British IT company Sirius marked its entry into the Australasian insurance market in March with the appointment of former Lumley Technology CEO Stephen Browne as its Regional Manager.

The Sirius underwriting platform is currently being installed at IAG NZ, with 1800 users due to use it, and Mr Browne was obviously keen to leverage the IAG choice to develop new clients in the region.

Unfortunately, it now looks as though implementation at IAG NZ – dubbed Project Endeavour – will not reach its first phase before the last quarter of the year, up to a year later than originally planned. The cause? According to reports from NZ, Sirius may have been presented with inadequate specifications at its inception.

“Our timeframes have been extended due to unforeseen issues,” IAG spokesman Kate Nelson said.

The issues have been attributed to “bugs and functionality expectation differences”. Sirius representatives will not comment on rumours about the cost of the delays, but they are reported to be $1 million a month.