InformationWeek

March 6, 2000

Behind The Scenes:
IT Confidential

John Soat Wal-Mart suffered a blow last week when Dell Computer announced it had hired Randy Mott as its technology chief. Mott, a 22-year veteran of Wal-Mart, had been the retailer's CIO since 1994. (He was also InformationWeek's 1997 Chief of the Year.) Why Mott? "Wal-Mart is extraordinarily highly regarded in supply-chain management," says a Dell spokesman, making Mott an obvious fit for the direct supplier. Also, Wal-Mart gets high marks for its online capacity. "We're not 'Dell-dot-com' by name, but we run our business on the Internet and on intranets," the spokesman says. As senior VP and CIO at Dell, Mott will be an executive committee member reporting to Dell's office of the CEO and directly to vice chairman Kevin Rollins. Kevin Turner, a 14-year IS veteran at Wal-Mart, will succeed Mott. Wal-Mart has seen some high-level IT defections recently, and last year settled a lawsuit with Amazon.com over raiding its IT shop.

Microsoft and General Motors are warm and fuzzy on the outside, but the automaker plans to replace Microsoft technology with Oracle in one of its highest-profile applications. GM CIO Ralph Szygenda stood on stage with Microsoft chairman Bill Gates at last month's Windows 2000 launch in San Francisco, touting the value of the new operating system. Though GM plans to upgrade the Web servers that run its GM TradeXchange procurement site from NT 4 to 2000, the company will replace the SQL Server database behind the exchange with Oracle running on Sun Solaris, says a GM spokesman. The decision was driven by a recent deal involving GM, Ford, and DaimlerChrysler to pool their online purchasing activities, according to the spokesman. Ford's AutoXchange marketplace is run by Oracle. The move will be made at the end of the month, he says. "It'll be pretty quick. We're just trying to work out the relationship issues between our two technology providers."

IBM was touting a win last week for its DB2 Universal database. J.P. Morgan, the New York financial-services firm, has licensed IBM's Web development architecture, including DB2, VisualAge for Java, and WebSphere Application Server. No terms were disclosed. As part of the implementation, J.P. Morgan will replace some of its 1,000 Sybase servers with DB2, says chief technology officer Michael Reilly. But IBM may have been overdramatizing the shift by suggesting J.P. Morgan was swapping out its Sybase environment in toto. Not so, says Reilly, who adds that he's been in contact with IBM about its use of dramatic license. "We want to make sure we keep our stories consistent," Reilly says. "We still have a very strong relationship with Sybase."

George Zaruba left his position as director of Pepsi Cola North America's IT operations last week to join Praxair, a leading producer of industrial gas. As senior director of IT for Praxair's North American operations, Zaruba says he'll help develop an IT strategy to position the Danbury, Conn., company as a business-to-business player with customers from auto, aerospace, and health care. Pepsi hasn't named a replacement for Zaruba, who took a job left vacant last year when former CIO Tom Lesica left to join J. Crew.

While Ernst & Young and Cap Gemini boast about the synergies between the two services firms, some wonder how the two will meld their distinctly different cultures. "Ernst & Young is one of those elite firms with a rarified atmosphere, compared with Cap Gemini, which is a busted-knuckles type of firm that doesn't possess the Madison Avenue sheen that E&Y does," says Bruce Caldwell, a senior analyst for Dataquest. Turnover may be a problem, as many Ernst & Young consultants who were hoping to make partner may not want to stick around and get their hands dirty, Cap Gemini fashion.

Dirty hands? Busted knuckles? Whatever works-manage expectations any way you can. Manage to send me an industry tip at jsoat@cmp.com, or phone 516-562-5326 or fax 516-562-5036.

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