HP loses massive bank contract

HP has been removed from the shortlist of runners for a Bank of Ireland services contract. The deal was won by HP in 2004 when it described the $600m, seven-year deal as Ireland's largest ever IT services contract. But HP is not being considered for renewal of the contract. Instead the Bank of Ireland is considering bids from …

[Anonymous Coward]

What's the big deal?

...banking contracts traditionally bounce betwen HP and IBM as a matter of course. It takes a few years to do it, but they bounce around. Occasinally Siemens or the like stick their nose in. (says I, an ex HP engineer than ended up with Siemens and then, ahem, "let go."

But I have to admit that I haven't read of any HP wins for a few years now.

[nichomach]

Rough on the people...

...who got transferred to HP from the bank.

[Maverick]

not really

as they will get transferred to the new provider,

new badge same job - it's the law

and the new provider will want them

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: What's the big deal?

Couldn't agree more - as you say, these contracts flip-flop between IBM, HP, Capita and Accenture with monotonous regularity. Heard a yank colleague of mine describe them as "baseball accounts" because they're continually bringing up a new pitcher to the plate (or it could have been "batter to the plate", twas a long time ago).

You said "But I have to admit that I haven't read of any HP wins for a few years now."

Yep, it seems that most of the recent HP "successes" have been from the EDS buyout - HP Services always seemed to be pretty clueless, (don't blame the workers, blame the management!).

The article says "Bank of Ireland staff are asked to be sensitive to HP workers who have also received the news and will be wondering what impact it will have on their own jobs."

Easy to figure out the impact - they're all probably going to be joining the job queue soon.

One final thought - aren't Bank Of Ireland one of the one's like the Icelandic banks (no insult intended) that have lost trucks full of money in the market meltdown? If so, then winning the contract isn't necessarily a good thing surely - never a good idea to join a sinking ship? (Not that I claim any experience of banks other than as a customer).

[Keith Wingate]

Wouldn't be cricket

Yes, it would be "new batter to the plate", which happens at least 27 times a game. "New pitcher to the mound" might happen only once a game.

I'll be using that one, thanks.

Mine's the one with the White Sox (Chicago, South side) logo.

[Anonymous Coward]

Aren't they all just as good?

Sorry, that should have read aren't they all just shite?

IBM are attrocious at the best of times. They run their service based on cost and numbers. They off-shore everything they can and their managers are clueless numpties with no financial markets experience.

I've never heard anything good about HP either.

If you want good IT then run it yourself. If you want "cheap" IT bang it off-shore but it'll end up costing the same as every time you want something doing you'll have to add it to the contact and pay through the nose.

JP Morgan fired IBM's ass recently and re-insourced. Now that's smart.