With great sympathy, many in the U.K. industry now mourn the loss of the award-winning systems integrator Smartcomm Ltd. And industry executives as individuals and colleagues are rallying to help Smartcomm employees find new jobs.

Blame the HM Revenue and Customs, the tax department of the U.K. government, who (with no love at all) filed the bankruptcy petition on Valentine’s Day.

The background story is not uncommon. Some big customers went under, saddling Smartcomm Ltd. with enough debts to line the integrator up as another domino in a row of falling financial blocks. Management asked for a couple of months so new projects could catch up with taxes, but HM Revenue & Customs apparently declined.

Smartcomm wouldn’t be the first integrator, nor the last, to fall victim to a fragile cash flow, especially in an industry where so many sales have been dedicated to the retail industry, which has seen record levels of insolvency on its own.

Smartcomm was a popular SI in the U.K. and won the Inavation Awards Hospitality category in 2024 with a Fairmont Windsor Park project.

People seemed to enjoy working there and many in the industry respected the fallen company. When the bad news became official, numerous industry executives rallied, posting on LinkedIn their support, their best wishes, and their knowledge of available positions for the Smartcomm staff. For one example, Keith Dutch, MD at Peerless-AV went so far as to collate a very useful list of U.K. companies in the industry that are seeking new talent.

The news for Smartcomm Ltd. was bad, but one can’t help but be impressed by the number in the industry who stepped forward to help their client, competitor, supplier or friends on the Smartcomm team.