Onesource slows pace after clash with Hanover

By ADAM GIFFORD

Photocopier and phone system company Onesource has slowed its move into managed desktop services after chief executive Elaine Ford quit in a dispute with owner Hanover Group.

Hanover chief executive Kerry Finnigan, who is running the company until a replacement for Ford can be found, said the resignation came after "a difference between Elaine Ford and the board over the speed of implementation of the Onesource strategy".

Ford, a former Wang executive, drove the merger of Hanover's Ubix photocopier and Cogent telecommunications businesses into a company which aimed to provide firms with all their office technology needs.

In recent months she won board approval to start selling desktop PCs, servers and associated management services under the Onesource Managed Services brand, using technology from Australian computer company Ipex.

This was supposed to involve a $1 million investment from Hanover, which is owned by Eric Watson and Mark Hotchin.

Finnigan said the company was still committed to the Onesource strategy.

"The strategy was designed by Elaine, she was the architect, we are in full support.

"It is just that she wanted it implemented a lot faster than the board of directors."

He said Onesource was in the process of outsourcing its infrastructure to Onesource Managed Services, and other customers had also signed up, but it would not actively seek new customers.

"We will continue to deliver to agreed service levels to those existing clients," Finnigan said.

Finnigan denied Onesource Managed Services put Onesource in competition with another Hanover company, Gen-i, which has an outsourcing business aimed at larger companies.