Wesfarmers has appointed Myer’s chief information officer, Troy Smith, to lay the technology foundations for its newly created health arm.
Smith will kick off his new role this April, leading the Wesfarmers Health technology team, and create the blueprint underpinning the business transformation.
Wesfarmers Health was formed following the acquisition of Australian Pharmaceutical Industries [API] in March last year.
API was one of Australia’s top health and beauty companies and a wholesale distributor of pharmaceutical goods plus owned non-pharmacy Priceline stores, the Sister Club loyalty program and Clear Skincare clinics.
Smith will report to managing director for health Emily Amos who joined Wesfarmers in April last year from international health insurance and healthcare group Bupa shortly after the acquisition.
Speaking to iTnews Smith said Wesfarmers is gearing up to expand and “dominate in the pharmacy sector” as he prepares to step into the role as the division's first CIO.
He said he was “looking forward to learning” the health aspect of retail and “fully expects there'll be more governance in terms of things [such as] medical requirements, prescriptions” which will build on his experience from working across brands like Aesop and Rip Curl.
Leaving Myer after more than three and a half years, Smith said he’ll be stepping down on good terms but “felt this was a good opportunity to join a new business [and] it's a new chance to shape something.”
“It's a new management team as well. I look forward to working with a whole new team,” said Smith.
He said the businesses acquired already have their own structure with part of his new remit “about making sure those systems are set up for future growth, as well as integrating new systems as needed.”
Smith said moving forward Wesfarmers may look to integrate the new health division into its OneDigtial, the new data analytics capabilities division which includes the OnePass member program.
While at Myer Smith led its digital and technology transformation program.
“We had a fairly old technology stack to work with and we put forward a modernisation program that we've been working on ever since.
“It's still going but it's certainly got a lot of momentum now and it's well underway in the digital area in particular, [and] has had a lot of work done.
“That's showing in our results and our attraction there. We're rolling out a new POS [point of sales] in our stores. We're doing a lot of other modes of modernisation work across a lot of legacy systems.”
Smith said its POS network is being replaced after 15 years plus is rolling out Zebra TC57X mobility devices.
In the future, Myer will look into the customer and loyalty experience and make "sure that whatever technology we put in is adaptable so that we can change it with what best suits the customer”.
He added Myer will be going live this year with its 200 autonomous mobile robots (AMRs) in its new national distribution centre in Victoria to dispatch online orders and supply stores.
