'Retail CIOs have the hardest job in the world'

Retail CIOs have the hardest job in the world, according to one BT exec - and the advent of new technology from RFID to revamped voice and data networks could see their roles changed beyond all recognition.

Ian Hannah, COO of BT Expedite, said that being the head of IT in a retail organisation means facing up to a series of unique hardware and financial challenges.

"The retail environment is one of the toughest for IT... they don't upgrade their till for at least 10 years while we change our PCs every three years; you've got no capital expenditure budget; and you have legacy systems that are disparate and they've come from mergers and acquisitions anyway.

"It's probably one of the toughest IT jobs on the planet."

And that job is set to change beyond recognition, the telco claims, as the high street aims to upgrade consumers to more and more high tech systems.

Connectivity will be one of the key drivers for retail, with converged voice and data networks revamping retail IT in the same way as the advent of broadband has in the past, according to Hannah, with mobile consumers expanding retail's remit ever further into the home.

"The high street will have to change... We've designed our [geography] around cabling and infrastructure," he said.

Haydn Britton, general manager of BT Retail, added that soon pure voice networks would be a thing of the past for retailers. "By 2010, we expect to have no more voice networks... only data networks," he said.

BT is already experimenting with a few retail technologies that it predicts will become the norm in the retail environment, including RFID smart shelves, shop kiosks with facial recognition, shop doors with Wi-Fi speakers and biometric log-ins for consumers to verify their identity when home shopping.

Hannah added that RFID smart shelves and smart trolleys - which can act as a checkout or analyse and upsell from chipped items a consumer picks up - are gaining credence with retailers. "It's something they're factoring into their roadmap... it may not be something they're planning to do in the next year."

Some retailers have proved themselves willing to experiment with high-tech shopping. German retailer Metro Group is already trialling a smart shelf project in its Future Store, while one US supermarket now allows customers to pay by fingerprint.

Haydn Britton, general manager at BT Retail, added: "[Similar RFID technology] will become so routine... this will come to the consumer en masse."

However, Britton added, customers' reluctance to submit to 'Big Brother' technology is holding back retail's high-tech rollouts.

"Initial customer reaction suggests that customers are a bit spooked... you have to be very careful what you do with RFID. You can be too interactive," he said.