Barclays spends £1bn on IT

Xhead = Barclays spends £1bn on IT

Barclays will invest £1 billion in retail technology and branch refurbishment over the next four years, but also plans to offshore more roles, says CIO.

The bank, which is also spending £230 million on an IT overhaul at its wealth management division, is transforming retail operations in a bid to generate £400 million annual savings from 2013.

It will move to an undisclosed single operating platform among its leading markets, including the UK, in the next two years.

Motorola has released two mobility-focused products in the Australian market this month, one of which has already scooped a high-profile local industry award at CeBIT Australia, states PRWire.

The Motorola MT2000-series of mobile terminals, which won the CeBIT.AU Advanced Retail Technology award, is among the industry's first hybrid inventory management and point-of-sale (POS) devices to give SMEs in the manufacturing, retail, warehouse, healthcare and supply chain industries a more affordable way to manage stock information while doubling as a POS terminal.

Customers can use theses devices to scan available stock, keep track of existing inventories, and provide a seamless checkout service at the till.

Multi-national fashion retailer Reiss has contracted Retail Assist to replace Business Objects with Board to deliver integrated reporting, analysis, budgeting, merchandise planning and forecasting, writes Fibre2Fashion.

Reiss becomes the latest organisation in a growing portfolio of Board clients to oust Business Objects and other legacy reporting tools.

Hugh Raeburn, head of IT at Reiss, comments: “Reiss is a constantly-evolving fashion brand, with a myriad of systems across the business. We wanted a single strategic solution to pull together information from all of our data silos.”