Despite the recession and general budget belt-tightening, the results announcements from several retailers this week show just how busy IT departments are being kept.

Buried in Tesco’s results is the nugget that the grocer is beavering away on migrating the systems used by Tesco Personal Finance to its own computing platforms. At the end of 2008, Tesco bought Royal Bank of Scotland’s stake in the personal finance business and has committed to developing a branch network as it aims to turn the business into a full-service retail bank.

So suddenly an IT department that is concerned with EPoS and supply chain systems finds that it must also begin thinking about bank branch technology, and get up to speed to compete with the banking big boys.

Meanwhile Game has declared the size of the investments it has been making in its ecommerce operation. In the past two years it has invested nearly £12m into its websites and online back office infrastructure.

In the past financial year it invested £8m in distribution infrastructure and consumer-facing development. And it expects to spend another £5m on ecommerce development in its current financial year.

Both these companies display how crucial systems are to companies as they expand their offerings to maintain their success in difficult markets. Tesco in particular, highlights IT systems and infrastructure in its list of key risks that the business faces.

It’s no coincidence that both these businesses, which have seen continued sales and profit growth, continue to prioritise investment in technology.