(J.Jill)
We like to say there s IT-ready and there s business-ready. Just because IT is ready for something, it doesn t necessarily mean that the business is.
Refreshing candor from a CIO, in this case Deanna Steele, who’s also Chief Digital Officer at women’s fashion retailer J.Jill. Steele’s comment comes as she reflects on some of the tech challenges and changes that have arisen over the past year due to the COVID-19 pandemic and the shift to remote working, as well as considering what might lie ahead in a Vaccine Economy.
Tech inevitably plays a large part in J.Jill’s operating model, with the retailer having evolved from its stores-only origins in the 1950s to a omni-channel mix of shops, catalogs and e-commerce today. With physical outlets closed for varying lengths of time in 2020, the online aspect of the business, in common with the rest of the retail sector, has taken on fresh impetus, while the demands of working-from-home have brought new enablement demands on