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By Jo Best, 18 March 2009 13:05

INTERVIEW

Â…set-up here and cost efficiency is very much to the fore," Dobb said.

"There's a lot more scrutiny on projects, [around] what do you need to spend? Can you continue to reduce the operational spend? Over the years [between 2000 and 2005], we took the operational spend to 36 per cent of what it was originally," he added.

How did the IT department achieve such a cut? The recipe is a somewhat prosaic one, Dobb reveals: "Getting off expensive technology and getting rid of expensive suppliers."

One such vendor-ditching exercise saw the IT department bring work outsourced to a tier one supplier back in-house, saving the broadcaster in the region of £500,000.

Another project that boosted Channel 4's ad revenues by four per cent saw the broadcaster's legacy mainframe put out of its misery as it launched E4.

"The benefits were big enough that it was worth really focusing on that and managing the risks. It was a 120-person per year project to cut over, so for Channel 4 it was head and shoulders above any other project that had gone before it in IT terms."

"I proposed re-engineering the whole thing, taking it offshore rather than using a UK outsourcer. Even though that was quite a nerve-wracking implementation in some ways, the channel was willing to invest and get the potential upside. If I hadn't delivered that project I wouldn't have been talking to you as CIO of Channel 4 today," Dobb said.

Dobb, however, is talking as the outgoing CIO of Channel 4 today. Despite the recession, Dobb and one of his IT leadership team - the organisation's head of IS business development - are leaving to set up their own strategic consultancy, ionico, in June.

"I've been at Channel 4 for 10 years. It's a long stint for any CIO I think and I was ready for a fresh challenge. The recession was clearly hitting Channel 4, and with the budget reduced and perhaps the development opportunities reduced, it was an opportunity for me to step outside and start something afresh."

Dobb's replacement will come from inside the longstanding IT team: Kevin Gallagher, former head of applications delivery.

While Dobb is off to face the prospect of launching a company in a recession - something he describes himself as "surprisingly relaxed" about - his successor could find himself heading up the IT function of the broadcaster during a merger with BBC Worldwide or Five: spectres raised by the government's Digital Britain report, published earlier this year.

"It's a bit of a funny time. So until the big picture is sorted, it is hard to know what's going to happen," Dobb said.

While it seems that Channel 4 - and by extension its IT department - is in limbo while its fate is decided and any merger it brings, the tech team under Gallagher is already examining the options.

"All of those discussions are at a pretty early stageÂ… clearly, discussions have started, and people are starting to think 'how would we do that?'. It's just very early days but they are engaged and the new IT leadership team are across it," Dobb said.