Even though retailer Tesco is one of the few to actually make a profit from its online sales, mobile technology will have a bigger impact to the business, says CIO Mike McNamara IT is no longer backroom stuff, but be a key touchpoint with customers, he said. CIO UK caught up with him at the CA World conference in Las Vegas. McNamara was in the US on a regular twice-yearly tour of his US suppliers and was meeting with CA executives before flying home. Tescohas recently signed a deal with CA for a systems management suite and Mike outlined how this and another significant global deal with Microsoft fitted in with his agenda for business transformation. Tescois rolling out a strategy to ramp up its support of mobile devices in-store. There are up to 300,000 staff devices connected to the retailer’s network world-wide, let alone customer access. Since he joined Tesco 15 years ago a great deal has been invested in IT to enhance productivity, he said. “Now technology is increasingly becoming part of the sales channel. Online sales has made a big impact, but I think mobile is going to make an even bigger one. We are facing a bigger disruption now than we did ten years ago.” McNamara cited campaigns to redeem mobile discount coupons and to distribute marketing videos through the use of QR codes on posters in the Seoul subway. He said: “As smart-phone become more pervasive around the world, I think we’ll be doing a lot more of that sort of thing.” To take full advantage of this trend, Tesco has to step up its IT capability by maintaining close relationships with just a few lead suppliers. The CA deal is back-office focused, but McNamara is certain that business transformation projects would be more difficult if he hadn’t focused on deals like this during the economic downturn. “One of the smartest things I did was keep investing in infrastructure,” he said. “Because of that, coming out of the recession we are going to be in a much better place than anyone else.” Customers are going to be using mobile devices in Tesco stores, to check prices and look at peer reviews. To offer that service, the retailer has to have the infrastructure to support it. “You can’t link systems management to an increase in sales, but I know having it in place gives me a competitive advantage over retailers that don’t have it,” he said. Related content brandpost Sponsored by FPT Software Time for New Partnership Paradigms to Be Future-fit By Veronica Lew Dec 06, 2023 5 mins Vendors and Providers brandpost Sponsored by BMC Why CIOs should prioritize AIOps in 2024 AIOps empowers IT to manage services by incorporating AI/ML into operations. By Jeff Miller Dec 06, 2023 3 mins IT Leadership opinion Generative AI in enterprises: LLM orchestration holds the key to success In the dynamic landscape of AI, LLMs represent a pivotal breakthrough. Unlike traditional AI, which demands frequent data updates, LLMs possess the ability to learn and adapt in real-time. This mirrors human learning and positions LLMs as essential f By Shail Khiyara Dec 06, 2023 10 mins Generative AI Artificial Intelligence brandpost Sponsored by Freshworks How gen AI is joining the holiday shopping season One year after the launch of ChatGPT, the retail industry is embracing generative AI to deliver a variety of benefits By Elliot Markowitz Dec 06, 2023 4 mins Generative AI Podcasts Videos Resources Events SUBSCRIBE TO OUR NEWSLETTER From our editors straight to your inbox Get started by entering your email address below. Please enter a valid email address Subscribe