Well, well it would of course be inappropriate to personalise such an issue but on a corporate level it was said some time ago that whoever took this role was unlikely to remain in it for more than a couple of years given CSG’s track record and then IRIS’s approach. Guess what the inevitable has happened. However, I am sure like many others to be astounded by the comment: ‘as planned and meetings with our legal customers, advocate that our plans are on track and that we are responding well to the needs of our customers. With this initial task complete, the MD role is now much more operationally focused around building upon the strong position we now have within our marketplace.’ If ever there was a bunker statement this is it – could someone actually find an IRIS client or commentator that feels plans are ‘on track’ apart from if this means: 1. Have managed to disenfranchise must of our loyal customers. 2. Ensure that we lose over 100 of our customers with many more looking to jump ship. 3. Eliminate several well known and respected brands within an entity that has dithered over its strategy for months, announced something and then changed that. 4. As said somewhere else on this blog have pretty much managed to get dire scores in the Law Society Software Solutions Guide 2008. Again their media handling looks poor – tell your customers, hope the press don’t notice etc etc. They appear to have two stark choices: 1. Stick with it knowing full well that by 2012 the base will be greatly reduced but at least they’ll only have two systems then (whoever came up with that daft idea), vastly lower overheads as more people have to go etc so it will make some kind of profit then. 2. Sell the legal division but who would want it now and the value on the books must be high given what CSG paid. Not the best scenario for entering 2009. PS and yet more bad timing as the last entry on the blog refers to Axxia taking out a major IRIS site.