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One of Rob Carter's goals as CIO of FedEx Corp. has been to create an IT infrastructure that provides visibility across the company's different business segments. At no time is that kind of transparency more important than during the busy holiday shipping season.

FedEx expects to record its highest volumes of the year on Dec. 12 when the FedEx Express and FedEx Ground networks will handle nearly 8.5 million packages in 24 hours. FedEx Ground could exceed 4.2 million packages that day, more than 60% over the daily average of 2.6 million reported in its August quarter. FedEx.com will process an average of 3.5 million daily tracking requests, peaking at 4 million requests on the busiest day of the season.

While Santa's busiest night is Dec. 24, FedEx Express' comes Dec. 19, with nearly 4.7 million packages forecast to move through the network as shoppers take advantage of its services, bypassing Rudolph.

What's on Carter's wish list? He's most excited about getting "Guitar Hero" for the family's PlayStation 2. "You get to play guitar for different rock bands," he says. "That's very cool."

Three of Carter's four children play guitar, and he recently resumed lessons. Carter doesn't claim to be the next B.B. King, but he did first pick up a guitar when he was 11 or 12, a $5 beauty he bought in a small village while traveling through Mexico. And what better place to learn guitar than Memphis?

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