Chief technology officers agreed that legacy systems
pose a special challenge to retail and financial companies offering
services online, during a panel discussion at the eTail2003
conference in Boston yesterday.
When one attendee asked panelists for "tips, tricks or magic"
for integrating old systems with newer e-commerce front ends, Gap's
Cornell Williams responded, "Get rid of them. That's the trick,"
touching off peals of laughter from the audience and at least one
shout of "Amen!"
Williams added that Gap's long-term plans include replacing
systems that were never built for the company's business demands
today.
"At some point, you have to say, 'I give up! I yield!'" said Bob
Bell, chief technology officer at New York-based Alloy. In the
meantime, teen site Alloy.com is turning to data marts as an
intermediary between legacy systems and the requirements of a
modern e-business.
Paul Leroux, chief technology officer at financial services
consultancy Gomez, said his customers could not jettison their
legacy systems. Instead, they too are turning to data marts, as
well as XML, as a way to live with old systems never designed to
handle the demands of modern e-commerce. He called XML the "solid
idea" behind much of the buzz around web services.
Both Gap and Alloy are also implementing open-source software as
they seek to move to more open, scalable architectures, cut the
cost of ownership and shorten development time. "The whole nature
of our back end has shifted radically," Bell said.
Additional advice from the panelists included:
Use available corporate resources to get return on
investment metrics. At Gap, financial executives sign off
on major technology return on investment estimates, and their
compensation is tied to meeting those project goals.
Be aware of overall internet issues. For
example, even if a retailer was unaffected by this week's Blaster
worm, many of its customers may have been hit or suffered degraded
services. "You may not have wanted to launch a campaign yesterday,"
Leroux said.
Bring business "owners" into the process early.
This ensures that technology will meet real business needs,
Williams advised. And giving non-IT colleagues information about
effort and costs involved with various technology options helps
them make better decisions about what they ask for, Leroux
said.
Be realistic. One distribution centre under an
aggressive timetable meant its IT department was literally still
writing code as the move was under way to keep track of inventory
in dozens of trucks. The problem wastrying to meet business
requests "without raising enough red flags".
Sharon Machlis writes for Computerworld