MTI reveals contingency plans after Sungard UK goes into administration

Services and solutions provider MTI Technology is implementing contingency plans following the news that Sungard UK has been placed into administration.

MTI said that is it is focused on insuring “uninterrupted supply of services to all customers affected” and revealed it is in discussions with the administrators about continuity of service “across a variety of scenarios”, in an announcement this week.

To help prevent any further issues, the provider has also reviewed the preparedness of the pre-agreed contingency plans, should the supply chain fail. It said the focus of its plans is to ensure “minimal impact to customers”.

“MTI has a number of customers that use Sungard for elements of their infrastructure and we are taking all the necessary steps to provide support to customers affected by this news,” said MTI COO Ben Cranham.

“We have classed this as ‘Major Event’ to ensure it has the highest priority for our internal teams and that we quickly establish how to achieve the best outcomes for our customers.”

Pennsylvania-headquartered Sungard provides IT solutions across the areas of business continuity, disaster recovery, cloud, consulting, data centre and colocation services.

The UK arm of the company says it has been hit hard by the recent increases in global power supply costs and, due to their business model, revealed it has been unable to absorb the cost increases, making the business “untenable in its current form”.

As a result, MTI was informed on the 28th March that Sungard UK’s directors had requested for the company to be placed into administration.

Benjamin Dymant and Ian Wormleighton of Teneo Restructuring have been appointed as administrators and were successful in securing limited funding. That has ensured Sungard UK can continue business while discussions with landlords continue and a buyer is sought.

“The funding provides platform to advance the company’s discussions with landlords, to optimise cost and space, and with customers, to pass through increased power costs.,” Dymant said in a statement.

“The ability for the business to continue to trade in the medium to long term, either to enable a rescue of the business as a going concern or to deliver individual asset sales, will be reliant upon burden sharing from both customers and landlords alike.”

He added: “We will be working with the shareholder and other stakeholders to further consider the ability for the company to continue trading on a day-to-day basis. Any changes will be communicated directly with customers, employees and suppliers.”