Harvey Norman Turf War
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Harvey Norman has overcome an IT and home entertainment “Turf War” by merging the two operations at 9 stores. The system will go live on September 1 2005.

Harvey Norman is set to merge home entertainment and IT in an effort to over come what has been described as “turf wars” between the two departments. The trial will take place in 9 stores including Preston in Victoria.

To facilitate the move Harvey Normans IT and finance departments have developed a new billing system that will allow customers to receive one invoice. It will also see IT Media Centres sold alongside plasma and LCD TV’s.

The move which is long over due has been the source of friction between Harvey Norman franchisees and Harvey Norman. The problem has centred on each department home entertainment and IT wanting to own the space.

Michael Restall a manager at Harvey Norman Preston said “To make the convergence work we have merged the backend systems so that staff can not only sell home entertainment and IT products but issue a single invoice to customers. This means that we can sell a media centre and TV together. This could not happen in the past because of turf wars between staff. We are commencing a new training program to facilitate the new system. This will be put in place soon and we are confident that the turf war problems will be solved”.

Harvey Norman Franchise Craig Mather of the Preston store said “9 stores will go live on September 1 2005. The move is long overdue”.