Addressing the needs of an emerging "customer economy" is central to corporate growth, according to Marty Larson, vice president of E-Commerce and Marketing Technology at Consolidated Freightways.

Larson was speaking to senior information technology executives on how "Evolving IT Strategies are Taking Aim at Customers" at the e-business Summit 2001 general session, a private gathering of executive-level managers responsible for e-commerce and Internet strategies.
"Clients now expect services and tools that are customized for their specific needs," he said. "I believe this prevailing trend is common for many business-services organizations, whether the company offers trucking capabilities, such as nationwide LTL, or banking services -- such as loans, passbook accounts and portfolio management."
Larson's responsibilities include CF's Internet strategy, web deployment and centralized customer service. He said over the last three years his company's web strategy has focused on developing web-enabled e-business tools and applications for everyday use by CF's core customers.
"The web enables us to provide core customers a variety of tools, applications and solutions that benefit end users immediately," he explained. "These self-service tools can then be extended very economically to smaller and smaller accounts -- customers that even a couple years ago may have been too expensive to serve from a sales and follow-up point of view."
Larson said activities aimed at the customer economy require an aggressive, proactive role by IT executives. "IT is the enabler," he said. "The web gives us the venue, and IT is empowering customers -- large and small -- to manage their business affairs and make decisions in near real time."
Larson this month was named one of the "Top 100 IT Leaders" by ComputerWorld, a leading high-tech trade magazine. Consolidated Freightways long has been recognized as a leader in state-of-art technology in the trucking industry. In fact CF management has urged companies to adopt a "keep technology relevant" policy that guards against over investing in technology that has little benefit to customers.