Countrywide hit by software failure
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Conveyance system struggles with online demand.
12 August 2005 The UK's biggest estate agency chain, Countrywide, has revealed that problems with its conveyance software system, built by IT service provider Logica CMG have cost it £2 million.
According to reports in The Daily Telegraph, executives at Countrywide are considering taking legal action to recover the £6 million paid to Logica, if the system cannot be fixed.
A Countrywide executive told the newspaper that computer issues had led to delays in the implementation of its conveyance system and caused a loss of £2 million at an operating level.
In April 2005, Countrywide warned that the system was having difficulties processing the increasing number of housing transactions processed being online.
In 2003, Countrywide signed a £27 million deal with LogicaCMG, to help introduce a new re-mortgaging service in the UK. The deal included building and designing software to help conveyancing, as well as an outsourced document handling service.
Countrywide said that it had employed a number of contractors to try to rectify the problems with the software. It reported no other problems with the contract.
