Maclean Technology sheds ‘handful’ of staff
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IT services company Maclean Technology has made “a handful” of its staff redundant in what the company describes as a “minor restructure”.
Maclean Technology CEO Chris Maclean replied in an email to an enquiry from Computerworld that a “small number of roles” were made redundant last Friday.
“Some of the reduction in overhead has been made possible by some major advances in automation achieved since the introduction of our new service automation tools over the past three months,” Maclean continued. “These have allowed us to streamline some core business processes that previously required heavy administration but are now largely automatic.”
Asked how many positions would be lost, Maclean would only say that it was “a handful”, adding that half of the staff affected would be re-hired in other positions.
He also refused to confirm the staff headcount following the restructure, saying the “net loss of staff isn’t substantial”.
Last September, Maclean Technology employed over 40 staff, according to its website. The company was formed following the demise of Maclean Computing last year.
Maclean Computing was founded in 1993 by Allan and Kevin Maclean. The company employed 72 staff when Chris Maclean took over as CEO from his father, Allan Maclean, in 2009.
Maclean Computing went into liquidation on Friday July 13, 2012, owing suppliers, vendors, partners, some staff and other unsecured creditors $953,000. The following Wednesday the company announced that its assets were being sold to Maclean Technology Limited, a company which listed Chris Maclean and his business partner Matthew Bellingham as directors.
Hopefully one last time because personally I am sick of this witch-hunting crap, here's what actually happened...
a) they borrowed a lot to buy the business and their building. It probably made sense at the time, but when the economy changed the banks lending rules changed, and the bank wanted a lot of money back in short order. They couldn't stump up with it. Not many people have over a million dollars liquid. So they had to fold.
b) they got robbed for something north of half a million dollars. That's hard-earned profit and a lot of money.
c) they made some mistakes. No one is perfect and they readily admit they made mistakes. They also made some good decisions and increased profits by half a million per year between 2009 and 2012.
d) all of the above led to the company failing
e) chris & co. bought the company and kept staff employed and customers from being without IT support. Yes it was done quickly. Perhaps someone would have paid more cash, but cash is only ever one part of a deal that includes looking after customer and staff commitments.
f) they couldn't pay all of the old companys debts. Not exactly rocket science. There is no way they could pay all those debts as well as their normal ones and survive. That money was lost the day it liquidated, and that's a business risk that all companies must accept if trading with credit.
g) They lost some customers. It happens in these sorts of situations. They also kept a lot of customers, which is a credit to them given the amount of crap that some of you folk having been throwing about.
h) They adjusted staff levels to meet the new customer base and to ensure it doesn't happen again.
i) Life goes on. Well it does for me, but then there's the people who are still bitching about something that happened in the middle of last year!
So, if you think you'll never make an investment mistake, can predict a recession, are immune to theft, and would have left your family, staff and customers to fend for themselves if your world went bung then good for you. They did the right thing in the circumstances. They are stand-up guys who I'd recommend to anyone.
Posted by Anonymous at 18:38:16 on February 22, 2013
Posted by Anonymous at 10:39:44 on February 22, 2013
Those in a position to judge are the current customers.....no one else!!!
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