The impact of differing IT investment strategies was apparent this week in the difference between comments made by the House of Fraser and ASOS (As Seen on Screen).

In an interview with House of Fraser’s IT Director, Computing reported that established players are too far in to their old systems to change: “We have made such a big investment in our core platforms, so I cannot see us moving away from them,” said their IT Director.

“Nowadays it is not about wholesale replacement anymore, but about maximising and consolidating what you have. We have spent a lot of time and money on our systems over the past couple of years and it is now time to sweat the assets ­ and that is not a bad thing,”

“You can understand why financial trading needs to be at the sharp end of technology, but retail is all about consistency of delivery, operability and cost of ownership.”

“We never used to allow people to access the internet, but when we moved to the new building we provided everyone with web access, with some simple rules to protect us and the staff,” said Gray.

The rules mean that sites such as Facebook, Twitter and YouTube are banned and can only be used by the e-commerce team.

Does this bricks-and-mortar based organisation feel a little constrained, maybe even a bit backward-looking in its strategy? Certainly it feels as though House of Fraser could talk more about what IT can contribute to customer loyalty, or selling a wider product range… With the demise of many high street players in the recession, embracing technology’s role in engaging with customers makes more sense than ever.

This compared with Computing’s report on the role IT has played in ASOS’s astonishing success.

“The company reported a 92 per cent profit increase to £14.1m compared with £7.3m in the previous year. Sales also rose to £165.4m from £81m reported in 2008.”

A major back-office overhaul has supported the Asos’ positive performance. The programme covered buying, merchandising and fulfilment, with the rollout of a new warehouse management system at the firm’s Hemel Hempstead warehouse.

“Use of social media was also one of the highlights for the firm over the past year, with official pages being set up on Facebook, MySpace and Bebo.

With Twitter, the firm used a different approach, by allocating 55 staff members to actively talk to customers in addition to providing real-time news, offers and service updates. As a result, Asos now claims to have the largest Twitter following of all UK retailers.

Another initiative in social networking is the launch of Asos Life, a platform which allows customers to talk to each other and key people within the firm.

“It is clear that the structural shift to online continues and I believe that Asos is ideally placed to exploit it,” said chief executive Nick Robertson.”