Conference 7.286::digital

    
    Yup.  With cutbacks in headcount, we can no longer afford to have
    specialists in the districts.  Gear that is highly mechanical,
    such as printers, benefits greatly from being serviced by an 
    engineer that specializes in those types of gear.  Ergo, we suk-k
    to a business that specializes in that gear.  Costs of service are
    lowered, margins are maintained (assuming a sub-k can be found that
    can be trusted to deliver the same level of service that Digital
    engineers would).  Another benefit, is that the cost of the sub-k
    can be negotiated to be a flat fee, eliminating those little
    "suprises" at the end of the quarter.
    
    Dennis
    

    
    HMMMM !!!  Printers first, what's next as heads keep going away ????

    Look for this type of Sub-K for the desktop.  ALl of it.

This has been going on in some areas for a long time........margin and profit is
the metric........

My wife's uncle was a zillion-year employee of Honeywell, working on impact
printers. Got laid off and now works for a small company that goes on-site to
fix printers for Xerox. Xerox keeps the big, profitable accounts and dolls out
the rest to other vendors. He does some of the printers in some of our
Littleton, Mass., facilities, for instance.

						Trace

By the way, this is the general trend, and it's not just at Digital. You
and your team are terminated from the Big Corporation for which you've
worked since college. You're part of a "mature work force" - meaning,
you're making double the entry level wage (or more). 

Some of you gravitate to forming your own company, doing what you used to
do for the Big Corporation. They obviously need those services, so they
hire you on a contract basis. Only now they don't have those nasty
benefits to fund, or health services to provide, or training plans to
consider... 

Look around here (ZKO) and you'll see quite a few familiar faces wearing
Contractor badges. People gotta work someplace.

Art

      A lot of this has been going on in the UK for a couple of years now.
    So far as multi-vendor equipment is concerned, a fourth party who gets
    50 ABC Corp widgets a week to work on is likely to be able to do the
    job much cheaper than a DEC repair centre that sees one or two a month.
    They are more likely to have the expertise and adequate spares, as well
    as not (necessarily) being lumbered with out-of-date and inadequate
    systems and processes plus excessive overhead expenses. We 'cherry
    pick' the stuff we can do well and have adequate volume of to be able
    to maintain spares and expertise, and sling the oddball and low-volume
    things out.
       
      DEC equipment has also been sent out, though much of that was
    actually DEC-badged. I have been involved with some of this. There was,
    a while back at least, a lot of moaning that these places were X(large)%
    cheaper than the PRC. We have heard less of this lately, possibly due
    to the subsequent moaning about the high doa rates, high scrap rates
    and often poor cosmetic quality of some fourth party repair work. The
    scrap rates were particularly high due to DEC's seeming corporate-wide
    inability to write a contract that properly specifies what actually needs
    to be done. One basicaly said resolder these joints, do these
    adjustments, test it, if it fails it is beyond economic repair. We paid
    per unit sent, not per good unit sent back; even simple fixes were
    ignored, there was no incentive in the contract for the fourth party to
    spend extra time doing them. I don't blame them; they were beaten so low
    on price that it would have cost them money to do anything outside the
    letter of the contract.
    
    Ken              

    Bean Counter:	Did you notice that 80% of MCS profit comes from
    			30% of our customers!!
    
    Cloud Level Mgr:	Let's sell the other 70%!!!
    
    
    Just a bit of fiction!

    Let me ask a question regarding this and forgive me if the answser seems 
    obvious to many of you.
    
    The type of outsourcing to which you are referring would imply
    essentially that Digital employed F.E.'s are on the hit list.  If this
    were the case, why would we even be in this business any longer?  Why
    not just get rid of services alltogether?  It seems that if we cannot
    control the delivery which is essentially tied to the revenue, [and I
    am assuming that outsourcing would compromise quality of delivery], why
    bother?
    
    

      Ah, but 'controlling the delivery' is a management function, and
    management is our core competency, remember? According to some peoples
    theories, we don't need to employ F.E.s at all, all that sort of stuff
    can be done by subcontractors; and indeed quite a lot of the desktop
    stuff already is in the UK.
    
