How to succeed in the transformation of an IT function: Lessons from Coles Myer Limited

Abstract

This paper documents lessons learnt by the IT-leadership team as they played their part in a billiondollar IT-based transformation in a large Australian retail organization, Coles Myer Limited. The story begins when the new CIO arrived in October 2002, and ends five and a half years later when the CIO resigned, in March 2008. During that period, the IT-leadership team transformed a group of very ordinary divisional IT organizations into an extremely high-performance centralized IT organization-at one stage with IT staff numbers exceeding 2,000. The case concludes with a list of seventeen key success factors for the IT transformation at Coles Myer and a comparison of these with the recommenda..