House of Fraser outsources IT operations

House of Fraser is restructurings its IT department

House of Fraser has outsourced its entire IT operations to Capgemini in a move to reduce costs and get access to a broader skills base.

The seven-year agreement, effective from this month, will cover management of datacentre services, applications support and development, service desk, desktop support and third-party services.

Some 70 House of Fraser IT staff are expected to transfer to Capgemini and BT under transfer of undertakings, protection of employment (Tupe) agreements from March 2010.

Additionally, 11 new supplier management jobs will be created within House of Fraser as a result of the deal. Existing IT staff at the firm will be able to apply for those roles.

According to the department store, the decision was prompted by the need to generate savings and IT procurement effectiveness, as well as get access to a wider pool of IT expertise to support its business plans.

House of Fraser reinstated the IT director role last summer, two years after scrapping the position by promoting head of computer services Duncan Gray to head its technology function.

When he was appointed to the new job, Gray told Computing that one of his priorities was settling his existing teams into a newly consolidated structure, which was then divided into first-line support and retail operations, datacentre and infrastructure, e-commerce and software development.

“An IT function cannot just sit and do the same thing over and over again, it must have continuous service improvements. It must have the ability to do things differently and look at what the guy around the corner is doing. [But, that said,] it is not about reinventing the wheel any more,” Gray said at the time.