CIO Perspective: Sears' Jerry Miller

begins a series of interviews with leading CIOs to bring you a better understanding of opportunities available for solution providers. We begin our one-on-ones with Sears CIO Jerry Miller. Learn how to profit from this retail giant's IT needs--and what kind of value-add Miller is looking for in his partners.

Now is not the time for the faint of heart to be in retail sales: Kmart recently filed for bankruptcy protection, and J.C. Penney cut 91 jobs in a phase-out of some Wisconsin operations. Likewise, Sears, Roebuck, and Co., has not gone through the recession unscathed--it reduced its workforce by 20 percent last year. But Sears, one of the nation's largest retailers, has made some wise IP investments that are beginning to pay off.

By tightly integrating its Web site, Sears.com, to its more than 860 mall-based and 1,200 retail stores in the United States, the company has steered more customers into its stores during a time when retail has suffered and deep discounts are prevalent.

"We're very happy with the progress we've made with Sears.com, and it drives over $500 million worth of business," says Jerry Miller, CIO of Sears. "New customers who would not have shopped Sears have come to Sears.com and Sears.com has driven that customer into the store. We think it's a big win for us."

This project, called "Fusion," began last summer with help primarily from IBM, which was partially responsible for boosting Sears' 2001 revenue to more than $41 billion. Miller says "Fusion" has been the biggest bang for the IT buck in recent times.

Yet, although company officials expect to see earnings per share increase 13 to 15 percent in 2002, Sears' IT budget this year will decrease slightly, says Miller.

"We're going to be leveraging our systems portfolio more and we're going to be managing Sears as one Sears," he says. "We just recently went through a reorganization, where we laid off about 20 percent of our workforce, so when I look at the IT budget for 2002, it will be declining from 2001."

Nearly 5,000 employees were laid off, according to published reports.

Looking ahead, Miller says the company will be conducting business with fewer vendors, but will keep certain IT priorities at the forefront, particularly if they involve Sears' critical supply chain.

Sears primarily utilizes products and services directly from vendors, such as IBM, NCR and Sun Microsystems.

However, Miller does not object to the idea of bringing VARs, solution providers or systems integrators to help with any of Sears' ongoing IT projects.

"If they can bring value, yes," says Miller, when it comes to the opportunity of contacting third party companies. "We're going to always keep our eyes open and we'll listen to integrators. If they can bring us value, we'll certainly take a hard look at it."

What will it take for VARs, solution providers and system integrators to land a contract with a leading retailer such as Sears?

Learn more from Miller and other CIOs at top companies about what you can do to better your chances of landing a coveted contract in an upcoming issue of VARBusiness magazine, and by visiting this series at varbusiness.com.