The world's largest children's book publisher has decided to slice the fat out of its computer systems.
Leading the charge is Reg Maton, who signed on as senior VP and CIO of Scholastic Inc. in December.
Topping Maton's agenda: a complete evaluation of Scholastic's information systems, to look for overlaps. Redundant systems will be eliminated, allowing Scholastic to trim expenses and boost productivity.
"They're looking to use technology to enable the business to reduce costs, [and to] consolidate certain processes, where you get productivity improvement by going to common processes," Maton says. "There's opportunity to eliminate redundancy, to consolidate, to rationalize where we can get process improvement and some cost reduction."
MULTIPLE SYSTEMS TARGETED
Scholastic's order management system is a prime example. "We're going to take a hard look," Maton says. "There are multiple order management systems, and [we're] looking at workflow and process improvement opportunities in that area."
An analysis of Scholastic's publishing production workflow will come later, after Maton has analyzed the business's operational systems.
Scholastic uses J.D. Edwards for financials; PeopleSoft for HR; and Managistics for demand, forecast, and supply chain planning. All the systems run on IBM AS/400 computers. Macs and PCs populate desktops.
Maton who comes to Scholastic after tours of duty at Symbol Technologies, Standard Microsystems, Tiffany & Company, Olympus America, and CBS.
Landing at Scholastic marks a return to publishing for Maton. "I spent about 10 years affiliated with what was called the CBS Publishing Group in New York," Maton says. "That's where I had much of my experience in educational textbook publishing."
Maton reports to Beth Ford, senior VP of global operations and information technology for Scholastic.
- Mark Richards