back to article HP loses massive DWP contract

HP has lost one of its largest outsourced IT contracts from the British government to rival Fujitsu Services. The Department of Work and Pensions today confirmed to The Register it had appointed Fujitsu Services as the preferred bidder to take over its huge desktop contract from 31 August. A DWP spokeswoman declined to reveal …

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  1. Shadowthrone
    Unhappy

    One hell of a blow

    This is going to hit EDS/HP hard, I know the DWP work is one of their biggest contracts in the UK. A worrying sign for the North East offices of EDS/HP too.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Unhappy

      Tupe

      Last time EDS lost a big contract, all of the staff in Peterlee were Tupe'd and made redundant on the same day. Worrying times for a lot of people :-(

  2. Neil Greatorex
    FAIL

    Change? What change?

    It's just a *different* bunch of incompetents with their snouts in the trough.

    Can anyone out there tell us of a *single* successful .gov IT project/contract?

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Different ?

      TUPE should apply. Won't it be the same bunch of incompetents making money for a different bunch of shareholders ?

    2. Richard 125
      Headmaster

      I can name more than one...

      ...all of which were shortlisted for Project Excellence awards last year.

      National Grid - Planning for Success

      Defra / IBM – Energy efficiency research project

      West Sussex Accessible Services Partnership - Street cleaning tracking at Crawley Borough Council

      The Rivers Agency, Northern Ireland - Strategic flood map

      Oxford Radcliffe Hospitals - BloodTrack

      Kent Connects - Kent Public Services Network

      Leicestershire Constabulary / Point to Point - Mobile data

      NHS / Concentra - Cancer Commissioning Toolkit

      Norfolk Constabulary / enCircle Solutions - Intelligence briefing & tasking

      Northern Ireland Department of Finance and Personnel - Shared service centre

      Ministry of Defence / Capgemini - Defence Travel Online

      HM Revenue & Customs – Self Assessment Online

      You were saying?

      1. gerryg
        Megaphone

        @Richard 125

        How many of those awards were sponsored by the industry groups to whom government contracts are awarded and how many of those awards were by groups representing the public and users of public services (y'know Patients Associations, Ctizens Advice, Charities etc)

    3. Anonymous Coward
      Thumb Up

      Agreed... but imagine if the DWP

      Hired some competent managers and insourced the entire operation.

      Outsourcing is a failure of existing management to deliver services based on quality, cost, or some other KPI that the bean counters care about. If I were a CEO and the head of IT came to me with the suggestion to outsource I would fire him as he just admitted his inability to mange his operation.

      If they insourced they could at the very least save money on the target bonuses, uplift on each salary / contractor rate, and every other upsell opportunity outsourcing allows for. Particularly operational transitional work. There will now be armies of £1,200 plus per day consultants from both sides flodding through the doors.

      Come on Alistair Darling, I thought your were going to reduce our budget deficit through efficiences? Perpetuating these money spinning opportunities where 90+% of the bodies now go to the new company, and NOTHING changes in terms of service, quality, or costs is meaningless.

    4. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Successful Government IT projects

      Winter Fuels Payment System - Heard any complaints?

      Real Time Pension Forecast?

      Government Gateway?

      ESA?

      There are plenty around you know.

      Anonymous 'cos I see the 100% avaiability Stats for 98% of core apps.

  3. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Good riddance

    We also have a DWP contract, installing kit which has to interface with the network HP are in charge of: they are still absolutely convinced that our inability to obtain IP addresses from their network via DHCP is in some way our fault. Months of back and forth there, with angry users stuck in the middle.

    Not that I'm saying Fujitsu are necessarily any better, of course...

    1. Anonymous Coward
      FAIL

      Ignorance is bliss....

      BT Own the networks you fart knocker!

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Dead right

        And a right mess they are too.

    2. Anonymous Coward
      WTF?

      Re: good riiddance

      Can fujitsu be any worse than working for Hurd.....Only time wil tell!

  4. Guy Dawson
    Coat

    What difference will this really make?

    I bet most of the HP/EDS staff get TUPE'd over to Fujitsu Services. If so it will be little more than a case of rearranging the deck chairs!

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Thumb Down

      a bit more than that I think...

