Deborah Gillotti: Forget the froth; Starbucks' CIO brews high-tech strategy

Nation's Restaurant News, Nov 3, 1997 by Ed Rubenstein

Ed Rubinstein

To Deborah Gillotti, who earlier this year joined Starbucks Coffee Co. as senior vice president and chief information officer, information technology at the Seattle-based company is as important to its operations as a tall skim latte or an Iced Grande mocha frappucino might be to Starbucks customers.

Reporting to Starbucks chief financial officer Michael Casey, Gillotti is responsible for executing Starbucks' global information technology strategy.

Although on the job only nine months, Gillotti has already spearheaded several successful technology initiatives at Starbucks. 'We've implemented a number of supply chain management systems and applications to automate and improve control,' Gillotti said.

Supply chain management, SCM, is very much a part of Gillotti's history. Before joining Starbucks this past March, she spent more than three years at Bethel, Conn.-based Duracell International, where she overhauled the battery company's global SCM systems. Previously, Gillotti was a consultant at KPMG Peat Marwick, where she directed software implementations for such blue-chip packaged goods firms as Revlon and Gillette.

Starbucks, in addition to its more than 1,300 retail locations throughout North America, supplies private-label coffee to numerous supermarket chains, membership warehouse clubs and other retailers. And because Starbucks is also a coffee manufacturer, the company uses software tools that are very familiar to packaged-goods companies, such as programs from Manugistics and Oracle.

'We have diversified into various business channels. These tools helped simplify some of the processes that we have today,' Gillotti said.

A strategic system currently underway at Starbucks is a data warehouse that will run off the company's AS/400 midrange system and be networked into the chain's back-office software of each store, which comes from Charlotte, N.C.-based Progressive Software. 'We've identified some tools and are designing as we speak,' Gillotti said.

Although Starbucks relies on the AS/400 for mission critical databases, Gillotti said her group is evaluating these applications and may move some parts to Oracle databases. The chain's network operating system is Novell Netware, but Starbucks will be looking toward deploying Microsoft Windows NT for certain groups at headquarters.

Also planned are enhancements to improve front-of-the-house service. 'We're looking to improve speed of service, line efficiency and have more registers at the store,' Gillotti said. The chain, which uses various IBM 4600 series point-of-sale terminals, will even be evaluating wireless networked products that could be used at the checkouts.

After completing her bachelor's degree, Gillotti began her professional career in 1978 as a statistical analyst for the International Monetary Fund in Washington, D.C.

Gillotti described her career path up the systems ladder as 'nontraditional,' as computer science was not a major part of her collegian studio. However, her first job out of school provided her with the opportunity to use computers to solve business problems. 'I learned enough early on to be dangerous,' she recalled.

Although Gillotti carries a Compaq LPE 5300 laptop, she does not do much computing at home. 'By the time I get home, there's just enough time to have dinner, a bottle of wine and catch some Z's,' Gillotti joked.

Managing technology isn't what it used to be as technology strategists at foodservice operators may find themselves becoming involved in more aspects of the operation. Gillotti not only shrugs this off but embraces it.

'I'm glad I came into my prime when technology is ripe, as it offers a lot of benefits to companies.' She added that technology was a tougher sell in the past because 'senior management didn't appreciate it.'

Of course, the rapid pace of technology brings many challenges, too, especially for a fast-growing company like Starbucks that by mid-1998 will see the chain have units in five Asian countries.

'Each market has different requirements and expertise,' Gillotti said. And because overseas units are a relatively new endeavor, 'we are analyzing our entire organizational model and refining it as we grow.'

Gillotti and her husband, who works as a relocation consultant for corporations, live in the Seattle suburb of Issaquah. Since relocating earlier this year from Danbury, Conn., they have embraced the Puget Sound area and over the past year have frequented the Seattle Kingdome to catch quite a number of baseball games.

Commenting on the Mariners' early exit last month from the play-offs, Gillotti said: 'The bullpen stunk. But as they say, 'There's always next year.' '