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By Will Sturgeon, 1 March 2004 13:10

NEWS 01.03.99: The IT community has rounded on Marks & Spencer for banishing the top IT job in the company from the board of directors.

Following this week's sacking of IT director John Sacher, the IT department will be headed by divisional director Kieth Bogg - but he won't take his predecessor's place on the board.

IT industry figures have reacted with disbelief. They claim the move bucks a growing trend among big businesses across all industries, where IT professionals are increasingly reaching the highest levels of strategic decision making.

An M&S spokeswoman insisted that although IT has lost its place on the board, it has not lost its importance to the organisation.

However, commentators were dismayed to see IT devalued. Chris Edwards, professor of IS management at Cranfield School of Management, said: "It is very negative for M&S not to have senior representation for IT. To remove IT from the board when it was already there is just ridiculous, especially in the retail sector where M&S' rivals are recognising the criticality of using their data for new services."

01.03.04: This demotion of the top IT job followed the axing of previous occupant of the post John Sacher, who was kicked out in a 'night of the long knives' which saw 31 senior execs ousted by incoming CEO Peter Salisbury as he attempted to turn around the ailing retailer's fortunes.

And while it flew in the face of a silicon.com campaign to promote senior techies to board level it didn't hamper the retailer's close involvement with technical development.

Most recently, M&S has been trialling RFID tracking technology. It has also implemented a widespread rollout of chip and pin to help strengthen the high-tech fight against card fraud.

On the slightly more quirky side, the company even rolled out technology which would inform customers of any potential clashes with outfits they were buying or accessorising.

The company's website also won plaudits for great performance - adding to the general feeling that M&S hasn't looked back since sacking Sacher.

This point was emphasised when the company announced plans for an ecommerce operation in time for Christmas 1999 while Sacher's seat was still warm.

In fact an otherwise successful and pioneering approach to technology has only really been marred by one serious security blunder - but it's far from alone on that front.