BI gives fashion jeansmaker a leg up

CHICAGO - True Religion Apparel Inc. sells 4,000 different styles of jeans at prices starting at $200 and running up to $350. For some of Computerworld 's non-fashion-victim readers, the question may be, "Why would anyone spend that much money on denim pants?" For John Dohm, vice president of IT for the Los Angeles clothier, the question is: "What makes a customer buy this pair instead of that one?" For the first couple of years, True Religion answered that question through the founders' instinct and taste. But with more than 62 True Religion stores supplying copious point-of-sale data, True Religion has embraced business intelligence software to help it reach its goal of $1 billion in annual sales. That was enough to bring the company from zero sales in 2002 to its current run rate of $300 million in revenue per year.

Dohm shared his experience deploying BI tools at True Religion during a speech Tuesday at Computerworld 's Business Intelligence Perspectives conference. For another, IT tends to over-invest in BI projects, resulting in a "weak value proposition." That's more problematic for BI than similar-sized ERP projects. A former Deloitte & Touche director, Dohm said, "BI is a good idea, but almost never done right." For one, companies rarely do a strong study of their business processes before embarking on their BI deployment, he said. While ERP usually has a strong ally in the chief financial office, BI projects usually don't enjoy any "organizational air cover," he said. Before Dohm's arrival, the company used a small order management system.

Dohm sayid he was lucky, because he was hired by True Religion not only to roll out a modern BI system, but also to understand the business processes beforehand to make sure it was done right. Since he's taken over, the company has replaced it with Oracle Corp.'s E-Business Suite version 12, along with a tool called Aris created by Software AG. Preferring to run the "lowest footprint data center humanly possible," Dohm has just three employees in his IT team. "The goal is to have no more than eight in IT as we grow to $1 billion in revenue," he said. The key to that, he said, is to outsource wisely and to be disciplined enough to say no to his bosses when they demand some ad hoc report right away. "The service mentality that most of us in IT have is dangerous," he said. "Infinite flexibility doesn't usually come with an infinite checkbook." Dohm also doesn't believe in fighting users who go around IT's approved reporting and dashboarding tools in favor of the tried and true. "If everyone is doing things in Excel, then Excel is your BI strategy," he said. "Let them use Excel to the point where it runs out of gas, because then they will switch to your higher-end product." With Oracle E-Business Suite deployed, Dohm said he's finally been able to answer mysteries such as why "every Easter, our Dallas store sells out of white denim."

U.S. Bank picks IBM's Lotus platform over Microsoft's SharePoint

Minneapolis-based U.S. Bank has chosen to standardize on IBM Corp.'s Lotus collaboration software, IBM said Tuesday, displacing Microsoft Corp.'s rival SharePoint-based platform. Quickr and Connections provide a file-sharing repository allowing employees to create profiles, wikis and blogs. U.S. Bank plans to roll out the Lotus Quickr and Lotus Connections social Web platform for corporations.

U.S. Bank is also standardizing on the latest Lotus Notes 8.5 client for all 58,000 employees, as well as the Lotus Sametime messaging app, Bob Picciano, general manager of IBM Lotus Software, told Computerworld . "The focus is for them to get everything migrated by 2010," he said. While Quickr and Connections will be new deployments, Notes and Sametime are technically upgrades. U.S. Bank is also looking into IBM's LotusLive cloud collaboration software, said Picciano, and is even considering switching off Microsoft Office to IBM's Lotus Symphony productivity suite. "Discussion for that continues to be under way," he said. U.S. Bank was already using versions 6.5 of IBM Lotus Notes and Domino for most of its employees. According to Picciano, IBM and Microsoft both bid to provide collaboration and messaging for U.S. Bank, which is ranked the sixth-largest American bank with $266 billion in assets.

But U.S. Bank was also running 5,000 SharePoint sites - some department level, some much larger, according to Picciano - throughout the bank, which was created out of a number of mergers about 10 years ago. Despite IBM's apparent incumbent's edge, Picciano said the battle between the two vendors was "largely competitive." "I wouldn't be arrogant enough to call U.S. Bank an IBM shop," he said. Microsoft did not dispute IBM's characterization of its deal with U.S. Bank, but it maintains that it is an exception that proves the rule. "Last year, more than 4.7 million people began the switch to Exchange and SharePoint from Notes," Julia White, director of Exchange product management, said in an e-mail. "We count our switchers in millions, while Notes counts their switchers in tens of thousands." "We expect this trend to accelerate with Exchange 2010 and SharePoint 2010," White said. IBM's win, he said, was the result of superior technology, not heavy discounting. "This wasn't a 'our bundle will beat up your bundle' situation," he said. "Our software was a better choice and fit." Picciano declined to disclose financial terms. "It's a very big deal," he said. Citing large customers such as HSBC, Colgate-Palmolive, Teach for America and others that are deploying the latest Web 2.0 components of the Lotus platform, Picciano says IBM is making a successful counterattack. "We are displacing Exchange, displacing Outlook," Picciano said. "Despite what the people up in Redmond might say, we are taking share."

