CIO 100: Hallenstein Glasson

THE RETAIL INDUSTRY is among the most impacted by digitalisation, as traditional stores and online channels are merging, and hand in hand with this is the expectation of customers to have access to a raft of channels of their choice.

For Chris Reid, general manager of IT at Hallenstein Glasson, this new environment brings both opportunities and challenges to the ICT team.

Hallenstein Glasson is the parent company for the Hallenstein Brothers, Glassons and Storm brands. It has begun a digitalisation program to adapt to the growth of Internet and online retail. The goal is to create a true multi-channel retail experience.

For Reid, agility and speed in deploying different business technology projects across the group is key, but so is adopting a very customer centric approach to the task ahead.

“Over the last 12 to 18 months we have really concentrated on customer facing technologies and or benefits,” says Reid.

“Regardless of how a customer chooses to shop with us we treat them no different, they are all equally important to us.

“We have really tried to understand the customer journey and how they make their purchasing decisions.We have spent considerable time and resource understanding the consideration process.We have used various technology platforms to achieve this – some online, some offline.”

He says these technologies include new point of sale solutions, mobile point of sale solutions, email targeting and analytical software.

This year, the team will likewise work on upgrading the wide area network services for the New Zealand business, business continuity technologies, online platform improvement, payment services, CRM and mobile technologies.

Reid says staff numbers will remain steady, but they will work on more projects, with increased time demands.

Technologies around mobile, customer experience and digital will drive the most ICT investments in the year ahead, he states.