Welcome to My World: An Interview with Steve Hangen
Author:
July 2007
What led to you becoming the CIO for WinWholesale?
Late in 2006 I was approached through a Dayton area contact about a potential CIO job opportunity that might be available. I want to point out the key point in that statement is "a Dayton area contact." The value of networking with professionals in your geographic area as well as at a regional, state, domestic and global level is invaluable.
What really caught my attention next was that the opportunity was with a $2.6 billion private company with over 5,000 employees that was local Dayton company. On top of that, the company highly valued the major role of IT within the company and attributed much of the company's amazing success to the operational efficiencies enabled by IT.
So this very intriguing opportunity, combined with the fact that my previous employer was merging with another company, led me to consider this new job possibility. The company turned out to be WinWholesale Inc., recently rated as the fourth largest company (based upon revenue) in the Miami Valley. After meeting several times with the president and CEO, Rick Schwartz and the CFO, Jack Johnston, it became obvious to me that this would be a mutually beneficial change. I could help out WinWholesale with the experiences that I had at both Reynolds & Reynolds and NCR, as well being challenged to learn a new industry and working with a new set of talented and passionate people. I joined the organization in March of 2007.
What is your current role?
My role at WinWholesale is chief information officer. I’m responsible for partnering with the various company business functions to drive constant operational improvements, innovative business solutions and management of the company's infrastructure and application suites. The WinWholesale management team not only encouraged me to continue my personal role as an executive member of the Greater Dayton IT Alliance Board of Trustees and chair of the Dayton CIO Council, but also said they clearly see value to WinWholesale from participating in these professional organizations.
What does WinWholesale do? What makes them unique?
WinWholesale is the third-largest wholesale distributor in the nation in its industry, which includes domestic and industrial supplies such as plumbing; heating, ventilation and air conditioning; electrical; electronics; pipes, valves and fittings; fastening hardware and even municipal waterworks and utility supplies. What makes the company unique is the business model. There are more than 450 of what we call Win local companies. Each one is a locally owned and operated corporation that sells a line of these supplies or equipment. For example, a local Winnelson company wholesales plumbing supplies and equipment; a Winair company wholesales heating, ventilation and air conditioning equipment. WinWholesale Inc. has a financial stake in each local company and provides centralized business support services for them. The great success of the organization for more than 50 years has been based on the entrepreneurial spirit and this local ownership model where the company can go as far as the president of a Winnelson, Winair or any of the other companies wants to take it – all supported by centralized services.
How does WinWholesale’s distributed business design affect IT strategy?
The IT team focuses on providing these centralized services to the 450-plus local companies – and also to more than 100 branches of Noland Company, a 2005 wholesaler acquisition - with a focus on increasing local company and branch productivity and operational efficiency. Our strategy needs to be in tune with the strategic focus of the company and how we can best drive that focus with prioritized business initiatives and enhancements. In fact, we are implementing a new process to ensure each business unit can prioritize its business needs and then collectively agree to a company-wide priority for our major initiatives. Those initiatives are planned to consume about 45 percent of our total IT resource capacity.
What is the IT environment at WinWholesale?
The IT application environment at WinWholesale is spread across numerous platforms, from IBM mainframe and I-Series to Wintel. Our core operational application solution set is custom developed. That finely tuned customization/integration is an integral part of our success. We use several application development languages and are rapidly expanding use of WebSphere/Java and business intelligence using Cognos. We have IT team members in Dayton and Newport News, Virginia, where Noland Company is headquartered.
What are your goals for WinWholesale’s IT strategy?
My goals are to help to build and improve upon the processes already in place as well as to institute new approaches for identifying and completing those activities that provide the most value to the business. All of this can't happen without good quality people in IT and the business.
Key to my strategy is vastly improved communication. This includes both communication content and frequency. Many of our issues surface due to limited communication or the lack of face-to-face communication. It’s easy to default to email, but much of the content can be missed or misinterpreted without the personal connection.
An additional goal that I have is to get to the point where the WinWholesale IT team is recognized for its contributions not only internally, but externally as well.
How can WinWholesale use IT to be more successful?
The good news is that WinWholesale is already using IT to be more successful. Each business unit has prioritized the key business needs that they have and are working on a more rigorous business justification process. IT is already included in setting business strategy and is integral to accomplishing the company's aggressive goals.
What can other companies learn from WinWholesale?One key point that I believe other companies can learn from WinWholesale is that IT is not just another necessary administrative function of the business, but a key driver executing excellence. IT is not relegated to back-office functions at WinWholesale, but is at the table for setting strategy and brainstorming ideas for enhancing the business.
How has professional training helped the people in your companies?
In closing, I want to come back to the opening point about networking with other professionals, especially outside of whatever company where you may be employed. This can occur by attending functions like the GDITA breakfast and lunch forums, participating in GDITA Training Exchange classes where you also have the opportunity to interact with other Dayton area professionals, local PMI chapter meetings, the Dayton CIO Council meetings, etc. The potential rewards from getting to know your fellow Dayton IT professionals are invaluable from both a career and learning perspective.....I'm a personal testimony to that fact!
