12 Jun 2009
House of Fraser has reinstated the IT director role, following its decision to give board responsibility for IT to the finance director two years ago.
Former director of IT services Duncan Gray has been appointed to the position, and will have responsibility for all aspects of IT, development and support. He will report directly to the firm's chief financial officer.
According to House of Fraser, the appointment of retail veteran Gray will enable a closer alignment of technology with business needs.
Under the new structure, House of Fraser hopes to achieve a more integrated approach to the provision of IT support. To that end, the firm has established four new teams dedicated to "strengthening and maximising synergies" between its operations and support functions.
“Our aim is to be the UK and Ireland’s premium department store and we need to be at the top of our game. The changes to our IT department mean that House of Fraser will have a more competitive IT capability, further enhancing our customer services and trade relations," said Gray.
"I am very much looking forward to taking on this new role and working with the team.”
In 2007, House of Fraser scrapped the IT director role after Gray's predecessor Frank Berridge announced his retirement.
It's great to see the reinstatement of the IT Director post at House of Fraser, but it's also very interesting to see a couple of things side-by-side in HoF's statement: firstly, HoF is hoping to drive customer service excellence with improved IT investment; and secondly the IT Director is reporting to the CFO. At first glance it's not obvious how these two things will work together.... but I sincerely hope I'm wrong!
Posted by: Neil Ward-Dutton 12 Jun 2009
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