A quiet withdrawal is probably sensible, considering the widespread layoffs and closures affecting the ebusiness services sector. I suspect it is stronger in providing kit and maintaining and running servers than it is in providing people to implement BroadVision or funky web sites. The architecture angle Christou still argues that ICL has good design capability, but says he is more comfortable with the idea that customers will use ICL for architecture, and specialist agencies for design and ebusiness software. Last year's fervour for ebusiness unnerved customers, he says. They thought we were going to forget about communications infrastructure - we're not.
Customers seem to agree.
It has worked well, says Bill James, a director at the web company. We value ICL for robust service, which is what it gives us - we've never had any drama. It's a case of balancing expertise from different companies. We wouldn't want to be dependent on any one company. The planned flotations for ICL's training subsidiary, KnowledgePool, and its Finnish business, ICL Invia, were not cancelled and the firm says it is still working on them.