DHL Supply Chain, with help from virtualization
and strong ties to the business, is changing the way IT works.
|
By Karen J. Bannan
PHOTOGRAPH: COURTESY OF DHL
xcellence, simply delivered. Those are the
words Deutsche Post DHL lives by. The
company, which manages and transports
letters, goods and information, is always
looking for an edge. To get that edge, DHL
is breaking down the walls — almost literally —
between IT and the business units.
In fact, several DHL departments count IT staff-
ers as their direct colleagues and work with them
on a day-to-day basis to help set business policy
and strategy. Thanks to this close alignment, DHL's
business executives don't necessarily view IT staff as
part of IT. Instead, they see these staffers as part of
business operations. This has resulted in innovation
as well as a shift in thinking: Business people see
IT people not as a department that installs servers
and software, but as colleagues who just happen to
have IT as a background.
Nowhere is this more apparent than in DHL's Sup-
ply Chain Division, which offers "contract logistics"
— services and supporting systems that other com-
panies use to source materials, build products and
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