EY to outsource compute function, sending 800 staff into the loving arms of... IBM The artist formerly known as Ernst & Young is preparing to transfer the majority of its in-house compute function to IBM, with 800 people in various corners of the world set to make the move from October onwards. The pair made public a multi-year alliance last month that was all about selling "digital transformation" services …
From what I see, IBM have a worldwide headcount limit that they don't like crossing.
If you look at this over the years, it's rarely goes below 380,000 (although it was allowed to grow in the second decade of this century, leading to a sharp reduction around 2014, probably when some parts were sold off [like the xSeries division]).
What seems to happen is that they take in a new business and all the people, then have to engage in redundancies to bring the headcount back down to the magic figure.
I don't know what 2020 will look like, with them having taken in RedHat, but maybe if it is being run at arm's length, they won't count.
Only at IBM would being made redundant be considered as future career growth. Oh how the mighty have fallen.
Based on my experience watching a major outsourcing to IBM, my condolences to all involved. The only positive in our outsourcing was that the function was insourced again as soon as the initial contract with IBM ended. However, by that time more than half the original staff had left.
"Only at IBM would being made redundant be considered as future career growth. Oh how the mighty have fallen."
Ha! If only you were correct. Can anyone tell us of an Outsourcing deal where all the original staff were retained longer than the absolute minimum time the winning company could get away with?
I know people who were brought into IBM as part of a TUPE, and remained there for significant amounts of time (more that 10 years) and some until they retired.
But it depends on the skills and usefulness. I suspect that any of the EY staff that have any Cloud or recent security experience will be OK, but probably not those who are involved with rather more traditional technologies.
are they offering redundancy as an option?
its not great when you have a number of years under your belt and suddenly your option is to transfer to some company you never wanted to work for or resign. If redundancy is an option its helpful, otherwise the other business is incentivised to manage you out of a job, saving large amounts of often generous redundancy payments.
it sucks seeing your colleagues being made redundant over the years especially when you've declined to go, and suddenly when its your turn you find there is no payout for you!!!!
Loyalty rewarded, not!!
"... under the alliance with IBM, impacted employees told us they will also be expected to support clients externally."
So the crew sized for EY will now somehow be able to do all EY's work, plus more? And then when the crew don't do 'transition' well, get downsized, while still supporting all EY's work and more external work?
Neither IBM nor EY do that "Think" thing well, do they?
You might be right with regards IBM laying off those who are transferring over but I would be very surprised if EY were to die completely. They have over 300K staff globally and are one of the Big 4 Accountancy firms. The last of the big accountancy firms to collapse was Arthur Anderson due to the Enron scandal and that was awhile back.
As a German, I suspect EY bracing for some Wirecard fallout. You remember? Wirecard, the company EY certified "everything fine and dandy" until nobody was able to oversee reality anymore?
Just keep in mind: We in IT may always be one of the first who have to go if the (business) shit hits the fan, we've never been anything else but a cost factor in many businesses we drive...
We need a global union with enough power to work with each country government to protects outsourced workers' rights against these shitty multinational companies and their "business" affecting millions of families... even more in times like this with a pandemic happening. I'm fucking tired of their bullshit and how they shit on our work force.
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Warning: From Vodafone we were TUPE'd over May 2019, One year on during Covid virus, IBM decided to make me and 25% of the Vodafone accounts UK staff redundant. Replaced by Indian engineers, and also most of the senior management resigned or redundant due to IBMs nonsense working practices, again India senior management taken over. One year on, still no new tools from IBM to use on the Vodafone account, just about cost savings. Vodafone and EY probably didn't want to lay off staff, bad brand image etc, so outsource to IBM and let them do the dirty work.
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