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Girl Scouts are mum on tech underpinning of Digital Cookie push

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This week’s news that the Girl Scouts of USA has gotten over its aversion to e-commerce and will allow sales of its iconic (and delicious) cookies online was reported everywhere. But there has been little disclosure on what technologies it’s using.

Via email, Chief Digital Cookie Executive Sarah Angel-Johnson  said only that the organization is using “world class IT tools and partners such as Hybris and Accenture,” but that’s it. Hybris is a Swiss e-commerce specialist purchased by SAP last year. Accenture is a huge systems integrator with ties to Microsoft and, well most tech companies, frankly. (For what it’s worth, Angel-Johnson was formerly a long-timer at IBM, according to her LinkedIn profile.)

Other than that, all a spokeswoman would say in response to questions is that ABC Baker, one of the Girl Scouts’ two cookie suppliers, does custom development using the Microsoft ASP.Net web app framework and the C# language. The mobile apps support iOS and Android devices, which we already knew. And there is no reliance on Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Azure or Google Cloud, nor on any of the big marketing automation software companies.

Given that this is nearly an $800 million business, it’ll be worth keeping an eye on how this effort turns out and which vendors are involved.

The digital cookie push is not without controversy: Critics contend it will deprive scouts of valuable real-life sales experience.

Kelly Parisi, who heads communications for the GSUSA told USA Today that scouts will still be encouraged to sell door to door. “We are girl-led and girl-driven. We go where girls are, and girls are digital natives,” she said. “The digital component will enhance the sales, and the byproduct will be a larger social imprint from the girls.”

Photo courtesy of  Flickr user Marit & Toomas Hinnosaar

Girl Scouts are mum on tech underpinning of Digital Cookie push originally published by Gigaom, © copyright 2014.

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