INFORMATION TECHNOLOGYLance B. Eliot, Feature Editor, Eliot & Associates A Guided Tour of the 1993 SIM Annual Conferenceby Lance Eliot, Feature Editor I recently had an opportunity to attend the Annual Conference of the Society for Information Management (SIM) held in Washington, D.C. on September 19-22, 1993. Celebrating the 25th anniversary of the Society, the spectacular event brought together top level information systems executives from around the world. Besides several hundred Chief Information Officers (CIOs) and Vice Presidents for Information Systems from the United States, representatives from such countries as Japan, Canada, U.K., France, Australia, Spain, Korea, Singapore, and other nations were in attendance. A series of all day sessions showcased the best of information technology in business, and awards for outstanding achievements in information technology application were conferred. This year's winners for the Partners in Leadership award were J.C. Penny, the noted retailer, and Nalco Chemical Company, a $1.4 billion specialty chemical company. The Partners in Leadership award is carefully bestowed upon selected firms that have successfully integrated information technology into their organization and gained top management commitment to information technology. In some respects, the award is akin to the more recognized Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award, though this award is focused exclusively on the use of information technology. Winners must demonstrate commitment to information technology at the highest levels in their firm. Indeed, the president of J.C. Penny Stores and Catalog business, James Oesterreicher, was a joint recipient of the award with David Evans, Director of Information Systems. Likewise, the president of Nalco Chemical, Edward Mooney, recieved Nalco's award with David Bertram, Senior Vice President of Information Systems, Manufacturing, and Logistics. Conference attendees heard about the experiences of both firms through the comments provided by executives in information technology and the respective presidents of each firm. J.C.Penny has made a $200 million investment in point-of-sale hardware and software that permits tracking of every item, in every store, every week. A database of a staggering 1.2 billion records of inventory are analyzed at the close of business on each Saturday night. After the analysis, J.C. Penny's 4,000 suppliers are notified Sunday night of the need to reorder various goods. James Oesterreicher emphasized that the close partnership between the information technology side of the business has allowed J.C. Penny to provide on-target goods to consumers when needed and has kept J.C. Penny competitive in an era of shrinking profit margins and heightened competition. The second winner, Nalco Chemical, highlighted the rising use of laptop computing for outside sales activities. A mainframe-based application for analysis of specialized chemical engineering processes was ported to a laptop computer and can now be easily used by technical sales representatives to examine a client's needs while on-site with the client. The sophisticated package can be used to perform what-if analyses, remotely communicate with automation equipment, perform statistical calcuations, and otherwise help convince a customer that Nalco can do the job required. To date, over $14 million in new sales have been attributed to the roll-out of the laptop system, and the ongoing roll-out will gradually encompass the entire sales force of 2,100 workers worldwide. One interesting complication dealt with the need for the system to work in five different languages to accommodate the needs of technical sales representatives throughout the world. Besides offering the system in each of the necessary languages, the system also serves to help maintain consistency of effort no matter which representative performs the analysis. The Partners in Leadership award has been bestowed since 1987 and the correponding yearly winners have been: 1993: 1992: 1991: 1990: 1989: 1988: 1987: By the way, while speaking of awards, I should mention that the Conference held a dinner in the National Museum of American History and a fascinating permanent exhibit about the history of the computer field can be found in the museum. There is also a wall of awards given by the Smithsonian Institition and Computerworld (a popular computer industry publication) to computer industry notables. If you visit D.C. for the Decision Sciences Institute Annual Meeting in November, I encourage any computer savvy reader to stop by the exhibit for an hour or so. During the conference, SIM announced the results of two position statements taken by SIM in the area of software licensing and in the area of the emerging National Data Highway. Software licensing deals with the need to establish standards for the charging of software license fees and the range of flexibility that should be built into licensing agreements. Many large firms have found themselves moving software off mainframe platforms onto mid-range and smaller platforms, and the means of charging for the use of such software dramatically differs from one software vendor to another. SIM has extensively studied this issue and has been working with major software vendors to clarify the nature and extent of software licensing and associated fees. In the area of the proposed National Data Highway, SIM intends to work closely with the U.S. government and other interested parties to establish a sound basis for a nationwide "highway" of telecommunications systems. Such systems could open access to health care services to rural parts of the country, communicate vital information to ambulances, and make medical libraries available nationwide. Besides the obvious healthcare related impacts, the Data Highway could increase collaboration among businesses, significantly alter education, and spawn new businesses and societal activies that might be comparable to the building of the national highway system after World War II. SIM also offered a glimpse of a relatively new program being undertaken by the Society that has been dubbed the Chapter-Hosted Learning Forum. This program, initiated by Dick Dooley, industry luminary and founder of SIM, takes second-in-command information executives and provides them guidance toward becoming first-in-command (aiming for a CIO slot). Using innovative learning methods, participants in the program (formed around SIM's regional chapters) work together with guidance from a facilitator and strive to increase their understanding of management and information technology. During the opening night celebration of SIM's 25th birthday, Dick Dooley made remarks that focused on the future of SIM and the rising importance of I.S. executives, and the last day of the Conference brought forth testimonials from the "graduating students" of the voluntary learning forums about their new and renewed awareness of how information technology must be managed and implemented to delight customers. The theme of this year's SIM Annual Conference was "Delighting the Customer." Next year, the theme will be "Aligning Vectors in the Vortex: Piloting IT into Harmony with Business." Moving from the East coast area of Washington D.C. in 1993, the September 18-21, 1994 event will take place in Salt Lake City, Utah. For those readers who want to know the winners of 1994's awards, just read my column about this time next year (or come to the show!). |