Staff hired for Regis

Alison Laferla reports

The Law Society is investing more than £100,000 in permanent IT staff following its recent admission that the Regis computer system has suffered from inadequate financial and project management which resulted in a massive overspend.

In an IT services department shakeup, the society has advertised four key posts - IT projects manager, senior customer account manager, IT resources and quality manager, and IT support services manager.

The recruitment drive follows damning reports by external consultants DBI Associates and Arthur Anderson, which revealed that the ambitious Regis project suffered from a lack of management and an over-dependence on too few technical staff.

A Law Society spokesman said the appointments were a response to the consultants' reports and would "ensure the smooth implementation of what remains of Regis".

A society inquiry into Regis, set up in February this year, has issued an interim report which endorses the consultants' recommendations.

Robin ap Cynan, chair of the inquiry, said: "It is fairly clear that the report criticises aspects of the previous management of Regis. The lesson to be learned is that there needs to be better financial management as well as tighter management of IT."

The inquiry's recommendations will be put to council in a meeting this month. If adopted, staff working on Regis face the task of identifying gaps in the data, cleaning up poor quality information and introducing proper project management techniques.

Responsibility for implementing Regis 4, which will computerise the society's complaints handling system and is now titled Road (Regis Office Automation Development), has been sub-contracted to PA Consulting.