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Will Winn-Dixie’s Legacy Be Legacy?

Written by Evan Schuman
August 13th, 2008

Winn-Dixie’s impressive financial turnaround is the result of many issues, but some are suggesting that a new embrace of mainframes played a key role. When the venerable 521-store grocery chain declared bankruptcy back in 2005, CIO Charlie Weston’s initial thoughts were that such a tact had its advantages, namely refocusing the company on fundamentals, including IT.

Today, Weston is saying that the lack of focus on those IT issues “fundamentally contributed to the bankruptcy.” IBM is pointing today to the chain’s decision to not go distributed and to stick with—and upgrade—its mainframe as a sign of legacy support.


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