Conference 7.286::digital

What is the 'field'? Are you speaking of just sales or do you refer to
F/S, SWS, admin, personnel, etc. also?

Lee

	I would see something like that as a mangagement nightmare.  We can 
barely manage the business in Areas of contiguous states, much less something 
thrown all over the geography!  That smacks of the old Management Centers of 
some time back, doesn't it!

	I know there has been talk of focusing the Area SIC Delivery units on 
industries specific to their geography so as to focus these folks on narrower 
targets, not 5 or ten technical expertise areas, of which only 1 or 2 turn 
into business.  This is viewed as a big problem at the Areas, now.  With this 
arrangement, for instance, Southern Area would go to the NY SIC to get 
delivery of a banking project solution, while NY would get Southern to do some 
manufacturing project.  The selling Area would still provide account 
management, Program Management, if any, and long-term customer on-site
resources.

	Now, that's what I've been hearing via rumor and G-2!

    I believe  that  talking  in  this  kind of forum about rumors is not
    productive, what we should discuss based on the recent appointment of
    Dave Grainger  to the newly created position of US Sales and Services
    Manager, Don Zereski replacing him as Corporate FS  Manager,  is what
    are the changes the US needs to get its business going again.
    
    Here are my 2�: (and it's nothing new)
    
    I  don't think that is too important if there  are  9  US  geographic
    areas or industry centers, what is required first is to  motivate and
    raise  the  moral  of  the field people, invest in them,  train them,
    trust them, give them  tools  to  do  a  decent  job.    Don't  blame
    everything on the line people  if middle and upper management are not
    doing  their homework.  The times  when  customers  use  to  buy  our
    products instead of us selling them, are  long  gone,  now we have to
    sell them smartly because we have more competition  in  number and in
    intelligence.
    
    Octavio
    

    re: raise the moral of the field people
    
    "low morals; high morale!"
    
    just kiddin'
    Marge

    re:  .4   "raise morale"
    
    Amen!
    

***Last June, our product support organization attempted a re-organization
along the lines of customer business. The meeting and subsequent memos
prompted me to write this semi-tongue-in-cheek observation ...Larry

***************************************************************************


		     NYJ AREA REORGANIZATION PLAN


OBJECT: To ensure consistency across the NYJ area in service delivery 
to all customers, regardless of geography, equipment, application or 
financial impact.

PURPOSE: Reorganization, when accompanied by properly applied 
publicity always gives the impression of improvement.

GEOGRAPHY: The NYJ area encompasses New Jersey, New York, Long Island, 
Westchester, and Albany. All areas with the exception of parts of New 
Jersey, shall be considered New York except for the parts 
of New York which don't belong to New York, such as the remaining 
three fourths of the land mass designated as the state boundaries. 
There is a similar division in New Jersey, which divides the state 
along its Civil War boundaries, for obvious reasons.

BUSINESS: Customers in the area are divided by areas of interest and 
marketplace. Henceforth, DIGITAL will support the customer along the 
lines of following their business. We will support FINANCIAL, 
EDUCATIONAL/GOVERNMENT, NETWORKING, and COMMERCIAL businesses. 
Customers whose business interests/ applications fall outside these 
defined areas will be required to either change business empathsis or 
network their systems to be eligible for support services.

OBSTACLES: Since the support organization is to be centralized, some 
natural and man made obstacles must be overcome. Chief among these are 
geographic inconviences. The following changes are to be implemented 
on or before 1 July 1988:

	1: The facility known as 2 Park Avenue will be designated as 
the center of the known universe. As such, all matters, however 
mundane will be deliberated on there. Any person lost in any type of 
professional or personal vortex will immediately report there for 
guidance and or a cube in which to ponder. Since the center is the 
center, only output will emanate. This is to distinguish the center 
from a black hole into which only input flows.

	2: In order to improve response time throughout the area, 
several overdue changes will be made. Although primarily for ease of 
transition for DIGITAL support engineers, we believe the customers 
will also see corresponding improvements.

		A. The Hudson river will be re-directed and merged 
with the East river to form an entity to be known as the East Hudson 
river. This will allow Manhattan to be pushed westward approximately 
three fourths of a mile thereby joining New Jersey with Manhattan and 
eliminating the time consuming tunnel and bridge traffic. Brooklyn is 
to be moved slightly north occupying the space where the current East 
river flows, and the area known as New York harbor and Brooklyn Navy 
Yard exist.

		B. Long Island is to be moved slightly south, then 
turned ninety degrees to be placed alongside the newly formed NJNYC, 
separated by the re-directed East Hudson river. This will allow Long 
Islanders to remain aloof and distant, but will cut travel time east 
and west by making the island run north and south. Its name will also 
be changed at the time of the ninety degree turn to Tall Island.


		C. The Bronx, Westchester, Albany, and any area 
between, containing customers in the required business disciplines,
will be serviced by engineers currently attached to the Butte, Montana 
District. This is not expected to cause undue workload strain on these 
engineers as they are well used to travel, and can probably find their 
way around better with a clean slate than engineers used to the old 
geographical layout. They will be supported by systems engineers from 
the West Texas Area Support team who, in addition to possessing the 
same qualifications as the Montana District engineers, are also 
heavily armed.

