October 20, 1997

IT Overhaul Via The Net Web sales part of retailer's makeover By Clinton Wilder t's not normally a big deal when a small retailer launches a Web site. But Holt Educational Outlet's Web opening this month is one step in a much larger strategy of remaking the company and overhauling all of its IT infrastructure. Holt, a $10 million retailer of educational toys and teachers' supplies, wants to transform itself from a single-retail-outlet and mail-order company to a player with national brand recognition and stores on two coasts. The Waltham, Mass., company sees the Web as an important vehicle to do that-but also as the catalyst to overhaul its core operating system and financial application architecture to do full-scale electronic business. "We can't afford to compete with the big guys if we don't do Internet commerce right and lose money on it," says David Lord, Holt's CIO and chief financial officer. Holt's Internet initiative encompasses both customers and suppliers. On Oct. 7, it launched its Web site where buyers can purchase any of about 9,000 products online; Holt hopes to have most of its full inventory of 20,000 items available within a month. But the real innovation is on the supplier side. In order to keep its online inventory current without taking on the costly task of digital catalog creation, Holt has its suppliers send in their own digitized catalog entries online. For smaller suppliers, Holt provides Visual Basic templates, Microsoft Access forms, and Excel spreadsheets-"whatever format they're comfortable with," says Lord. "For a small company like us to do electronic commerce without spending $1 million, you have to involve the suppliers." Holt's first step earlier this year was converting its core operating system from Novell NetWare to Microsoft Windows NT 4.0, because it saw Microsoft as a more strategic enterprise supplier, says Lord. Holt also chose Microsoft's Web commerce software, Site Server Enterprise Edition 2.0. The company upgraded its internal network backbone to 100-Mbps Fast Ethernet. And it installed Dynamic C/S+ from Great Plains Software in Fargo, N.D., as its financial system-in large part because of the software's tight links to the Web and the SQL Server database. When a customer places a Web order, inventory and accounting records are updated automatically. "We don't have an army of programmers to code links, and we don't care to," says Lord. The company estimates savings of 75% on Internet orders compared with phone, mail, or fax orders. "A Web order doesn't touch an employee's hand until the warehouse," says Lord. Because its mail-order, in-store, and Web channels all use the same inventory, Hol t will soon let Web customers check specific product availability in its stores. By the end of next year, Holt plans to open four new stores in Massachusetts and two in California; the company is also contemplating a public stock offering next year. Back to News in Review Send Us Your Feedback Top of the Page

---