Over-promise and under-delivery is the biggest IT threat facing retailers, says Edcon CIO Henri Slabbert.
"Threats in the IT world have always been stuff like service issues, cost overruns, projects being late and quality problems," he says.
"If I look at my profession, the average for projects-on-time is 27%, although we sit at 80%. I think if I look around the industry, we need to look at quality, cost-efficiencies and delivering on promises. If you promise to deliver on time, you must deliver on time," Slabbert says.
He also observes that attitudes towards IT have changed in recent years.
"IT is becoming more and more important in the total picture of how shareholders look at companies.
"If you're a small team, you know how good your internal processes are," Slabbert says. "The shareholder doesn't. They want some assurance that your processes are sound. So standards and governance become more important. IT is also very expensive, so people want to know the money spent is appropriately applied and that the processes surrounding it are sound.
"IT must be more than just being as cheap as possible. The banks have always seen it as a significant enabler," he says.
He follows the same approach, seeing Edcon's IT department as a playmaker and partner for other divisions in the group.
"How do you measure the value of IT? Well, how do you measure the value of a fly-half in a rugby team?" He adds: "In retail you have two extremes: You have people who really look at costs, who measure IT costs in terms of sales. They are really proud if they spend nothing on IT. Then you have people who value IT and measure its success in terms of the contribution of IT to the group's achievements.
"IT is core to the business. For that reason we must make sure we have the best. The best does not mean 'Rolls Royce', it means the most appropriate, the most cost-effective and efficient."
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