At 97 years old, the Square D brand is about as far from being a dot-com start-up as one can get, but that hasn’t held it back from breaking new ground in electronic commerce.
In fact, the firm’s decades of experience have helped put it at the forefront of devising ways for old-line manufacturers to use the Web to streamline their operations.
As the electrical equipment mainstay of Palatine-based Schneider Electric’s North American division, Square D has a network of nearly 1,600 distributors that link to it over the Internet.
Rather than looking at the Web to potentially replace the distributors, Square D seeks to use information technology to strengthen its distributors’ ability to serve customers, said Stephen Little, vice president for information services.
But it hasn’t been easy. In some cases distributors didn’t even have computers, and in other cases distributors who did have computers didn’t have them hooked up to the Internet.
“Some of our distributors weren’t technologically advanced,” said Little, “and that’s been a challenge. We had to write software that was very intuitive to use.”
Square D started writing software intended to help its sales force put together bids for business a decade ago.
By 1997 the firm began looking at how it could modify its bidding and order software to use it on the Internet. This meant including the distributors as well as providing information to end users about Square D products.
Despite providing customers with ways to get information electronically from Square D directly, in nearly all cases the firm still requires customers buy its products through distributors, Little said.
“Our distributors carry a lot of things besides the power supply products we design and make,” said Little. “If we wanted to duplicate that, we’d have to build hundreds of warehouses, and we’re not going to do that.”
By communicating electronically instead of by mail or fax, Square D can trim days or weeks from the time it takes between when an order is placed and when products are delivered, Little said.
“A lot of dot-coms that failed had nifty technology, but no real business model,” he said. “We have a business model that’s proven, and we use technology as a tool to better execute that model. We don’t try to use technology to change the model, although as our tools get better and better, the way we do business does evolve.”
Have pink slip, will party: Because layoffs are more plentiful than launches in Chicago these days, “pink slip parties” are fast becoming the darlings of the local tech sector’s social circuit.
Small gatherings with friends and colleagues typically follow workplace trauma, but two scheduled events aim to let the healing begin for technology professionals throughout the area. One will be co-hosted by Jennifer Filipowski, daughter of Divine Interventures Chief Executive Andrew “Flip” Filipowski, who has been delivering a lot of pink slips of late.
Jennifer Filipowski watched her Web-based events planning business, Meethead.com, fold about two months ago. She said she expects between 400 and 600 people to attend the Feb. 28 event at Kustom, 1997 N. Clybourn Ave.
Filipowski said the crowd will be a mix of displaced dot-comers, recruiters and people with jobs to offer. Sponsors will arrive bearing tips on resume writing, interviewing and networking.
Big Frontier, which attracts about 800 tech professionals each month, will hold a “Pink Slip Jamboree” March 13 at Excalibur, 632 N. Dearborn St. Admission to this event is free, while Filipowski’s event bears a $15 cover charge she said was just high enough to “discourage people who just want to get drunk.”
So, what’s the attire for both evenings? Filipowski said she’ll be wearing a rose-colored dress–a pink slip, if you will–donated by Robert Metzger, one of Oprah Winfrey’s former clothing designers. Big Frontier organizer Steve Lundin offered that only headhunters are required to wear pink slips.
Perfect harmony? New technology embedded in Coca-Cola drink machines scattered throughout Chicagoland aims to ensure that the real thing falls into buyers’ hands every time.
The Coca-Cola Bottling Co. of Chicago, has signed a multiyear contract with Isochron Data Corp. The Austin, Texas-based firm makes Vendcast, a wireless, Web-based system launched commercially last year that is designed to take the guesswork out of drink delivery and vending machine repairs. The system communicates information about drink inventories and mechanical failures via the Internet in real time so that the local Coca-Cola supplier is aware of coin jams and sold-out products almost as soon as customers are.Coca-Cola wouldn’t divulge how many vending machines it operates locally or how many are equipped with the new Vendcast system, but Isochron officials said there are roughly 20,000 drink machines belonging to Coke and competing brands in the Chicago area.
Investment issues: Ameritech’s service problems from last year continue to come up before the Illinois Commerce Commission, which is trying to determine the success of alternate regulation in regard to the telephone company.
In Illinois, Ameritech has agreed to a rate cap on what it charges for basic phone service in return for reduced regulation and freedom to earn as much money as it can. This contrasts with traditional regulation that includes a guaranteed return on investment but limits profits.
Consumer advocates contend that under alternative regulation, Ameritech skimped on investing in network infrastructure, which contributed to last year’s service troubles. Executives at Ameritech and its parent, SBC Communications Inc., dispute that, saying an employee shortage was the culprit.
But in testimony before the ICC, Charlotte Terkeurst, representing the Citizens Utility Board and other consumer advocates, pointed to the level of Ameritech’s investment as a problem.
In 1999, for example, Ameritech’s average investment in Illinois outside phone line infrastructure amounted to less than $20 per customer line, she said. By contrast, other Bells invested a little more than $30 a line to serve other markets.
Also in 1999, the company’s Illinois operation reaped a return on shareholder equity above 40 percent, she said, compared with less than 20 percent, on average, for Bells operating in other states.
