Coles Myer may make a fortune each year but it would seem none of that is spent on system integration.
Today I had to go to Myer Melbourne to purchase a wedding gift. In order to do this I had to go to the registry department, hand over a card with the event number on it, wait for a print out, decide what I wanted to buy, go to the floor, purchase the item and then return to the registry to tell them what we purchased so they could cross it off the list.
a) Why did I have to go in to Myer to get the list?
b) Why can’t I tell them what I want and organise them to get one from stock and wrap it once I’m there?
c) Why, if I follow their plan do I have to return to the registry department to tell them what I purchased? If I have to go to the department myself why can’t I show them the event card and have them mark the gift as purchased?
or most sensibly
d) why can’t I log on to myerregistry.com (don’t bother, it’s not there), enter the event number, select what I want to purchase and press the ‘Buy, Wrap and Send’ button.
Coles Myer, move into the 20th century at least before trying to catch up with your 21st century competition.
As it is, my nephew will be getting something that doesn’t come from Myer.
I think it’s fair to say they have a few problems in their IT department. Back in 1997 (whoa, ancient history!) I worked for a short time on their cash register systems project. The goal was to replace all their registers (it was sparked by NCR getting fussy about maintenance and spare parts for old models). They were going to do Coles first (which would take a couple of years) then in every other Coles Myer business unit. As far as I can see, here in 2004, they’ve done Coles and BiLo. But Target, Officeworks, Myer, KMart and probably others still seem to be using the old equipment. Maybe when they’ve got that under control, they’ll organise a decent online gift registry?