McDonald’s Corporation is the world’s largest fast food retailer and is said to serve 68 million customers daily in 119 countries. It has weathered fears that its foods are unhealthy and in 2007 reported a revenue growth of 27 per cent. Founded in 1940 as a barbecue restaurant by two brothers it was the businessman Ray Kroc that saw its potential and acquired it from the founding McDonald’s brothers.

IT Leader:  Mark Fabes, IT Director

In role since: Two years

Reporting line:  CFO

Board level seat: No

IT budget:  One per cent of turnover

IT estate and or number of log on accounts under the control of the IT leader: All company employees have access to one application as a minimum so 85,000 users

Level of the workforce that relies on technology to carry out their tasks:  100 per cent rely on technology from Point of Sale systems, time and attendance to corporate location networks.

IT staff currently employed: 35

Split between in-house/outsourced staff:  100 per cent in house

IT management team and reporting structure: four direct reports: IT Service manager who is responsible for delivering against a set of SLA’s to our operational hierarchy. Restaurant Solutions Manager, responsible for delivery of all restaurant solutions. Business Systems Manager who is responsible for delivering IT services to all corporate functions through a series of project portfolios. IT Application Architect whose role is to understand our business strategy and align our technology investment accordingly. All roles are very much business facing.

Primary technology platforms at the organisation: Restaurant systems such as Point of Sale, time and attendance, staff scheduling and a crew intranet.

Significant strategic technology deals been struck in the last 12 months: Four strategic deals covering work force management, hosting, engineering services and hardware refresh

Strategic aim of the CIO and IT operations for the next financial year: Use technology to energise our people to deliver the best hospitality experience possible and further enhance both the crew and customer experience with the appropriate application of technology across the customer journey. 

Technologies considered by the leader to offer their organisation potential:We will continue to invest in both public and private cloud to provide the IT services we need in an agile and cost effective way. With our current investment in near field communications technology for contactless payment- we will look to build upon that platform for Location Based Services, mobile application, payment and loyalty.

Future transformation and technology vision for the organisation: It will allow our 2.5 million customers a day to receive the best customer experience possible in the way that they wish to transact with us, which is invariably underpinned by technology. As we look to sustain our growth by increasing our capacity, our point of sale, kitchen production, ordering and payment systems will be key enablers.