Dive Brief:
- In a major strategy shift, Target’s CIO said he plans to reduce technology outsourcing, the Wall Street Journal reports.
- CIO Mike McNamara said he wants to focus on mobile and online technologies using open-source tools in-house.
- In August, Target laid off 275 people from the IT group.
Dive Insight:
McNamara said he wants to focus on agile development, open source technology, and other modern IT skills. A 2013 data breach at Target compromised 40 million credit- and debit-card accounts.
McNamara also plans to reduce Target’s reliance on outsourcing, saying he believes that keeping the intellectual property created by in-house software engineers preserves competitive advantage. The company plans to add at least 500 engineers at its Minneapolis headquarters. Target previously outsourced significant portions of application development and backend systems to India and U.S. firms.
“We’ve got to a stage where almost half the team is in third parties,” McNamara said. “It’s unhealthy.”
But Target won't reduce its use of outsourcing completely. McNamara said they also plan to hire another 500 people at its IT facility in Bangalore, India, for a total of 1,000 new IT people.
