'ICL' back from the dead

When the ICL brand disappeared in 2002 to become Fujitsu Services, it was tinged with some sadness. Being put out of its misery was long overdue but it still signalled something of the end of an era for a one-time stalwart of the UK IT industry.

The once-government-owned computer services firm was bought by Japanese company Fujitsu in 1990. Before that it was left standing as it missed the 'e-services' bandwagon by some way. As losses increased and revenues fell, the much-hyped IPO that was to be its saviour never materialised.

Add to that some spectacular government IT failures with the cancelled £698m Pathway benefits payment system and the fallout from the £134m Libra magistrates court system and it was with some relief that Fujitsu stepped in to reassert some control. First came the appointment in 2000 of Richard Christou as CEO and David Courtley as COO, followed by the rebranding as Fujitsu Services in 2002.

Now Courtley has taken over from Christou as CEO and is charged with ensuring delivery on a number of high profile projects including the £3bn Inland Revenue contract with Capgemini and a £900m NHS deal. Fujitsu Services is also still in the running for the £4bn Ministry of Defence outsourcing contract in a consortium with EDS, HP and IBM.

On the back of results showing a 65 per cent growth in pre-tax profits to £50.4m last month, Courtley took some time out to talk exclusively to silicon.com

silicon.com: How important was the rebranding and the ditching of the tarnished name of ICL?

Courtley: We used the name change as a symbol to rally round. But the ICL organisation was quite disparate with separate divisions. We put in an integrated structure which faced the customer. We introduced the concept of core services and kept it simple and gave people real accountability for customer-facing businesses.

But with Fujitsu asserting control over its European subsidiary have you lost that sentiment and affection people also had for ICL being something of a British institution?

Courtley: I don't think customers are interested in organisations. In truth, customers will and do only measure our performance. But there is huge affection for the name because of the history of ICL. The affection for the company is real both in the customer base and the industry as a whole. We have tried to retain and value that and build on it.

How did you address the very high profile problems with some of ICL's big government IT contracts?

Courtley: We'd taken our eye off the ball and we cleaned up our act. There were a number of contracts not in good shape and we had to address that and we did it one by one.

And now Fujitsu has some very big high profile public sector contracts in the bag with the DVLA, Inland Revenue and NHS. The important thing is to be able to deliver on them now, right?

Courtley: If we don't do a good job on the Inland Revenue the consequences are obvious. It is important we deliver everything we've committed to. We've steadily been building up our resources through recruitment and internal management development. We've thought very seriously about each and every bid we enter into. I'm not at all worried about resources.

But the delivery timetable for the NHS IT programme as a whole is very tough isn't it?

Courtley: Look at what we're trying to do. It's a hard project. What Richard [Granger] has managed to do is get the best companies back involved with this programme and we're all determined to succeed. No one will deny the toughness and the speed of movement is a feature of it.

All the IT services companies have an offshoring story - what's yours?

Courtley: It's not the solution to every problem but it is important. Customers are usually thinking about it not as a total solution but as a component. We partnered with TCS for the NHS and that illustrates the approach we want to take - finding partnerships with existing companies. We also have ideas about South Africa for certain operations in the call centre arena.

Opinion is divided on the health of the UK services market at the moment - what is your take?

Courtley: The commercial sector is hardly taking off like a rocket but there are opportunities out there. But it is going to continue to be tough.

There has been much talk about how the company ditched the bad aspects of ICL, but what have you inherited from the greater interest taken in the UK business by Fujitsu in Japan?

Courtley: It's hugely significant that we've combined the consulting capabilities [by merging Fujitsu Consulting]. It gave us additional capability and we can operate as a full spectrum service provider. Fujitsu is also a fantastic technology company and we'll play to that strength. There is lots of potential for us to collaborate across Fujitsu and bring new ideas and services innovation.