OFFICE DEPOT

"This is a high-growth, fast-paced culture where you have to be able to think on your feet and run with it."
– Joe Brink, Director, MIS

• IBM ES9000, RS/6000s • DB2, PowerBuilder •
• Retail • Large shop •

Office Depot, Inc., with more than 500 stores, is the largest retailer of office products in the United States and Canada. Aimed at small and midsized businesses and home offices, Office Depot stores offer discounts on business supplies as well as computers and other office machines. Services offered include copying, faxing, personalized checks, credit reports, and mailing lists from Dun and Bradstreet.

Publicly held, the corporation employs 28,000 people, with 2,000 of these at corporate headquarters in Delray Beach, Florida. 1995 revenues were $6 billion. Office Depot was founded in 1986.

Technology

Office Depot's hardware includes an IBM ES9000 running under MVS/ESA, AS/400s, RS/6000s, and Windows NT servers. Development is in COBOL and PowerBuilder, using the DB2 database management system under CICS. There are 1,600 nodes in the corporate network, with frame relay Bay networks using TCP/IP protocols on OS/2 servers linking the retail stores and the network with 30 NT servers which connect 30 delivery centers and 200 sales offices.

Job titles for Office Depot's 200 computer professionals include Programmer I, II, III: Systems Analyst I, II; Project Leader, Program Manager, Director, and Vice President. Staff members recently implemented DepotNet, an Intranet web server developed in Visual Basic which provides online ordering capability and company information to its member stores.

Culture

Computer professionals work in cubicles in a nonsmoking environment. Standard office hours are 8:30 AM to 5 PM. An average work week is 40 hours. Travel needs are light, typically less than five percent of an employee's time. Business dress is business casual. Office Depot offers its computer professionals the opportunity to work in a growing, aggressive, people-oriented company.

Office Depot observes six fixed holidays and one personal day, as well as six days of sick leave. Employees earn two weeks of vacation after one year, three weeks after five years, and four weeks after ten years. The company pays approximately 75 percent of the costs of a health plan, which includes medical, dental, vision, employee assistance, and life insurance. There is an employee stock purchase plan with a 10-percent discount on the price of stock. The company also contributes to a 401(k) plan. Employees receive a five-percent discount on items at the company's retail stores. There have never been any layoffs.

Candidates

Office Depot looks for candidates with experience on IBM mainframes, COBOL, CICS, DB2, PowerBuilder, C++, or Visual Basic. A candidate should have a Bachelor's degree or five years of experience and good communication skills. Retail or point-of-sale (POS) experience, a background working in a Fortune 500 company, and a Master's degree are considered a plus. Current staff members have from 5 years to 20 years of experience and an average education level of a Bachelor's degree. The company does hire entry-level computer professionals and has an intern program. Candidates should have a Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Applied Mathematics, or MIS.

The company's 150 new computer professionals a year are found through employment agencies (40 percent), advertisements, (30 percent), and employee referrals (30 percent).

Contact

Letters are preferred.

Ms. Leslie Malfitano, Recruiting Representative (MIS)

Office Depot, Inc.

2200 Old Germantown Road

Delray Beach, Florida 33445

(407) 279-3143

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