InformationWeek

Aug. 7, 2000

IT Confidential
By John Soat

John Soat

A nasty squabble has broken out between Register.com, the New York domain-name company, and Verio, an Internet service provider in Englewood, Colo. Last week, Register.com filed a complaint in New York federal court seeking to stop Verio from allegedly using Register.com's database of domain names and users as a marketing tool. A Register.com spokeswoman says the legal action stems from a series of complaints the com- pany began receiving in January from customers who were getting marketing calls from Verio salespeople within 12 to 24 hours after registering a domain name. The spokeswoman says Register.com believes Verio is accessing the company's database of domain names, called Whois, for customers signed on for the service. Verio had no comment.

Honorio Padron, former CIO at struggling PC retailer CompUSA and before that at Pepsi's restaurant business, has started work as president of Exelon Systems, a shared services group that will be formed from the merger of power companies Peco Energy in Philadelphia and Unicom of Chicago. Padron will also be executive VP and CIO of the $16 billion company. The shared services group will offer IT, human-resources, legal, finance, and purchasing services, Padron says. In addition to integrating the two companies' IT operations, which will have a head count of about 2,000, he's also spearheading "an E-business transformation" that will include business-to-business and business-to-consumer activities. Padron, who is moving from Dallas to Chicago for the job, says he feels like he's returning to his roots:

"I started my career as an electrical engineer. During college, I worked two summers at the local electric company, where my father also worked." Padron says the merger is expected to get government approval next quarter.

Speaking of new jobs, Tom Lesica, the former CIO of J. Crew (and before that Pepsi Worldwide), says his new job as executive VP and chief technology officer of New Roads, a logistics and fulfillment service for online retailers, is unlike his previous experiences as CIO. "I had always been on the buy side," he says. At New Roads, he says, "We bring all those processes, people, and technology together" for clients. Four-year-old New Roads-previously known as Cybergistics-has 3,500 employees in 21 locations. Lesica has a staff of about 130. He wouldn't disclose revenue but says the company handled about $2 billion worth of online sales for clients last year.

Rightworks, an upstart vendor of E-procurement and exchange software, has had success tapping the resources of its rivals. The most recent defector is Lou Unkeless, former senior director of worldwide marketing at Oracle, who last week joined RightWorks as VP of product marketing. Unkeless will help launch a new version of Rightworks' B-to-B exchange platform later this year. Rightworks has attracted the talents of other competitors, including George Sui, former VP of worldwide consulting at PeopleSoft, who joined the company as VP of professional services in June, and Jeff Carr, former senior VP of worldwide marketing at PeopleSoft, who joined RightWorks as president in March.

Palm Pilot mania! Hot on the heels of the Claudia Schiffer version of the popular personal digital assistant (it comes in "brushed-metallic aqua"), comes news that the U.S. Navy is experimenting with Palm Pilots for its personnel. Having provided the handhelds last week to 145 sailors aboard the destroyer USS McFaul, Michael Gray, deputy CIO of the Atlantic Fleet, says eventually all 50,000 sailors in the Atlantic Force will have some kind of personal digital assistant.

Don't tell me--it comes in dark blue and plays the old Village People song, "In The Navy." What's next-a ruggedized version of the Palm in camouflage for the infantry? Palm Pilots are perfect for sending industry tips to jsoat@cmp.com, or phone 516-562-5326 or fax 516-562-5036.

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