French National Assembly votes for new 'three strikes' bill

The French government is still pursuing its plan to cut off Internet users accused of copyright infringement - although a new version of the so-called "three strikes" bill approved by the National Assembly on Tuesday now requires that a court make the decision to suspend a surfer's Internet access. An earlier version of the law handed the power to disconnect surfers to a newly created High Authority for the Distribution of Works and the Protection of Rights on the Internet (Hadopi - another nickname for the law). It was approved by the French Parliament in April but the Constitutional Council struck that measure down as unconstitutional before it was signed into law. The bill takes its "three strikes" nickname from the three accusations of copyright infringement that must be levelled at surfers before their Internet access is suspended. The government immediately vowed to return to parliament with a new bill, Hadopi 2, that would satisfy the Constitutional Council.

That means that the government must now form a committee of deputies and senators to come up with a compromise bill and submit it to both houses for a vote. The Senate approved that text in July, and on Tuesday deputies in the National Assembly adopted it by 285 votes to 225. However, the deputies made a number of amendments to the Senate's text, and in France a bill cannot become law until both houses of Parliament agree to the same text. The compromise process usually goes without a hitch, but in a surprise vote in April the National Assembly rejected the compromise text for the first version of the law, Hadopi, by 21 votes to 15. While the new bill requires that suspension of Internet access be ordered by a judge, rather than decided by an administrative agency in an automated process, it toughens sanctions in other areas. That could be the case if their computer was attacked by malware and fell under someone else's control, or if their wireless Internet access was inadequately secured. Internet subscribers will now be held liable if someone uses their Internet connection to illegally download copyright works - even if they do not explicitly authorize it, but allow it to happen through negligence. The bill also adds a €5,000 (US$7,300) fine for Internet service providers that fail to suspend the Internet access of a customer when ordered by a judge, and a €3,750 fine for surfers who take out a second Internet subscription to get around a suspension ordered by a judge.

But the premise that songwriters and musicians will benefit from the stronger penalties for copyright infringement proposed by the bill is disputed by many - including the artists themselves. The latest bill's progress has been closely followed by other governments under pressure from record labels and film studios to crack down on Internet piracy. Last week a group of predominantly British musicians, the Featured Artists Coalition, criticized U.K. government plans for a similar three-strikes law, saying that "Processes of monitoring, notification and sanction are not conducive to achieving a vibrant, functional, fair and competitive market for music." The group's members, including Billy Bragg, KT Tunstall, Robbie Williams and Radiohead, said that a consultation paper issued by the U.K. government indicates "a mindset so far removed from that of the general public and music consumer that it seems an extraordinarily negative document."

China's Alibaba expects India joint venture this year

Top Chinese e-commerce site Alibaba.com aims to announce an Indian joint venture this year as the company expands its global footprint, it said Friday. A deal in India, where Alibaba.com recently surpassed 1 million registered members, would be the latest in the site's efforts to grow abroad. "I've got a lot of confidence in India," said Jack Ma, CEO of Alibaba Group, the parent company of Alibaba.com. Alibaba.com is in talks with an Indian reseller about forming a joint venture, CEO David Wei told reporters at a briefing.

Alibaba.com is a platform for small and medium businesses to trade everything from lumber and clothes to iPods and PC components. Alibaba.com already works with Indian publishing company Infomedia 18, its likely joint venture partner, to promote its platform in the country. Its main member base is in China, but the site also has 9.5 million registered users in other countries and facilitates many cross-border trades. The site also has a joint venture in Japan and recently launched a major U.S. advertising campaign to attract more users there. Ma said Alibaba knows it needs to "do something" in Latin America as well. Ma and other top Alibaba executives visited the U.S. early this year for meetings with potential partners including Amazon.com, eBay and Google.

When asked if the company would also seek to expand in Eastern Europe, Ma said, "I will be there." Alibaba will not hold a majority stake in joint ventures it forms, instead taking a share similar to the 35 percent it has in its Japan operation. "Our global strategy means partner with local people," Ma said. "We want partners and we want partners to control their business." Users place total orders of more than US$200 million each day on the Alibaba.com international platform, Wei said. About 50 percent of those orders go to Chinese exporters, he said.