Lands' End Executives needed help to understand that "while the front end of the
site looked brand new and was a different way for our customers to do business with us,
the key to success would be how well we did as a company to understand and incorporate
this new Internet front end with all of our current core back-end processing -- the
core order-fulfillment processing and inventory processes," Loranger says.
"There's a recognition here that IT can and is shaping new business models," says
Eastman's David Holden, "and both IT and line managers have to be aware of that."
What that means, says Highsmith, is that IT must re-examine the fit between
department capabilities and functions and the e-commerce mission. "We keep saying the
Internet is goiing to change everything, but in IT some people don't seem to think it's
going to change how they do work," Highsmith says.
