ISoft new director to lead restructuring

ISoft has appointed an executive director to lead on the restructuring of the company, which will include further significant redundancies over the coming year.

The company, which last month posted a statutory loss of £221m for the financial year 2010, said Ron Series will be based in the United Kingdom and will work closely with the executive management team to ensure an “efficiently executed restructure plan.”

Until now, Series has been heavily involved with the restructuring of Nakheel PJSC, the real estate arm of Dubai World. It had debts of almost £40 billion and made 10,500 staff redundant following problems caused by the financial crisis.

Previously, Series has been an executive director for companies with international operations in transport, logistics, shipping and information technology.

In an announcement to the Australian Stock Exchange, iSoft said: “Ron will join the company as an executive director and will be responsible for overseeing the operational restructure of the company’s business as previously announced.”

Analysis released with the end of year results suggests that iSoft will be looking to reduce costs by AUS $50m by June next year.

It says half this sum will be achieved by ‘targeted’ headcount redections among its 4,700 staff. However, the company declined to comment media reports that it will be making 800 redundancies or where the redundancies could be made.

Last year, iSoft announced redundancies when it merged its UK support and service delivery into customer services. Thirty-six people were made redundant but 43 people were hired under the restructure. However, 290 people have left the company since December 2009.

ISoft has blamed its recent financial problems on a difficult economic environment, adverse currency impacts, delays to the implementation of the National Programme for IT in the NHS, and increased cost structure.

In June, chairman and chief executive Gary Cohen was replaced as chairman by Robert Moran, who is also the managing director of the company’s major shareholder, Oceania Capital Partners.

The Australian Financial Review recently reported that Oceania Capital Partners will vote on whether iSoft should remain an asset to the company at the end of the financial year, and that the decision will depend on its performance.

In August, Cohen stood down as chief executive on the publication of the company’s end of year results. ISoft has yet to appoint a permanent chief executive.