John F. Jacobs Manager, Retailer and Field Information Systems Saab Cars USA, Inc.

John Jacobs' automotive career has been involved almost exclusively with luxury European imports. His experience in both wholesale and retail environments has uniquely qualified him to oversee the development of Saab Cars USA's new Intranet-based Retailer Information System (IRIS). Shifting from the paradigm of generic dealer communications systems to that of true information sharing, IRIS blends browser technology with AS/400 host processes via a middleware layer of Lotus Domino and Java. The application is centrally-distributed via TCP/IP over a dedicated, high-bandwidth VSAT network to thin clients at the retail site.