CIOs rarely focus on supply chains, but the IT experts at HD Smith are key players in the wholesaler's supply-chain-first effort. The results have been "transformational," according to Davíd Guzmán, CIO of the Springfield, Ill.-based company. "There was an urgent need to bring large-scale efficiencies to our business," says Guzmán, who joined HD Smith in 2011. "The pharmaceutical supply chain is one of the most unwieldy in the world, with long R&D processes and endless compliance requirements from a host of regulatory agencies." In addition, "byzantine pricing" has resulted in more than 600 million price permutations for the distributor's 100,000 SKUs, thanks to group purchasing, chargebacks, rebates and more.