Sidebar: Ready, Set, Go!

August 29, 2005 12:00 PM ET

Computerworld - "One of the biggest challenges -- aside from 'Here's technology we have never used and let's make it work' -- was we did the entire project in five months," says K.C. Condit, director of technical infrastructure at Rent-A-Center.
When you work that fast, you learn things that not every IT manager knows. For example, it's not easy to buy 3,000 chairs all at the same time. But that's what the company had to do to deploy its kiosk-based employment application system within that condensed time frame.
"We pushed some vendors to the limit, to put it mildly," recalls CTO Tony Fuller.
Indeed, a gaggle of furniture, computer hardware and software vendors had to run to keep up with a project schedule shaped by a company with a flat organizational chart and an informal management style.
"We take pride in having a very small management staff in our home office, and we have very open lines of communications," Fuller says. "From when we decide to do something to implementation has always been a short time. We like to get in and get it done."
Fuller explains that for a project of this magnitude, which includes multiple departments such as IT, HR, purchasing and real estate, "we have the ability to get all the right people into the room all talking the same language. And we get the vendors into the loop from Day One also."

Read more about project management in Computerworld's Project Management Knowledge Center.

Recommend Digg Twitter ShareThis

Email Print Send Feedback Reprints

Jump to comments

Project Management

Additional Resources

Microsoft

DirectAccess and UAG: Better Together

Here are some of the key reasons why you would want to run Unified Access Gateway with DirectAccess.

Microsoft

Case Study: Energy Firm Tightens Protection, Simplifies IT Work

Review how one energy firm tightened protection and simplified IT work using business-ready security solutions.

Sybase

NEXT-GENERATION MOBILITY PLATFORMS

In this white paper, IDC analyzes the role of next-generation mobile enterprise platforms as organizations seek a more strategic deployment of mobile solutions.

Learn the important issues you must consider before starting your next mobility initiative. Get your mobility white paper from IDC now, compliments of Sybase.