Monsoon Accessorize is a UK high street retailer based in London, operating the retail clothing chains Monsoon and Accessorize. Its CEO John Browett is a former Apple employee and was also chief executive of Tesco.com, while IT and e-commerce director John Bovill was previously group IT director at Aurora Fashions. What is your job title?IT and e-commerce director When did you start your current role?July 2013 Have you completed an MBA?Yes Order the following sources of advice/information by value to you:1. Peer group2. In-house3. Vendors4. Analyst5. Consultant Technology strategy and spending What is the major transformational IT project that has been recently completed, or is underway at your organisation?2012/13 Jacques Vert Group; two end to end systems replacements in 2 years and Office 365 implementation, industry recognised (retail week awards) for supply chain excellence2013/14 Monsoon Accessorize; first to market integrated in-store multichannel (EPOS and Web) enabled tablet solution, trialing in 10 stores, with planned UK store rollout (circa 250 stores) during 2014 What impact will it/does it have on the organisation?2012/13 Jacques Vert Group, delivered on time and under budget and enabled the merger (Jacques Vert Ltd and Irisa Group Ltd) and creation of the UK's largest concession business (1,900 outlets).2013/14 Monsoon Accessorize Ltd, 7% incremental sales, trial (10 stores) circa £1.5m and rollout (250 stores) circa estimated £25m annualised sales increase What new strategic technology deals has your organisation struck and with whom?2012/13 Jacques Vert Group, Maple Lake (Planning), Merret (MMS/WMS), SAP (Business Objects), CODA,  Cognos, IBM (IBm Websphere, E-commerce), Microsoft (Office 365)2013/14 Monsoon Accessorize Ltd, Micros (Retail J, Hub and Mi Assistant), Yes Pay (integrated payment) Name your strategic technology suppliers?Micros, BTE, Ultima, Hybris What is the IT budget?£10.2m How much is the IT operational spend compared to the revenue or company turnover as a percentage?CAPEX increase from £1m to £4m FY2013/14 to support developmentTraining increase from £1k to £20k to support ITIL, BCS and Prince2 team development1.02% total company sales (gross sales circa £1bn) What is the strategic aim of the CIO and IT operations for the next financial year?Customer (incorporate within the Business Intelligence)Collaboration (Office 365 and Sharepoint Intranet)Multichannel (e-commerce business with stores) Transformation achievements Would you describe the CIO role as a transformation leader in your organisation?Yes, member of operational board, reporting to CEO (ex Apple and created Tesco.com) Describe the transformations you have led / been involved in, how did they transform operations, customer experience or the organisation?Former Aurora Fashions Ltd (2000-2012) Business Development Director and Group IT Director, created the e-commerce strategy and delivered the first to market, multiple award winning (11 industry awards in one year, 2012) multichannel solutions. Integrated single stock position that can be fulfilled from any customer touchpoint (e.g. reserve and collect, store stock available online etc). Monsoon Accessorize will be recognised as a thought leader within the multichannel space (e-commerce business with stores) over the next 2-3 years. Beyond technology, can you describe a business transformation programme that you own or contribute to?Monsoon Accessorze Ltd e-commerce growth, 26% sales and 38% profit increase year on year, recognised the transition to an e-commerce business with stores. What key technologies are being considered to enable transformation?Customer centric solutions (e.g. mobile etc) What percentage of your applications / infrastructure is run from the Cloud?10% 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?Consumer-led development, adopting Office 365, BYOD and Free WiFi across 250 outlets during 2014/15. 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?Create a fit for purpose and appropriate infrastructure and associated application deployment strategy Where do you seek transformational inspiration from?Customer The CIO role in the business Who do you report to?CEO Do you have a seat on the board?Yes How often do you meet with the CEO?Daily conversations, weekly board meetings Does your organisation have a digital leader and what is the difference in their responsibilities to yours?We are becoming a digitally-led (CEO ex-Apple and created Tesco.com) organisation and adopting a Multichannel approach What percentage of IT budget do you control and what percentage of IT budget does your digital peer hold?100%, e-commerce and IT director The IT department How many staff make up the IT team?(What is the split between in-house/outsourced staff)40 FTE Describe the CIO’s management team, do you have direct reports that develop the relationship and services between the business and IT?Yes, 3 direct reports, Head of Infrastructure, Head of Projects, Head of Operations and Development And how many log-in accounts do you issue across you organisation?1700 What is the primary technology platform? ( for example ERP, Website, trading system)Mercatus (ERP), Hybris (Website), RetailJ (EPOS)