The founder of Kelworth Limited was Allan Simmonds, a gem of a man with that rare combination of technical ability (to design the Holiday Booking Systems himself), sales ability and common sense which is essential for success in a small business. Allan always listened to his customers and this enabled him to improve his software and gain a thorough understanding of his client's businesses. His original MS-DOS/FoxPro based Propman and Accoman programs were very popular and he built up an excellent client base across the UK. This was serviced by Allan himself and a couple of reliable support guys working out of modest premises in Daventry. Any problems were quickly resolved using telephone support and PC Anywhere.
The original products were re-developed into Accowin for Windows which was rolled out to customers from about 2001.
Like all new owners, Gavin made changes. The company moved to larger premises at 9 Cottesbrook Park and there were a number of additions to the staff. Presumably the overheads also grew a great deal at this time.
One of the principal products which Gavin promoted to the customer base following his takeover was a "Web Solution". This would supposedly integrate with an existing website so that customers could make bookings online using real-time availability information via a connection to the Accowin product used in the booking agent's office. This so-called Web Solution was sold to around 100 businesses by 2009.
The period from 2003 to 2009 was not without its difficulties. Notable features of this period from a customer perspective were: very high staff turnover, poor sales contact, difficulty in obtaining support and very fast invoicing (sometimes almost before work was completed) suggesting cashflow problems were an issue.
On the 30th January 2009 Liquidators were appointed to wind up the company. The statement of affairs showed that Kelworth Limited had debts of around £130,000 at this time. The failure of the company left a large number of travel businesses in a precarious position and relying on software for which there was likely to be no on-going support. Kelworth's staff also faced a very uncertain future despite all their well-meaning efforts to provide reasonable customer service against what could be described as overwhelming odds.
On the 13th February 2009, Kelworth customers were sent a letter by Craig Dean, Chief Executive of Web Applications UK Ltd informing them that the Accumen division of Web Applications had purchased the goodwill and assets of Kelworth Limited and inviting them to attend a User Group Seminar at The Midland Hotel Manchester on 30th March 2009. Most surprisingly, customers were also informed that Gavin Norman would be joining the Accumen Division as Sales Manager.
Letters from Web Applications sent during the Spring of 2009 confirmed what some customers had long suspected, that the Web Solution offered by Kelworth was actually a complete lash-up. There were over 80 significantly different versions in use and the implementation apparently contained a number of amateur mistakes which caused its unreliability. It was therefore not possible to fix the web solution when it went wrong. At the User Group Seminar, Craig Dean described what he called "a spiral of support" whereby Kelworth's poor quality Web Solution had led to the need for more and more customer support which meant that long term solutions could not be found due to insufficient development time. It was also made apparent that Gavin had effectively been offering bespoke software at generic prices and this was the main reason that Kelworth had failed.
Amongst the attendees of the Seminar, there was a great deal of resentment towards Kelworth and the mess that the companies failure had caused. A lot of the good business people there had been loyal Kelworth customers for many years. Despite the overall downbeat mood, the nice thing to come out of the seminar was that everyone who remembered Allan Simmonds spoke highly of him.
In a move that will appeal to the superstitious, the Kelworth office at Daventry was closed on Friday 13th March 2009 and most of the staff left. Two of the experienced FoxPro programmers were kept on (working from home) to assist Web Applications with sorting out the aftermath of the Kelworth debacle.
Nearly a year on (at the time of writing), Web Applications appear to have turned around the situation and have launched an updated version of Accowin and a Web Solution which works with it. Not all the Kelworth customers rode out the storm. Some felt sufficiently let down to obtain systems from other providers and forget the Accowin product for good.
Gavin Norman was dismissed from his role as sales manager with Web Applications on 26th June 2009. In a press release on their website, Craig Dean stated, "It became clear that there was a lot of anger towards Gavin in the client base that we inherited. We made a considerable effort to rehabilitate Gavin, but it became clear that he was not a suitable addition to the team. We wish him all the best in his future endeavours".
After 20 years in the software business, Kelworth Limited was no more.
A very interesting and accurate article, almost certainly posted by someone I know! I worked for Kelworth between 1999 and 2003 and it was a great job until the takeover. We were great at listening to our customers, understanding their needs and providing great customer service (IMHO).
ReplyDeleteEven before 2003 though we weren't very far-sighted when it came to embracing new technologies and the birth of AccoWin was painful and drawn-out. In hindsight we should have ditched VFP and gone with VB & SQL but that's hindsight for you! We didn't really get the web either but then, who did?
It's only today I learned of Kelworth's demise but it's good to hear that the PropMan / AccoMan legacy is continuing - a great product!
I was one of the long standing team, employed by directly by Alan. At the time (two months before) we were introduced to Gavin Norman as a "programming expert" it became clear after a few days that he would not be suitable to join the team. A couple of months later, despite the entire team being concerned the reins were handed over to him, and the downward spiral began, overnight good will in the office on the high street disappeared.
ReplyDeleteOne of the main developers left the following day. We continued in the way that we always had with support, working long hours on issues, oftentimes taking code home with us to work on overnight. However, Alan would always be the first to come over into the office and say thank you. We never really claimed overtime but there would often be cakes etc as a small thank you. This never happened with Gavin, it was expected of you. Shortly after the move, we had the break in, and all of our development machines were stolen from the main office. We arrived at work and found the main door smashed in and everything gone. I pulled out all the stops, called in favours from just about everyone I could think of in order to get replacements there for that afternoon. Not even a thank you. Although Gavin did moan about the cost of them, until he realised the insurance would cover that!
He put the lead developer under so much pressure, literally bombarding him with request after request after request. To the point, he came storming down one day (during lunch) which we took 1/2 hour to eat, and maybe play a game of worms! He stomped in and threw a complete fit about the fact that we had dared to stop work while we ate.
I don't know much about what happened after that, I know that we had all made the decision to stop all out of hours work. He came to be at 4:30pm on Friday afternoon (we closed at 5!) and told me to make some significant changes to a report. I started to make the changes (these would take a good coder 2-3 hours to change) so I left at 5pm and thought nothing of it over the weekend. I went in early (2 hours early), think ok, get a coffee, then get on. When Gavin accosted me in the kitchen (a very small part of the building) shouting and screaming that I had not completed the reports yet and why the hell not. I tried to calmly explain that he gave them to me, needing at least 2 hours of work, with half an hour left in the business day. He and I quote, told me that was not acceptable. Cut a long story short this was the straw that broke the camels back, so I shoved him out the way and told him to shove his job. He actually laughed at me and said thank you, get lost.
I thankfully have never met anyone like Gavin, and I hope never to meet anyone else like Gavin. The 12 months I worked for him were a constant battle and I saw many people going through the same hell. I missed all the customers, as we all had a wonderful relationship and I am truly sorry if my actions have caused them issues and contributed to the downfall of Kelworth. However I can honestly say that watching Gavin Norman and his version of the "Kelworth Dream" disappearing in the rear view mirror was quite simply the best move I have ever made.
I am sorry that Kelworth as it was had to go through this, it was an amazing company with Alan in charge. But then I do have to add that the decision was made to allow the takeover despite every single one of the staff making their feelings very well known. It speaks volumes that each and everyone of the staff members has proven to be extremely successful away from Kelworth. This was a management issue that caused this nothing else.
Thanks for your interesting comment. My apologies that it took over a year to moderate it!!
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