Tim Whiston said he was concerned that his position at iSoft may represent a source of negative speculation and comment, and therefore said he was leaving in order to avoid being an unhelpful distraction to those within [iSoft].
iSoft’s chairman John Weston, who will act as CEO until a permanent replacement is appointed, said the company remains creative and innovative despite its current problems. We have a clear set of challenges ahead but with the necessary determination we will get through them, he said.
Last week, iSoft announced that annual profits would be significantly lower than forecast, due to changes in its accounting policy. The company also lowered its guidance for annual sales, and said that it was planning to cut its headcount in the UK by some 15%.
Manchester, UK-based iSoft’s recent problems have centered on its work with the National Health Service on the $10bn Connecting for Health program. The company is the main application provider on the Accenture-led North East and East of England clusters, and was publicly blamed by Accenture for causing costly delays to the project.
In its most recent quarterly results, Accenture took a $450m profit hit for future deployment losses relating to its NHS deals, claiming that iSoft had caused delays in implementing important applications. However, iSoft received some unexpected support from within the NHS itself. CfH chiefs pointed out that Computer Sciences Corp is also using iSoft’s Lorenzo software in the North West and West Midlands clusters, and progress in these regions has been faster than in the clusters managed by Accenture.
Since the start of the year, iSoft’s share price has fallen approximately 85%, to its current level of about 55 pence per share.
