Computerworld - Paul Heller is CIO at Malvern, Pa.-based Vanguard Group Inc. — a minimum of for now. He could very very easily be plucked out of that work and reassigned to lead the company’s multibillion-dollar retail mutual funds business. In truth, he’s been there, done that, swapping jobs in 2006 with former Vanguard CIO Tim Buckley, who now helms the retail investor group.

Las Vegas-based Zappos.com Inc. may be the No. 1 seller of shoes on the internet. In 2009, it racked up sales of a lot more than $1 billion. It stocks some 3 million pairs of footwear, offers free next-day shipping on all purchases and is known for its generous 365-day return policy and top-notch customer service. Behind the scenes, It’s embedded in every thing Zappos does, from engineering and continually enhancing the customer’s on the internet encounter to coordinating the warehouse robot program.

Forget IT-business alignment. Vanguard and Zappos.com are two of a small quantity of businesses wherever business and IT are virtually indistinguishable. Others on an admittedly unscientific short list of pioneers in IT-business convergence are The Progressive Corp., Southwest Airlines Co. and the Procter & Gamble Co.

What all of these businesses have in common is that IT doesn’t just support the business; it enables and continually transforms the business, often creating new revenue and profit streams.

Moreover, CIOs and everyone else in IT at these companies know precisely how their businesses make money and lose money. In truth, it’s not at all unusual for employees to rotate through several jobs, moving in and out of IT and company roles. “Rotation gives you context,” says Buckley.

Another notable attribute: Customers of these companies are king, and client service, both internal and external, is supreme. At Procter & Gamble, for example, dedicated client service teams from P&G’s shared services group (which encompasses IT) meet with company unit presidents to discuss the terms of their IT supplier-customer relationship.

Not coincidentally, this is the same way P&G’s sales teams do company with their giant retail customers. In truth, it was P&G’s lead relationship manager on the Wal-Mart client team who helped coach IT on how to make these internal relationships work, notes Jim Fortner, P&G’s vice president of IT development and operations.

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