	3. CAREER OPPORTUNITIES: Current support engineers are hereby 
reassured that they will be in no danger of being phased out or 
promoted to a position equated to the "Peter Principal". There will, 
however be some structural changes made to ensure a homogeneous 
organization. They are:
		
		A. All current SDE's will revert to having account 
responsibilities. This will insure that the best and brightest of the 
technical people in the districts are both fully utilized, and in no 
danger of providing first level support.

		B. All current and future Product Support Engineers 
will be promoted to wage class four upon completion of the TCD process 
and successful presentation before the TPRB. This procedure will 
insure a steady flow of competent engineers who are weary of the 
uncertainty of knowing exactly how much they will earn in a given week
for tax planning purposes. These persons, although under the control 
of the same unit manager as before, will be used solely in an advisory 
position.

		C. All management personnel will remain at the same 
physical location as before the change, although their latitude and 
longitude co-ordinates may be subject to modification. This will have 
little or no impact on most managers, as most don't know their 
latitude from their longitude now. As per previous policies, those 
managers who have demonstrated leadership qualities will be left to 
provide a stable base of operations, while the others will be moved 
on. The fast track to advancement will continue to be via dispatch, 
secretary, personnel or logistics.

		D. Those engineers who have successfully attained the 
position of System Support Engineer I or II, will now have the long 
awaited opportunity to work first line calls without the often 
disagreeable environment of working with a senior person from a local 
district. All System Support Engineer I's will have, in addition to
a T5 in Colorado, a non technical problem manager, and a TAC center
manager, a System Support Engineer II to guide him every step of the
way through resolution of those darn nasty outages. This will allow
his own expertise to remain his property. The proliferation of products 
now being offered by DIGITAL, as well as the traditional SPS people 
going where the money went, has made it impossible for any support 
engineer to be capable of supporting the entire customer base, 
regardless of the combinations of hardware and software that exist. 
Therefore, we will break the support group by customer application, 
whereby the engineer need only concern himself with the entire 
customer range, regardless of the combinations of hardware and
software.  


	4. Summary: Given DIGITAL's influence in the government and 
banking industries, and the ability of our network to find a node 
given only its nodename, only subtle changes to existing databanks 
need be made to implement the proposed changes. National Guard units 
called up for summer maneuvers can accomplish the physical move with 
minimal cost. No changes to this document may be made with or without 
permission. No requests for transfer will be approved, and no 
resignations will be accepted. Have a nice day. :-)

    At the risk of trying to over optimize somebody's plans, why not
    separate LI from NY, and attach it to Conn.?  Then LI could be moved
    north to the Conn. shore, instead of south, thus saving the 90 degree
    rotation required to attach LI to NJ.

    Re .6 . 
    I was somewhat disappointed to note the rather minor changes
    suggested. Not what one expects from the US .
    
    It should be obvious that what is really needed is the draining
    of the Atlantic - thus providing adequate car parking.
    Additionally all Digital employees should convert to working
    on Greenwich Mean Time - so that UK/US could talk more than
    2 hours a day.
    
    Mike Day
    

Re .8:

Good, then we could rename it to Conn Island.
				/AHM

    OK, you didn't want rumor.  How about what appear to be facts?  I'm not
    certain of all the details, since I'm way out here in the field.  But
    the following is being presented to some folks as a fa�t accompli.
    Where the detail is fuzzy, I've indicated as much at the end.  This new
    information meshes quite closely with things I've been hearing in
    recent months. 
                  
    Yesterday, at least some industry marketing personnel (i.e. people
    in groups such as CMPD, CIM, TELECOM, FINANCE, etc.) were informed
    of plans to reorganize the entire field (field means sales, software,
    field service, ed services, CSS, etc.).  They were not told of any
    deferred implementation and their assumption is that the reorganization
    is immediate.
                 
    The nine (9) geographic areas as we know them (SCA, SOA, MAA, ECA, SWA,
    WEA, NEA, NYNJ, CEA) will cease to exist. 
                                                         
    The field will be organized into two distinct entities:
                                                         
    	Four (4) world-wide geographic areas -
    		US
    		Europe
    		GIA                                      
    		Canada & Central/South Americas
                                                         
    	Five (5) industry organizations -                
    		Government, based in Landover            
    		Electronics, based in Santa Clara        
    		Financial, based in New York             
    		Process industries, based in Atlanta
    		{Aerospace|discrete/automotive} industries, based in
    			{?|Detroit}
                                                                
    The geographic areas will cover volume and general business.
                                                                
    The industry organizations will cover everything else (corporate
    accounts, NIA, etc.).  It is not clear whether the industry 
    organizations have world-wide responsibility or just US.     
                                                                
    The entire industry marketing organization is being functionally
    deployed to the field into the five industry organizations.  I have no
    information regarding whether relocation is part of the plan.
    
