Well well. The BBC have reported that Tesco is to start selling their own software. Now note that this is not Tesco selling software such as Microsoft Office, Symantec Anti-Virus and such like, they’re actually producing their own branded software. Currently it is reported that the software on sale with be office productivty software, security tools (presumably AV) and a photo editing tool.
Now Tesco have been moving into non-grocery related lines of products for some time but this is a marked change. To challenge the likes of Microsoft and possibly even Google now is a definite statement of Tesco using its brand and high street presence in the UK to launch into this market. Tesco have said they feel the area of software they’re branching into is expensive and does not provide customers with much choice.
I like Tesco Finest Choc Chunk Cookies, they are very nice, but Tesco Office? I’m not so sure. We’ll have to see. The software suites are said to be priced around £20, so I’ll probably give it a go. There’s nothing in the article to say whether they’ll produce the software for anything other than Windows and I’m assuming Windows simply because of the penetration in the market place.
In the past Tesco have turned to the likes of Accenture to provide expertise in producing software that it would use itself. Indeed the Tesco Direct online grocery store was put together with Accenture’s help. So whether this is a in -house development is still to be questionned. Tesco have in the past have outsourced some IT support functions to India, as reported by the Register last year and it may be that this software is a result of decisions made then.
One question to be posed is whether Tesco will ‘eat their own dog food’. No, they do actually produce dog food and I’m sure Rover thinks it’s nice (most dogs I’ve known will eat anything anyway) but I’m not saying that Tesco employees should eat it. What I do mean is whether Tesco will use the software internally for their own employees. I don’t remember seeing a Tesco beta programme for software either. Seeing as the software is due to go on sale in select stores at the end of the month maybe it was a strategic move to keep it quiet.
Can’t wait for the TV ads.