There has been talk in the IT press since the start of the year about the inevitability of staff cuts within IT departments and lots of advice on how to either make yourself indispensable or how to bring your CV up to scratch.
But if the amount of news on new and continuing projects under way is anything to go by, then retail IT departments are certainly keeping themselves busy.
Marks & Spencer has previously made a commitment to continuing its investment in IT and its supply chain over the next year and now it has revealed that it will be working with IBM to roll out SAP’s Retail applications.
M&S has made clear that it intends to use these applications to reduce costs and improve its business processes, particularly by improving its stock visibility and the management of its information. The return on investment will come from improvements in net margin.
At the same time, John Lewis continues to blaze a trail with its involvement in green IT. For the past couple of months it has been beta testing a system developed by Cisco, which will eventually allow IT departments to manage and reduce power consumption of devices connected to a network.
There are no short-term gains for John Lewis from being involved in such a project other than the input that the company can have on the direction of the development. But John Lewis has its eyes on the long term and the improvements to its business and green credentials that will be possible once the system is fully developed.
It is great to hear of all the good work that is still going on in this industry, despite the UK economy now officially being in recession.
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