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October 11, 1999

Ready-Made Management Team
Breakaway solutions lets David's Bridal focus on selling, not technology

By Ramin P. Jaleshgari and Jennifer Mateyaschuk

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hen David's Bridal began to plan its E-commerce business initiative eight months ago, the national retailer realized it needed more than the services of a Web-site developer. It wanted a ready-made executive team to manage the E-commerce business from the beginning and get its new Web site online as soon as possible.

David's Bridal sought the services of Breakaway Solutions Inc., which provided the bridal-clothing retailer with an outsourced executive team to oversee the entire project, including business-plan development, organization structure, staffing, funding, Web-site development and content, and marketing. "We have a lot of skilled people in-house, but their expertise is in retail--not technology," says Daniel Erlbaum, David's Bridal's VP of new business development. "To be bold and really use the Internet to expand our offerings, we needed to bring in a company that knew as much about the Internet as we knew about retail."

In August, Breakaway sent a project team consisting of a chief technology officer, CIO, CFO, and chief marketing officer to the company's Ardmore, Pa., headquarters. David's Bridal doesn't employ a chief technology officer or CIO on staff, and the company's executive management team remains focused on the $133 million annual retail-store operations. The temporary team oversees a temporary technical staff, and is training David's Bridal call-center employees for Web sales. The E-commerce site, to go online early next year, will replace the company's informational Web site.

Providing free rein to a temporary management team for a new business initiative may present business risks, but Erlbaum says the approach works well for David's Bridal. It lets the company give the E-commerce business the independence to define business processes and a style that are appropriate to the Internet, even if they differ from the parent company. With more traditional professional-services outsourcing, too much time is spent educating service professionals, who are looking for direction from the company, Erlbaum says. "We've put together a strategy to expand our business to the Internet," he adds. "We think it's creative and innovative, and the process is extremely well-organized. I feel when I interact with Breakaway that I'm working with my own organization."

The goal of Breakaway's temporary executives is to leave the company in the hands of good internal management, says Janie Tremlett, VP of strategy service for Breakaway, who serves as temporary CIO at David's Bridal. "We define the appropriate organizational structure and then hire the management team to fulfill these roles," she says. "In essence, we are the senior-management team extension of David's Bridal, until the planning process for this project is complete and ready to launch." Breakaway began offering executive outsourcing services earlier this year.

Before recommending an outsourced executive team, Breakaway assesses the client's needs for technical expertise and project management. Breakaway also considers whether the company can fund the project internally or if it will require outside investment, a service it has offered since January.

Julie Giera, director of research for IT services at Giga Information Group, expects executive outsourcing for IT projects to become more prevalent. "There are big technology shifts because of the Internet, which many companies are not prepared for," she says. "Couple that with IT staffing shortages, and companies will look for outside help. Companies of all sizes may use a CIO outsourcing service."

However, Giera says, companies seeking such services must weigh the risks. "You don't want to alienate the rest of your IT staff by bringing in outsiders," she says. "Companies may also want to think about how a temporary executive team could alter their image with the consumer community."

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