      It's only when they try to implement that in full that they discover
    that you can't just phone an agency and hire good engineers as and when
    you need them. The best are worth their weight in gold, and the worst
    aren't worth their weight in something brown and sticky. At a change
    forum I attended last year, MCS senior management took a lot of flak
    from some branch managers over the problems caused by Desktop Services
    contractors. More than one big VAX service contract was nearly lost (for
    all I know some have been lost) because a DTS contractor made a pigs
    ear of fixing a PC, and seriously undermined the customer's confidence
    in MCS as a whole.
    
    Ken

    
    You people forget too soon!!!!!!!  REMEMBER SES!
    
    AHAH!   Now I get it!  That was the litmus test to see if the corp
    would/could be duped into thinking that nothing would suffer.
    
    The cost to deliver services is too high.....so let me see now, let's
    cut the people doing the work, and satisfying the customers needs wants
    and desires, because after all, we did sell them a 'contract'.  So
    the game cintinues. Sell the delivery folk, and hire more problem 
    managers to deal with the influx of problems that crop up, and if
    things get too tough, due to lack of manpower, we still have the IPMT
    chain to pull to get additional resources.  
    
    Digital has still got a long way to go before this sickness heals.
    
    

    re .-1 Ok, I'll bite. what is "SES"?
    
    One of the biggest changes I've seen is the change from "Proactive" to 
    "reactive" mode. It used to be the case where you had the time to get
    to know the customer, his operations, his operators, which led to major
    league customer satisfaction scores and a big name in the industry.
    
    Today's MCS/Field Service is scrambling to meet contractual
    obligations based on the manpower of "the old days". If everything
    works as "planned" every call is a quickie, hit and run gotta-go
    affair. But throw in the occasional sable/Adaptec fiasco where nothing
    fixes it, Colorado/Atlanta calls back "the next day" and all of a
    sudden you are waaayyy behind. "DECservice"? I wouldn't buy it today.
    It's not worth the extra bucks for what you get.
    
    We had a dog-and-pony-show from the "Americas Zone" a while back
    extolling the virtues of some-new-rearranged-scheme that was mandatory.
    The only part I remember "Tony" emphasizing was the quote in reference
    to are-layoffs-done-yet question - "Those that we keep will have the
    very best tools available." So I figure that they haven't yet cut close
    enough to the bone, because I still have my trusty 320p with all it's
    up to date "tools" on it.
    
    .mike.

    Yes it has been going on for ages, but the question is , does it save
    money and get the job well done.  I have the following memory from
    1992. Maintenance of ln03's at the facility I was working in had been
    vendorised (that was the buzz word in those days). My job was to keep
    the users happy, and after a few weeks we found we had no printers
    working and furious users.  (LOOP1:) It turned out that the toner was being
    replaced by a temp employee who had the nice idea of taking off the
    paper cover of the toner and tipping the toner into the printers :-)
    This would generate a service call and the printer was shipped 300
    miles to the sub-contractor, who would hoover out the printer and send
    it back, without replacing the toner :-) (GOTO LOOP1)
    
    We did two things. We organised a little training session on how to
    replace the toner and we bought a hoover to hover out the printers when
    they started smearing. We figured the cost and effort of processing the
    call (that is just the admin overhead) was more than the cost and
    effort of hoovering the printer. We wern't paying for the repair or
    getting paid for doing it, but it is clear that the transport and
    repair cost in this case was pure loss. 
    
    Until we learn how to rationalise and save money, we will have
    problems. I've said it before and I'll say it again: quality starts at
    the bottom.
    
    Kevin 

      The subcontractor was doing exactly what they should if they sent
    LN03's back without the toner. Shipping one without removing the toner
    first invariably results in the toner spilling all over the innards. I
    believe we may have cross-charged FS branches that perpetrated this for
    the extra time that had to be spent cleaning them.
    
    Ken

      > The subcontractor was doing exactly what they should if they sent
      > LN03's back without the toner. Shipping one without removing the
    >toner first invariably results in the toner spilling all over the innards.
    
    Yes of course, I wasn't suggesting otherwise, it was just necessary to
    mention it to explain the loop. And the cross charge was great wasn't
    it? Did Finance cross charge you the admin costs of cross charging the
    charge of the cross charge you charged them .... 
    
    Parkinsons law: unnecessary admin will expand to fill the space
    available and eat whatever money you feed it. We are champions at it, I
    fear. And of course, when we are up to are necks in administrative
    alligators, it is hard to remember that all you were trying to do was
    send out a quote to a customer...
    
