David Jones ousts five IT execs in restructure

David Jones has let go of five of its top IT executives and handed responsibility for their functions to technology managers within its Country Road group subsidiary.

Late last month the retailer notified the technology managers that their roles would no longer be needed as part of a restructure aimed at cutting costs.

The internal rejigging is understood to be targeted at consolidation as the retailer works to integrate its operations with new owner Woolworths South Africa.

David Jones was taken over by Woolworths SA mid last year in a $2.2 billion deal. The business almost immediately began implementing changes to its management structure, which saw former David Jones CEO Paul Zahra resign in August.

The latest round of management changes late last month resulted in the departure of five of David Jones' top technology executives.

iTnews understands DJs' general manager for IT, Dominic Hatfield; its head of IT service delivery, Peter Farmer; and head of end user computing Sean Brooks were all let go.

Two program and project manager roles were also affected, iTnews understands.

Responsibility for IT at the retailer has now been handed to Steve Binns, who has been given a wider remit to his existing role as CIO for DJs subsidiary Country Road.

The retailer's new owner is expected to shift David Jones off its existing ageing platforms and onto Woolworths SA infrastructure.

David Jones is understood to host its core platforms in-house, predominantly on servers running IBM's AIX technology. IBM was also appointed to run David Jones' omni-channel retail platform in 2011.

The retailer did not respond to a request for comment.