IT professionals, like professionals in any other business, can be divided into two groups: those who relish getting their teeth stuck into a single project for months on end; and those who are at their best when deluged with assignments, all of which need to be completed yesterday.

Ian Woosey, group IT director at Carpetright, is a self-confessed member of the second group: “I don’t like to stand still,” he says. The 39-year old Liverpudlian has spent his entire career working in retail, a sector he says changes constantly: “I find it fun. It’s fast, dynamic and highly competitive. It’s impossible to get bored.”

Woosey began his love affair with the retail sector when he landed a trainee job at Sainsbury’s after completing his A-levels in 1988. He had moved into IT consulting when he was approached by Carpetright in 2002. The job proved irresistible and he accepted the newly-created role of IT director.

Six years ago, the company was in need of a radical overhaul of its IT department. Put simply, the company had become a victim of its own success. By 2002, the number of UK stores had increased to 350 and Carpetright had just acquired Carpetland, based in Holland and Belgium, adding a further 90 stores.

The company’s IT systems, however, did not reflect its aggressive expansion ambitions. It would be a stretch to say the systems had been designed. Rather, they had evolved ­ and evolution tends to be chaotic. “When I arrived, the company was operating a lot of old, bespoke systems, including lots of manual reconciliations,” says Woosey. “These were both difficult and expensive to maintain, and hindered further expansion.”

Woosey had to overhaul the company’s entire IT estate and install a central and store-side system that would improve efficiency, providing all the necessary data demanded by the accountants ­ a system that could be expanded easily as the company continued to grow its total number of stores.

Retailers such as Carpetright tend to operate on tight profit margins, so managing stock as efficiently as possible can make the difference between a profit or loss at year-end.

An effective IT system can be essential to squeeze as much money as possible out of the business, helping the company keep track of its stock, ensuring obsolete supplies are not languishing in the warehouse and monitoring which carpets are popular, says Woosey.

Woosey created a new IT management team, including business analysts, in an attempt to bridge the gap between staff working in the IT department and everyone else immersed in the day-to-day running of the UK’s largest carpet retailer.

He is a member of a new generation of IT directors: his career has been focused on the business rather than the technical side. Such an approach is a valuable attribute when it comes to the challenge of rebuilding a company’s systems from scratch. “It was easier for me to gain the trust and support of people operating the business because I came from the same background,” he says.

Despite the urgent need to have a system that connected everything together, Woosey resisted the temptation to rush the solution. Instead, he took the time to think about specific requirements. For example, there were two systems used in the stores at the time; one had the advantage of being user-friendly but did not supply central office with the kind of data it needed. In contrast, the system used in central office gave all the right data, but was tricky to operate.

“So, my team made the point of trying to take the best bits of both systems and weld them together,” says Woosey.

Meeting of the minds

To ensure he came up with a system that met everyone’s requirements, Woosey put the business people and IT people together in one big office. “It really helped to break down the distinction between the two departments. They would sit together fixing problems on the spot. There are plenty of people in IT who like to pretend it is a black art that only experts can understand, but this is simply not true,” he says.

Woosey also ran frequent workshops, letting the IT team develop bits of software little-by-little before putting the technology back in front of the people who would use it every day to get their feedback and iron out the glitches.

For the core technology, the company put an SAP system in place. Aware that transferring from an old, creaky system to a new one can create more problems than it solves, Woosey took the precaution of practising for the change. “I knew that if the switch didn’t go smoothly it could be a career-limiting move,” he says with a smile. So his team practised repeatedly, analysing every eventuality. “We did it until we were absolutely confident about all the possible ramifications,” he says.

Technology fit

Coming up with technologies for the stores was equally challenging. Along with designing a new system ­ the firm opted for a business management platform, Microsoft Dynamics, from ERP specialist K3 Business Technology Group ­ the company also installed new furniture, new computers and a new telecommunications network in all its stores.

Although the rollout of the business management system went smoothly, the implementation was not without problems. “When you are trying to roll out new desks and new computer hardware in 500 shops, at times the desk arrives but the hardware does not,” he says.

With all the new systems in place, he has been able to shift his focus to the continued expansion of the business. Carpetright is now the market leader in the UK and has continued to expand in Europe, adding Poland to its roster of operations in March 2006.

When it comes to building the IT infrastructure in Eastern Europe, Woosey says the company has slightly different systems in place: “It has been harder to find the same kind of suppliers in Poland as in the UK. Secondly, we wanted to see how well the market developed before sinking vast amounts of capital into it.”

Carpetright, like other retailers of big-ticket household items, is watching the current economic environment closely. As the effects of the credit crunch continue to reverberate around the globe, there is a concern that shoppers will put their money into debt reduction rather than splashing out on household items.

Woosey is pragmatic and knows that retail is a cyclical business, but he is confident Carpetright can weather any possible economic storm. “All retailers expect 2008 to be tough, but our IT infrastructure, and our decision to consolidate our four distribution centres into one, mean we can maintain our leading market position,” he says.