By Julian Goldsmith, 1 August 2007 14:45
NEWS
The IT director of the department store chain House of Fraser has retired, and the retailer has confirmed it currently has no plans to appoint anyone to that role.
Frank Berridge, the retailer's IT director, has left to begin his retirement and, according to sources close to the company, Berridge's two immediate reports - director of systems development Mike Hiscock and head of computer services Duncan Gray - will now report to the CFO, Stefan Cassar.
silicon.com Retail & Leisure
Get the latest retail and leisure news straight to your inbox. Sign up for the R&L newsletter today!
House of Fraser confirmed there are no plans to reappoint an IT director for the company in the foreseeable future but did not comment on the reasons why.
It is understood House of Fraser has reached a stage in its IT strategy where the major IT implementations have been completed and there are few new projects of any size in the pipeline.
House of Fraser's decision not to replace Berridge could be a sign retail sector CFOs are taking on more responsibility for their company IT strategy.
At John Lewis, for example, the department store arm of John Lewis Partnership (JLP), the role of director of computing services, which focuses on systems shared by all JLP divisions, now reports directly to the group CFO, Marisa Cassoni, although divisional IT directors still report to their respective boards.
Cathy Holley, partner at executive headhunting company Boyden UK said some retailers are no longer willing to spend money on 'C'-level wages for their IT departments.
She said: "I think retailers are sitting in two camps. There are companies like Sainsbury's who bring in big heavy-hitters like [director of European strategy] Angela Morrison. They hire top people because they are not just looking at driving out cost but looking at technology to deliver the exciting future of retail. Then you have the boards who simply don't get it and they try to bring in cheap senior IT people or hunt around internally."
Comments
There are 2 comments. Join the discussion
1. anonymous
Most of the major retail players like M&S, and Tesco seem to take IT very seriously and are committed to having the right people, with the right skills to ensure success. It seems rather short sighted to assume that there will be no future innovations with in the retail IT sector
2. Andrew Taylor
Full Circle again
Computers were introduced into business by the Accountants and they wanted to control them until they got too big, then the IT department took over.
Now that it looks easy the Accounts department want it back.
Entire organisations run by the use of IT and IT plans and projects run for more than 2 years. An IT director should not be some glorified project manager but an integral part of the decision making process for the entire organisation.
How long before Retail companies are using Virtual relaity like second life to sell from online virtual shops.
Or will this just be a project for the business?