HP eyes top VMS people for cuts

HP IS PREPARING to really gut VMS support, and from everything we hear, this will be the first time it has potentially irreversible and devastating customer implications.

If you are a VMS customer, I would seriously consider calling your local HP rep and asking hard questions.

The problem started out with HP dumping VMS support on poorly trained people in several foreign countries(1). People on the inside tell us the grand plan is to make support intolerable, so they can upsell you on the old level of support, but this may just be sour grapes. We have not seen this documented, but it sure fits the patterns of action on the ground.

The biggest problem is that the most irreplaceable people in the support team, those who do the proactive stuff at the CSC (Customer Support Center), appear to be on the chopping block too.

When you ask the teams who do proactive deliverables to justify their existence in writing on short notice, that can't be a good sign. It looks like the beancounters are about to chop the last remaining bits of vested VMS knowledge on the client support side.

We have been shown transcripts about how the n00b trainees react to complex problems, and it isn't good either. To paraphrase the results, it is panic, yelling for help, and escalation. What HP customers appear to be on the verge of is finding out is what happens to a support contract when there is no one to escalate it to. µ

(1) The usual disclaimer applies, it is not where the staff is located, it is their training. HP is pinching pennies here and we are told the new people are nowhere near as good as the old.