    Kevin 

    
    Ses was the old tech doc/training/etc group......outsourced, but
    the management types stayed back to act as liasson to the newly formed
    businesses they created.  It used to be called many things,  ESDP, 
    CUP, to name a couple. 
    
    bottom line is when the going gets tough at digital, the management
    seems to huddle together, find a way to keep themselves 'needed' in
    their minds, then throw away the 'talent' that made them who they are.
    And since they have less people to manage, hire a new VP to fill the
    viod.......  Some of the above is overly critical, but when you've
    worked in MCS and have seen the blatent stupidity it's tough not
    to come away with an attitude.   
    
    If I were to try and fix it, I would simply sell it off, and do what
    they do.....contract them back at a much reduced rate.
    
    chet

    SES is still around, some writers have been outsourced, but certainly
    not the majority of them.
    
    Me, I was hired away from SES by my engineering group.
    
    -Ross

    re: inexplicable MCS behaviour ...
    
    I'm reminded of a hardware store I worked at when I was in high school.
    The owner of the store was in a bit of a cash crunch, and couldn't re-
    stock his shelves for awhile, so the store started looking a bit bare.
    While the customers complained some, there were still enough things to
    keep the customers coming in, and the owner could have ridden it out.
    
    Then the employees started stealing him blind, figuring that since he
    was going out of business anyway, they might as well get whatever they
    could out of the old man before they got booted. It never registered on
    him that there were people working there who didn't care if the shop
    closed down, only that they got something out of it.
    
    It's still quite obvious to me that Digital (or at least some level of
    management at Digital) is pursuing an "exit strategy". They will ride
    the existing contracts, and sign new ones, but without any commitment
    to delivery or quality that would allow Digital to retain customers in
    the long term. It's not exactly the same as "take the money and run"
    but it's not far from it.
    
    I don't think that this is what Palmer and the top boys had in mind,
    because there have been a number of middle management who have been
    found out and were subsequently shown the door. But the practice is 
    so prevalent it can't be eradicated without catastrophic surgery.
    So in the end, Digital will be out of the MCS business whether
    it wants to or not, simply because it can no longer control it's
    own managers.
    
    There's really no surprise that our revenue is still rising in the
    short run, because the industry overall is still in a major boom time,
    and companies with half-a-clue are cleaning up. But the time will come
    when Digital can no longer hide it's mess under that carpet, and the
    Wall Street types will come down on the company like a ton of bricks.
    
    Geoff
    

    well said .19
    
    The story about the shop reminds me of a pub I went in once that was
    going bust. My companion asked for a box of matches, which cost about 2
    cents, and was disgusted that there were none available, because they
    had no cash to buy them. My companion said, well if I were in this
    state I would at least go out and buy 25 boxes of matches from next
    door, just as a matter of pride. 
    
    Recently I attended a facility in another country to meet some
    partners. When we got there there were filthy Digital flags flying
    outside, torn and bedraggelled, and for the first time in 10 years I
    was ashamed for Digital. The room was dirty, ashtrays were full
    of cigarettes, and the room stank.  We opened the windows, cleaned up,
    and smiled to ouselves when a cleaning lady turned up in the middle of
    the meeting and started cleaning :-).  I'm not sure if, as you say, some 
    are persuing an exit strategy, but some have lost their pride and that is 
    bad.  If people are unhappy then they should come out with it and argue 
    with the management until it is sorted.  The "who cares" mindset is good for
    nothing. Also the fear of expressing criticism and pointing out
    mistakes will get us nowhere, there is nowhere to hide so we may as
    well get on with the job and try and restore the pride which once
    everyone had and everyone took for granted. 
    
    
    Kevin
     

    
    re: 19
    
    Only then will digital be able to rid itself of the misguided and
    mismanaged (for the most part) MCS organization that has grown so
    outlandish.
    
    Maybe Engineering should buy their own Service organizations, and deal
    directly with them for service delivery and ELIMINATE the 'Middle
    buearocracy' that for the most part increases the cost to deliver
    service without satisfying customers in the long run.
    
    But this is just an opinion.  ;^)
    
    chet

    Perhaps we should outsource 'management' of MCS? 
    
    .mike.