Global focus for services group

By ADAM GIFFORD

Motherwell Information Systems is burning one of the remaining bridges to its origins in the world of Scottish engineering by changing its name to Mi Services Group.

In January the company was bought from Motherwell Bridge Holdings for 84 million by European venture capital company 3i, with a minority stake held by management.

"In the past we always had to explain the connection to Motherwell," said Asia Pacific chief executive John Quirk.

Part of the company would also trade as Mi Consultancy Group.

"We will be a consulting and implementing company - much more a big five model than software reseller," said Mr Quirk, referring to the type of services offered by chartered accounting firms like KPMG and Deloittes.

"We have a global strategy in place to be bigger and more significant information services group."

He said the global focus introduced after the 3i buy-in has already resulted in Motherwell's New Zealand staff doing more work in the United States and in Britain because of their skills in solutions for process manufacturing industries.

"Our view is the future of our operation in New Zealand is in the export of Kiwi talent," Mr Quirk said.

Mi Services Group will feature much greater emphasis on e-commerce than under the Motherwell label. Of Mi Services' 700 staff worldwide, 70 are in New Zealand and 140 in Australia. The group turned over 44 million last year.

Dave Thompson, founder of Druid Consultancy, has been brought in as non-executive chairman to lead the group's new strategy.