Misys Healthcare Systems will return to growth as soon as September after a nearly completed overhaul and the dumping of two business units, said Vern Davenport, head of the medical software company.

He set a goal of 15 percent annual sales growth but declined to give a specific timeline.

"We sit in an industry that is growing 13 to 15 percent a year, and our business had a year-on-year revenue decline. If you're an investor, an executive or an employee, you cannot be happy with that," Davenport said. He added that some segments of health-care information technology, such as electronic medical records, are growing at annual rates of 30 percent.

"We're in a terrific market that we had not positioned ourselves to grow with, and it's going to take some time to get there," he added.

Davenport was responding to questions Monday about the sustainability of the Raleigh-based company after several bad quarters and particularly stern words last week from Mike Lawrie, CEO of its England-based corporate parent, Misys PLC.

"Performance remains poor" at the U.S. health-care subsidiary, Lawrie said after a quarterly announcement last Tuesday. "We are taking action to address that."

Lawrie and Davenport were brought in less than a year ago. Davenport has since realigned his sales force from various individual units to a single division and last week announced plans to sell two businesses considered noncore for more than $400 million.

He said the company will use the money to repay debt and may start expanding its payroll or even make acquisitions after the realignment is completed in September.

"We're going to turn our attention to taking our company assets and organizational alignment and attacking the market," Davenport said. "Once we get the cash from those deals, Misys will be debt free and in a good position to look at [acquisition] opportunities and be able to capitalize."

The disposal of the two units are designed to pull Misys Healthcare entirely out of the hospital information-technology market so it can focus on selling software to help doctors' practices and other service providers track patient records and manage operations.

"That is a major step on the way to positioning ourselves," said Davenport, who was recruited in February from Eastman Kodak, a month after former CEO Tom Skelton resigned. In March, Davenport revealed a turnaround plan to improve sales processes and make the company more transparent to employees and investors.

"I think we are 85 percent of the way there," Davenport said of the realignment part of the effort. But turning internal changes into higher sales and profitability will prove more difficult, he said.

In a note following the earnings announcement last week, Stacy Pollard, an analyst with London financial group Cazenove, wrote that Misys PLC's performance remains poor due to the U.S. healthcare business but that the company is taking action to improve profitability.

Misys PLC also sells software and other information technology to banks. Sales for that side of the company rose 5.5 percent in fiscal 2007, which ended in May.

Asked about CEO Lawrie's blunt criticism last week of the U.S. subsidiary, Davenport replied: "He's right."

The U.S. health-care business reported a 3 percent drop in revenue to $568 million in fiscal 2007. Profit fell 10 percent to $86 million.

Following the sale of the two business units, which are based in Arizona and California, Misys will shrink to about 2,000 employees from 2,800. Its 800 Raleigh employees will be unaffected, other than five executives who will leave with those units, Davenport said.

Misys is selling Arizona-based Diagnostic Systems for $381.5 million to Vista Equity Partners and California-based Computerized Patient Record assets to Reston, Va.-based QuadraMed Corp. for $33 million in cash.