Graham Benson has a strong heritage in e-commerce CIO roles, six years at M and M Direct and prior to this role he was at Play.com. M and M Direct is one of the largest online discount clothes retailers in Europe. The business was founded in 1987 to sell end of line clearance sports clothing and has been growing ever since. It reported a 30 per cent increase in orders over Christmas 2013 and sold 2.7 million items. What the judges said: “He’s operating in a very low margin business and that is very hard and he has still managed to deliver a lot of change,” Ian Cox “He’s a real change agent and willing to put his arse on the line to make change happen. The nature of M and M is transformation and he’s been a huge part of that,” Mike Altendorf When did you start your current role?2008 Have you completed an MBA?Yes, I majored in strategic marketing Order the following sources of advice/information by value to you: In-house Peer Group Analyst Consultant Vendors Technology strategy and spending What is the major transformational IT project that has been recently completed, or is underway at your organisation?In the last 12 months we have transformed our online experience into a world class offering, with the commercial results proving the success of the programme. This has involved completely rebuilding the whole technology stack of our website – inhouse dotnet components, best in class software plug-ins (on-premise and SaaS) and infrastructure (moved to the cloud and 1st in Europe to deploy Akamai website performance optimisation suite) What impact will it/does it have on the organisation?It has increased conversion, retention and overall sales – the holy trinity of ecommerce What new strategic technology deals has your organisation struck and with whom?1.  "Best in class" web software components- QuBit for tag management-  Rich Relevance for recommendations and MVT- Silverpop for segmented email management-  Blueberry wave for CRM-  FredHopper for search/Nav2.  Leading edge infrastructure- a public/private hybrid cloud infrastructure from Rackspace-  market leading CDN technology from Akamai, 1st in Europe to deploy3.  Leading edge "responsive" website repurposing itself dependant upon device/screen size used to access it Name your strategic technology suppliers?Web components IT operational spend compared to the revenue or company turnover as a percentage?Our IT ops budget is 2.1% What is the strategic aim of the CIO and IT operations for the next financial year?CIO – to continue to innovate and deliver creative  technology solutions for a world class ecommerce retailerOperations – optimise XaaS technologies to maximise performance and minimise cost of IT Operations Transformation achievements Would you describe the CIO role as a transformation leader in your organisation?The CIO is the change director, serving on the board , devising and delivering transformation business change Describe the transformations you have led / been involved in, how did they transform operations, customer experience or the organisation?Since I have been at MandM Direct I have* led the creation of the class-leading ecommerce proposition as already outlined above* fronted the IT team from 6 people to (a still lean) 41, providing the business with a great IT capability* introduced project and programme management disciplines into a "cottage industry" setup, thereby creating the platforms/processes for success*  built a development capability where none previously existed* acquired the source code from the 3rd party who used to run our site, then constantly redeveloped it to the point where it is best in class – therefore enhancing the IP of the business as it owns its own website now*  created a revenue share partnership with a 3rd party in order to fund the build of an android/iOS app, which generated 7 figure income and could not have been built without this innovative funding approach* taken the business into Europe by creating a multi-lingual capability, which now accounts for over 10% of revenues* introduced virtual telephony with a PCI platform to secure PCIDSS compliance in a call centre, which is notoriously difficult Beyond technology, can you describe a business transformation programme that you own or contribute to?As the "Change Director" I am involved m, and sometimes lead, any new business initiaitive e.g. acquisition of brands into our own brand portfolio, extra international business units (e.g. Germany) and our ecommerce/social media strategies What key technologies are being considered to enable transformation?CloudBig DataIaaS and SaaS What percentage of your applications / infrastructure is run from the Cloud?c.30% How is the use by employees of their own technology, use of mobiles and social networking impacting operations, customer experiences or the organisation at present?We allow personal tablets, laptops and mobiles to be used as long as they conform to certain criteria ; this is making us as a business more aware of how the outside world interacts with us and has led to a significant increase in the submissions to our "smarties" suggestion scheme which aims to allow our employees to suggest improvements to how we deal with our customers, and has led directly to system changes to give a better customer experience.  to mis-quote a cliche, we are eating our own dog food more, so we are making more suggestions how to make it taste better ! Do you have a plan in place for how to deal with shadow IT and BYOD. How do you influence and engage executives, place the right controls around employee choice and engage with the organisation on this issue?We have a weekly business change group led by the board my senior IT management, a function of which is to decide how to approach any tech initiatives – whether IT lead or merely support the business in their "shadow" activities, which at least means we are not seen as controlling any more, merely assisting and the "shadow" activities become open and not dark any more. Where do you seek transformational inspiration from?From a knowledge perspective, and as a strategic marketer MBA, I like to read marketing and ecommerce blogs/articles from sources such as HBR, eConsultancy, IMRG, Retail week etc.. However inspiration is an emotional rather than intellectual activity – leadership needs to engage the heart as well as the mind.   I am also qualified in NLP so I seek inspiration from psychology texts as well as psychology blogs, of which I follow a few. The CIO role in the business Who do they report to?CEO Does the CIO have a seat on the board?Yes How often do you meet with the CEO?Weekly Does your organisation have a digital leader and what is the difference in their responsibilities to yours?Nope, I champion digital activites and technology supported by the marketing team What percentage of IT budget do you control and what percentage of IT budget does your digital peer hold?I hold 100% The IT department How many staff make up the IT team?(What is the split between in-house/outsourced staff)41, all internal – we partner on an adhoc basis with 3rd parties to develop customisations to their packages or to support us on specialist developments e.g. the website responsive design. Describe the CIO’s management team, do you have direct reports that develop the relationship and services between the business and IT?Head of IT Services – support and technical developmentHead of IT Service Delivery – develops and manages IT/Business relationshipsHead of Projects – manages the PMOHead of Business change – manages solution design and business process changesHead of Web Development – responsible for web development and managing/developing our ecommerce capability and partners How many log-in accounts do you issue across you organisation?c.250, seasonal variations What is the primary technology platform?Dotnet website enahnced with best of breed functional plugins (as described in page 1), Mailbrain order manegement system adn Manhattan WMS