    Regarding the four geographic areas, my industry marketing source
    was fuzzy on exactly what constituted the four.  For example, the
    list might be:
    
    	Europe
    	GIA
       	Canada & Eastern or Northern US (HQ'd in NY)
       	Central/South Americas & Western or Southern US (HQ'd in CA)
    
    Another fuzzy issue was the exact nature of the 5th industry
    organization.  My source listed five including aerospace, but when
    I said "what about discrete", the person waffled and wasn't sure.
    
    Apparently, one of the motivations behind these changes was that
    senior Digital management decided that we should organize for the
    convenience of our customers instead of our own convenience, as
    we have in the past.
    
    I'd be curious to have missing details filled in by anyone else
    who's been talking to industry marketing people or who might know
    about this from another source.  I would think that this reorganization
    will have a significant impact on the way we do business, and our
    jobs, in the coming year.
    
                                    Steve

    One concern I'd have about any reorganization is that we not "drop
    the ball" and lose any customers through lack of representation.
    
    I believe that there are about 17 industry marketing organizations
    currently (can anyone list them all?).  If indeed we are moving
    towards 5 major industries, will all the various ones currently
    represented by the 17 be included somewhere ... or would we be walking
    away from some (years ago, about the time we did away with product
    lines, we completely cut off our business in the media {i.e. newspaper}
    industry where we had a substantial presence.
    
    Another concern - we're doing extremely well in Europe.  Will the
    industry focus be carried there, and if so, will it "fit" the European
    environment?

    Re:< Note 704.12 by DLOACT::RESENDE "Pickled tink!" >

    Trying  not  to sound like a moderator (which I am not), nevertheless
    I'll express my opinion.
    
    If you haven't seen a memo written  by  senior management on any kind
    of reorganization, then whatever "someone" told you is still rumors.
    
    It is to be expected that Grainger's  appointment as US manager, will
    bring changes, the first one being the that  the  US  mangement  team
    reports to him, whuch wasn't the case before.
    
    Another change, and this is official, is that all  industry marketing
    managers,  Hughes,  MacKeen,  Weiss,  and  Paxton  (as  acting  Basic
    Industry Marketing  Manager)  now  also report to Grainger, that will
    put more focus  in  dveloping  US industry strategies tied with field
    activities.
    
    The escenario  of  having  industry centers spread across the US,  is
    really  what  is  the way Europe has implemented its industry  focus,
    having what is know as DCCs (or Digital Competence Centres), each one
    focusing in a specific industry  and  located where the country where
    that industry is more predominant.   The US industry-focused ACTs and
    SICs are somewhat similar, they are only lacking the marketing focus.
    
    The  US  industry  groups  are  basically  grouped    in  four  major
    categories:
    
    Basic, Services, Government, Telecom
    
    Basic and Services have divisions and subdivision, ,e.g.:

Basic
        
    Process
        Chemical
        Food and Beverages
        Paper
        etc
    
    Discrete
        Auto
        Aerospace
        Electronic
    
Service
        
    Finance
        Banking
        Insurance
    
    Media
        TV
        Newspaper
    
    Some of the groups you mentioned are not  industry  marketing groups,
    e.g.  CMPD, ESG, LDP, BOIS, CSG are know  as Product MArketing Groups
    or PMGs and they are not in Shields side of  the  house  but  in Jack
    Smith's.
    
    I hope I didn't sound patronizing, but until we know all  the  facts,
    spreading rumors in notes is not in your own benefit.
    
    Octavio

    I too don't have all the details, but this is not just idle rumor. I'm
    currently involved in a deal between a customer and one of the ACT's.
    That deal is being managed by an Area Manager who is TOTALLY out of the
    geography of the ACT, because that ACT is in the new *Industry* group of
    that Area Manager.  In other words, I haven't seen an announcement by
    senior Digital management, but I'm seeing the actual functional
    implementation of the reorganization.  As far as I'm concerned, that's
    just as good or better. 
    
    							Pat

Re:  .13 >JAWS::DIAZ "CMG/CDG/SAMG"

    Thanks for the description of the groups.  That helps shed a little
    light on things. 

>    I hope I didn't sound patronizing, but until we know all  the  facts,
>    spreading rumors in notes is not in your own benefit.

    If we wait for "all the facts" to be communicated in this company
    through "official channels" {of which we all know Notes isn't}, we'll
    be into our next reorganization or perhaps the one after that. 
    
    Fact of the matter it that organizations are being told things,
    presentations are being made and attended, and information is gradually
    getting out. I have no doubt that there's a lot of mixed fact and
    fiction in what is going around.  I'm looking for information that can
    be tied back close to the sources, and that might be presumably
    accurate and allow the eliminate of clearly inaccurate rumors.
    
    It's not my intent to participate in "spreading rumors".  I want
    to know the facts, and in a timely fashion, because they impact
    us all (at least in the field) to some extent.
    
    And it does seem to me that we all have to piece together fragments of
    information from various sources to understand the bigger picture. I'm
    not expecting that a memo will come out and detail it all in black and
    white and simple terms.  Not with the matrix still thriving.  And
    that's part of our corporate culture and the way we do business
    for better or worse.