Last week Retail Week hosted a bunch of CIOs from some of the UK’s leading retailers at the BT Tower for a roundtable discussion - well actually it was an oval table 
… to discuss the impact of the latest Martec IT in Retail report findings. They wouldn’t let me sit in, although I did get a chance to interview some key people afterwards and was able to create a short video of their views – including great views from the top of the Tower.
I spoke to retailers John Bovill, Group IT Director for Aurora Fashions and Mike Padfield, Head of IT from White Stuff, BT Expedite’s Rich Lowe BT (CEO) and Richard Dodd (COO) along with Brian Hume from Martec International and Tim Danaher and Joanna Perry from Retail Week.
My interviewees highlighted the emphasis on the shift to multichannel and mobile to take businesses forward, how IT departments are coming to the forefront of business, that IT budgets remain stagnant and that ecommerce is a priority investment area, plus other anecdotal comments.
Key findings of the report are:
• IT spend averages 1.1% of sales
• 23% planning to implement or replace store systems
• e-commerce and store systems are top investment priorities
• non-store sales up to 6.3% of total sales
If you’d like to watch the interviews or download the white paper visit www.btexpedite.com/martec2010
Justine Arthur, BT Expedite, Marketing
Categories: Retailers talk IT numbers around an oval table
Last week Retail Week hosted a bunch of CIOs from some of the UK’s leading retailers at the BT Tower for a roundtable discussion - well actually it was an oval table … to discuss the impact of the Martec IT in Retail report findings. They wouldn’t let me sit in, although I did get a chance to interview some key people afterwards and was able to create a short video of their views - including great views from the Tower.
I spoke to retailers John Bovill, Group IT Director for Aurora Fashions and Mike Padfield from White Stuff, BT Expedite’s Rich Lowe BT (CEO) and Richard Dodd (COO) along with Brian Hume from Martec International and Tim Danaher and Joanna Perry from Retail Week.
My interviewees highlighted the emphasis on the shift to multichannel and mobile to take businesses forward, how IT departments are coming to the forefront of business, that IT budgets remain stagnant and that ecommerce is a priority investment area, plus other anecdotal comments.
Key findings of the report are:
- IT spend averages 1.1% of sales
- 23% planning to implement or replace store systems
- e-commerce and store systems are top investment priorities
- non-store sales up to 6.3% of total sales
If you’d like to watch the interviews or download the white paper visit www.btexpedite.com/martec2010
