ITV to recruit 30 new tech staff

ITV has launched a recruitment drive for 30 new technology experts and managers, to drive the business forward and develop new applications and partnerships. An ITV spokesman confirmed the company is completely overhauling its technology activities, as part of a comprehensive review of all company operations. But as part of the change, ITV is also outsourcing its more routine back office functions to an external contractor, Accenture, by June this year. The ITV chief information officer, Richard Cross, said: "We are in the middle of an exciting transformation of the technology group at ITV. Our aim is to refocus the internal technology team away from operational activities, to value creation, flexibility and innovation." The ITV job adverts placed in yesterday's Sunday Times state that "technology sits at the heart of the organisation and is a major catalyst for business change and industry innovation". There are 16 new job types, divided into four teams or categories. These are innovation and business change, which includes marketing; airtime/online sales, television production and post-production techniques; architecture and governance service delivery, to ensure the successful design and implementation of services to agreed standards; and solution delivery, to manage and deliver "effective, repeatable, low-risk delivery of business solutions". The recruitment drive also sees the need for eight business technology consultants, adding that overseas experience is welcome. ITV's technology restructure echoes what the broadcaster's new chairman, Archie Norman, said in a conference call after appointing Adam Crozier as chief executive at the end of last month : that the broadcaster's problems lay not with the strategic recovery goals set by former executive chairman Michael Grade's regime, but in the failure to achieve growth from online, multiplatform deals, and programme and content sales. • To contact the MediaGuardian news desk email [email protected] or phone 020 3353 3857. For all other inquiries please call the main Guardian switchboard on 020 3353 2000. • If you are writing a comment for publication, please mark clearly "for publication".