My Paloma

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or LinkedIn here https://uk.linkedin.com/in/tonysmiththathousingitguy



It was sad to hear last month, of the death of Thomas Schweizer, director of Paloma based in Brighton, who supply housing solutions to a lot of mainly smaller social housing landlords.

I met Thomas on a few occasions, including at a NHF IT Managers conference at Olympia in November 2010. We were on a panel of suppliers together with Martyn Rees of an IBS recently bought up by Capita and John Doughty (anyone remember him from Orchard?).

Thomas was trying to do something differently for the sector, maybe a little quirkily and hands-on, but with his heart in the right place I guess. I have worked with a few Paloma sites, often to look at or assist in migrating Wrapp, Jamm etc, to more integrated alternatives. I understand that a couple of key support staff have also been lost too, over the past year.

Lack of adequate succession planning is becoming a growing issue with software houses, as life and old age catches up with the original innovators from the 1980’s & 90’s. There is no real excuse for lack of succession planning, especially where a few dozen social enterprises depend on continued support of software products. I would guess that quite a number of long time and larger Paloma customers (Worthing Homes & Swansea spring to mind), are already starting to research options. While there is probably urgency to ensure a stable housing system is in place, some structured examination of the market would as ever be recommended.

Like with any organisation experiencing changes like that, losing key staff, some reorganisation or targeted recruitment must be now necessary. I have worked with a few suppliers in a similar situation, with credible product and existing customers, as Critical Friend, to help navigate options forward.

Its fair to say that some other supplier organisations are currently going through transition too, based on the LinkedIn movements I see from my own extensive contacts across the sector. A number still need to put the breaks on the often revolving door of staff changes. Older and more experienced staff are indeed retiring or cutting down to three days a week. Recruiting good staff, training them to be even better with product and letting them develop can be a tough call. Cracking that and having an eye on sensible succession planning too, can make all the difference between satisfied and unhappy software customers.

Related Post: Do less locking of horns over integration - Get your software suppliers collaborating together

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The Knack - My Sharona.
(c) Tony Smith, Acutance Consulting www.acutanceconsulting.co.uk 07854-655009


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