Computerworld - February 27, 2012

CIO, Idaho National Labo-
ratory, Idaho Falls, Idaho
Je;rey W.
Stovall
CIO, City of Charlotte,
Charlotte, N.C.
What’s
the most
important
task you’ve
delegated
this year?
Your boldest IT prediction:
Dennis L.
Strong
How have
you incor-
porated so-
cial media
into your
own work? I
now have an internal blog tar-
geted at communicating the
impact of technology change
on our larger goal of cultural
transformation. The audience
is inclusive of both the busi-
ness units and IT.
Career highlight: My un-
dergraduate degree is in
mechanical engineering. My
lifelong interest in applied
computer systems pulled me
back to the profession after
graduate business school.
CUSTOMERS SEE UP-TO-THE-MINUTE PRODUC T OFFERINGS
DENNIS L. STRONG has used technology to make shopping easier for customers of McCoy’s Building Supply, wherever they might be. Strong, who is senior vice president and CIO at McCoy’s, worked with his team to develop and implement a real-time online product catalog integrated into the company’s real- time point-of-sale system. Customers of the San Marcos,
Texas-based chain, which has 83 retail locations in five states, can go
online to get up-to-date views of what’s available at any given store and
at what price, including sale prices and specific customer discounts.
“The risk there for me was like anything with the Web: You expose
your assets to the world, and descriptions, images, pricing, those
kinds of things have to be deadly accurate. So there’s a tremendous
amount of coordination there with the other departments, like mar-
keting, to really keep things in sync,” says Strong.
Strong, 62, says his goals are to enable the business, support the
corporate objectives and di;erentiate McCoy from its competitors.
John Meeks, senior vice president of corporate development,
says such technology-driven initiatives are testaments to how much
Strong has achieved for McCoy’s. “When Dennis came to us, we were
a $500 million company that didn’t own one computer, so Dennis was
brought in to computerize our company,” says Meeks. “He hit the
ground running, and we now have one of the most sophisticated, real-
time point-of-sale systems in the building material business.” ;

— MARY K. PRATT

Brent
Stahlheber
Senior vice president
and CIO, Auto Club Group
(AAA), Dearborn, Mich.
Chief architect and senior
vice president, State
Street, Quincy, Mass.
How do you
make sure
your most
talented
workers
stay put?
Recognition and financial
rewards can go only so far in
keeping your talent. You also
must invigorate their minds —
o;er opportunities to work on
exciting and innovative proj-
ects and develop new skills.
Your relationship with
a key business leader: I
partner closely with our chief
marketing o;cer. The adage
that “Marketing is Venus and
IT is Mars” doesn’t hold true
in our company.