Misys directors suffer in job cull

Misys made directors reapply for their own jobs and launched a job-cutting plan to save money.

The entire boards of directors of both Misys Financial Systems (MFS) and Misys Insurance Management (MIM) were made to reapply for their jobs, a source said.

Several of the directors were unsuccessful and lost their jobs.

In addition, Simon Trott, the sales and marketing director of Misys Insurance Management, resigned last week.

Trott was based in the Peterborough office of the company, which used to be called Countrywide Insurance Marketing.

It is understood that a whole department of staff quit in protest at the apparent cull. Further redundancies were being made during October.

All the affected staff have been informed.

The cuts were aimed to save £672,000 across MFS, the broker IT provider, and MIM, which specialises in general insurance management.

Both companies are owned by Misys plc, the FTSE-quoted software group.

A source close to the company said staff saw the cost-cutting plan as botched and said morale was at "rock bottom".

Blame for the fiasco was laid squarely at the door of group boss Philip Bell.

"At one point you used to see people in there at seven in the morning until late at night, working together towards a goal and the organisation was like a family," the source said.

"Now they just come in, do their work and get out.

Between 10% and 20% of MIM's customer base would be lost as a result of the turmoil within the business.

Staff were particularly upset by the way in which cuts were carried out.

In one example, sensitive personnel documents showing details of salaries and redundancy pay-outs were mistakenly left where they could be viewed by staff.

The cuts were explained as an attempt to avoid duplication of work, but in at least one case they had left the companies losing an important IT capability.

Insurance Times contacted the companies but did not receive a response before it went to press.