HP ready to shift more enterprise support outside

SOURCES SAY that HP is ready to shift a whole raft of further support services in Indian firm's SITEL direction, with early steps already afoot to see what will stay and what will go.

Most will go as the Reds (Compaq) and the Blues (HP) fight it out.

The same sources suggest that there's a freeze on HP support recruitment while various committees at the company work out the outsourcing strategy.

At the end of September, the most senior of these committees will complete a review of the service components with only so-called "core competencies" likely to be retained. The rest may shift offshore very much sooner rather than later.

And the old antagonisms between the Reds and the Blues are causing trouble and strife within the organisation, according to our information.

The Blues are fighting a rear guard action by the Reds which are fighting to add headcount to handle call volumes, for example in high end storage accounts. But the Reds are losing ground, and training functions are also suffering freezures.

And while we're on the subject of colour, then there's the Golds. The Golds are external customers which have paid extra for top support but are now grumbling because they seem to know more than either the Reds or the Blues.

But beancounters at Castle Qarly, we're informed, have made their calculations and the die is already cast at the highest level.

The Head Blues have told the Reds there's just no way they're going back to a dedicated cost intensive customer support model. Whether the Golds like it, whether the Reds like it, or the Blues like it, there's going to be an overall Call Center Organization throughout the New HP.

Old and still loyal Compaq Red customers are not getting the message that they can pay a bit more to get the current service for another three years but are receiving notice of an HP "Purple" scheme and that will include a cost of over four times for the same service and support they've come to expect.

It's the Labor Day holiday, but soon after that, Open VMS customers are likely to get a menu driven IVR system when the usual 800 number is called. After around three weeks, the human handlers of the system will be told to get on their bikes and the call queue will fill up until one of the remaining specialists becomes available.

Front line and back line support teams will be pitted against each other, with the "poor bloody infantry" facing freezure if they dare to shift calls to the back line team. And if the back line team involves engineering, they could face Frosty the Snowman too.

You think we've forgotten about the Silvers in this crazy rainbow game, which may end up as a crock at the end of a sepia rainbow?

Well, the Silver Supporters may be cut in headcount by as much as 50%, we understand.

What customers have to do is to understand that they are the ping pong balls or the shuttlecocks in a four sided game of Table Tennis or Badminton, where they'll find themselves being batted about at high speeds from pillar to post.

All a far cry from the old DEC days, or even the not so old Tandem or Big Q days, we fear. µ