IT Week: Since taking over as IT director at Domino's Pizza in June, what have been your key objectives?

Jane Kimberlin: Our IT is all insourced and run from our Milton Keynes headquarters. We support 433 stores and plan to increase that number by about 50 stores a year until we reach 1,000. My remit is to develop IT systems to support fast business growth and the fast delivery of pizzas.

How will the increase in stores affect the IT department?

We plan to grow our internal IT team, but not proportionately to store growth. Domino's has a front-facing helpdesk team; a stores installation and sales team, which sell our IT services to the franchises; and applications and infrastructure groups. Our aim is to use leading-edge technology to support the growth in stores, so we don't need to expand our IT team at the same rate.

Is the web-ordering facility a core part of your business?

The web site has been going for seven years and it's the fastest-growing part of Domino's. Web orders make up 12 percent of overall sales and online customers spend about 25 percent more than those ordering over the phone. We had £100,000 of online sales one night. The web site is managed and hosted internally. All orders and requests come through to the Milton Keynes web servers and we pass these on to individual stores where the information pops up on a screen – the same one as for phone orders.

In your first six months at the organisation, which activities have been priorities?

One challenge was to make sure the helpdesk was working very effectively. I also had to implement an online ordering system for Ireland. Another key focus area has been to get real-time monitoring and statistics for each store, so we can assess performance. We're able to measure the load time – the time from receiving an order to it going in the oven – and out-the-door times, to see if stores are complying with our policy of less than 15 minutes from receiving the order to the pizza being out the door. The franchises can also view this data to see how they're performing compared with other stores in their region.

You have headed up several IT departments during your career. Have you got any tips on managing a successful IT team?

Strategy is important. You need to work out exactly what the business strategy is and make sure IT is aligned with that. An enthusiastic team also helps. In the retail environment it's all about working fast and effectively and thinking ahead about new technology.

Are there any forthcoming technologies that you think will have a big impact on the business?
I'm very excited about the mobile side. That it will be possible for customers to order a pizza by text no matter where they may be is great. Quad-core chips are also a very exciting prospect. But I'm not sure how much Windows Vista will change anything for us or for industry in general.

About Jane Kimberlin
Jane Kimberlin is IT director at Domino's Pizza.
She has more than 15 years' experience in IT and business management.
Before joining Domino's, Kimberlin was IT director at pub chain the Spirit Group.