in 1999. Spearheaded the launch of Avon’s B2B YourAvon.com and B2C MyAvon.com sites.
Paul Krautheim
Group VP, information technology
Role: Leading Avon’s charge to automate its back-end manufacturing and supply-chain operations. Krautheim takes a keen interest in Avon’s demand-forecasting pilot, now launching in Mexico, which aims to reduce inventory.
Susan Kropf
President and COO
Role: Former Avon VP of North America, now acts as keeper of the business-process redesign flame at the company. Kropf is charged with keeping the company on track for meeting its key performance indicators through 2004.
Sateesh Lele
Former Avon CIO
Role: A celebrated hire for Avon from General Motors, Lele lasted less than a year as CIO of Avon. During his tenure, he brought in nearly a dozen consultants and software vendors to assist the company with its Web and back-end IT transformations.
Partners
Mike Bambrick
IBM Global Services project executive for Avon
Role: Coordinated IBM team of 25 from March 2000 to September 2000, that was charged with integrating Avon’s core WebSphere commerce platform with its legacy applications. Bambrick is working hand-in-hand with Avon on evolving its sites.
Alex Sion
Sapient, Director of strategy group
Role: Championed the five-month analysis in 1999 that helped Avon evaluate its branding, technology, infrastructure and processes, especially those involved in building the company’s Internet strategy. Sion helped Avon conceive of the hybrid “e-rep”/direct model of selling online.
Harve Light, Sr.
Churchill Software, President and lead on Avon
Role: When Manugistics’ demand forecasting software wasn’t what it completely desired, Avon brought in Light’s company to supplement it. Churchill’s neural-network-based demand-forecasting software helps better predict “causal lifts” that ultimately affect inventory.
Ray Simonson
CheckFree/BlueGill, Senior VP and CTO
Role: Worked with IBM Global Services in early 2000 to add electronic bill presentment capabilities to the YourAvon.com B2B site. Simonson and his team also worked closely with IBM and Avon to head off disaster when a new version of BlueGill software locked up Avon’s aborning Web initiatives prior to combined launches in September 2000.
Tim Murnin
Manugistics, Manager of consulting services and Avon account
Role: Led Avon’s deployment of demand-planning, fulfillment and transportation modules of Manugistics’ supply-chain management suite. Avon first began automating its back-end systems in China in 1995. Avon hasn’t yet seen much bottom-line savings from Manugistics, but Murnin will be at the forefront of the team helping Avon try to wring savings from its worldwide supply-chain overhaul.
Interaction
You can contact these individuals via email through [email protected]. or via their company web sites:
www.avon.com,
www.ibm.com,
www.sapient.com,
www.churchillsoftware.com,
www.checkfree.com,
www.manugistics.com.
