Big Red Group CTO sets sights on transformation

Newly appointed Big Red Group chief technology officer Brent Rutherford is planning on developing a fresh platform that will modernise the group's infrastructure.

The group is home to brands such as Adrenaline, Experience Oz, Experience Oz Local Agent, Lime&Tonic, and RedBalloon.

Speaking to iTnews, Rutherford said his “first mission” in the new role is “building a platform that will enable us to deliver an end customer and supplier experience to match the incredible experiences we offer as products.”

Rutherford said the “ambition is to create a mobile-first ecommerce experience”.

It is also “eager to rebuild a foundation that will help us reach our goal of delivering an experience every second by 2030”.

“I’m currently working with cross-functional teams and our vendors to create a tech environment that not only supports business goals, but enables the business to be efficient, flexible, adaptable, and to accelerate and pivot in ways that would not previously have been practical,” he said.

Big Red Group announced on Tuesday Rutherford landed the CTO role.

The company’s technology responsibilities previously fell to its chief operating officer.

Big Red Group said it decided to create a separate CTO role “ to lead the tech teams and drive change."

Rutherford said the company is “undergoing a digital transformation of our ecommerce experience for suppliers and consumers across the suite of brands” which will “unlock organisational efficiencies and support the features required for the next phase of growth”.

“I’ll be focussed on creating the technology environment to support these business goals, including a platform that delivers an end customer and supplier experience to match the incredible experiences the company offers," he said.

“I’m eager to optimise the use of technology across every aspect of the business including internal business systems, security, compliance and particularly connecting the company’s five ecommerce platforms - RedBalloon, Adrenaline, Experience Oz, Local Agent and Lime&Tonic - into one cloud-native multi-brand ecommerce platform."

Rutherford said the process to “define, develop and deliver” this platform is “well underway and capabilities are planned to be phased into production progressively over the coming year.”

As the Big Red Group is a “technology-centric company” Rutherford added the business has a “strong focus on data in the business” and is “excited” to work “with the internal data team to help bring all their ideas to life.”

Prior to joining Big Red Group Rutherford was the CIO at InQuik for two years and also worked at digital professional services company, Arq Group in a variety of cloud-based roles.

He also worked at Macquarie Telecom, Apple and Dell.