      Fujitsu are in the middle of a massive reorganisation and cost-cutting program. The have just cut 1200 jobs, I wouldn't be surprised if the TUPE'd staff get pruned in the near future...

    2. Dan 10

      Hope so

      I'm hoping you're right, because while I couldn't give a monkeys about EDS or HP, the guys on the ground (in Lytham St Annes, at least) are mostly quite competent, and aren't to blame for the crap service. As ever, the problems arise on the management, political and commercial fronts.

    3. TeeCee Gold badge
      Coat

      The difference?

      Fujitsu Services will have some staff who are not on strike yet?

  5. Ross 7

    Frying pan -> fire

    See title

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Unhappy

      From personal experience

      Same shot, different bucket.

      Welcome aboard guys.

  6. Richard 120

    Oh dear god

    HP to Fujitsu?

    Jack of spades for a Jack of clubs.

  7. I ain't Spartacus Gold badge

    Win XP update?

    Wasn't it EDS who broke 70,000 DWP desktops, when they patched the entire network of Win2K PCs with an XP service pack meant for a small group of test PCs? That might be seen as a good reason to switch suppliers...

    Maybe I'm remembering wrong though?

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Close

      Someone sent XP GPO's to W2K, rather than the pilot XP workstations.

    2. Anonymous Coward
      FAIL

      Get your facts right......

      Yes, you are remembering wrong. Now please go and jump in front of a bus!

    3. Inachu
      Flame

      LOL!

      that is a technical impossibility! even the patch would quit saying wrong OS version.

    4. NogginTheNog
      FAIL

      Not quite

      It was a couple of GPO techies targetting the wrong machines, 5 years ago, and processes were (unsurprisingly!) tightened up a lot afterwards!

      But hey you could of course judge the whole billion pound contract on one that one incident if you really wanted to be objective, yeah.

      Judging from this comments page there are a lot of ex and current DWP EDSers who read the Reg... ;-)

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        El Reg fans.

        And a lot of third party providers too. It won't be missed.

      2. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        I remember

        When those the wrong machines were patched years ago, what a carry on. Loads of us got drafted of our usual desks to help deal with all the calls that came in.

        EDS was a joke then, I can't see much changing. The staff were great, but management didnt have a clue!

  8. Anonymous Coward
    Flame

    At least HP will now get the uk paycuts...Only by tupe though.

    Been years coming....can fujitsu be any worse then working for Hurd?

  9. Simon B
    Heart

    Another nail in Hp's coffin

    Another nail in Hp's coffin. Next?

  10. gizmo23

    Fujitsu on strike?

    Is this the same Fujitsu whose nice and kind treatment of their staff caused them to go on strike?

    http://www.theregister.co.uk/2010/01/07/fujitsu_strike/

    Presumably now they've got a new contract they'll be re-hiring all the people they sacked..

    Oh wait a minute, did someone mention TUPE?

  11. Tek-1
    FAIL

    Eeeexcellent.. </Burns>

    Hopefully this will be another indicator the shareholders that Mark Hurd's cuts have not been beneficial to the company in the long run.

  12. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    EDS?

    EDS never managed to deliver a working project on time and on budget, even though HP are now in charge it's probably a good idea to change providers after the absolute failure of EDS to be good at anything...

    1. MrTrumpy
      FAIL

      Response to EDS?

      Not true. Wanna see my CV? Loads of successes, couple of fails, no exaggerations

      EDS stand up alongside every other supplier. Win some lose some.

      The issue is that HP bought EDS and then think they can run it like a Schenzen printer factory with no staff or customer backlash

  13. Juan Inamillion
    FAIL

    Good grief

    EDS to Fujitsu....

    Same old same old....

    Is there no one else able to do this scale of work? Properly that is...

  14. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    no strike clause?

    So since the contract is being re-negotiated, are the government going to ensure a no-strike clause in it?

    I am not completely against unions, but they strike too easily in this country, its like they have taken a leaf out of France's union book.

    1. Matt White 1
      FAIL

      You mean...

      The unions who have called the first ever strikes in IT?

    2. Anonymous Coward
      WTF?

      Moron!

      Do facts scare you at all Jeremy? Please enlighten us all with a summary of National IT Strikes in the UK. Shouldn't take long and you can write it in crayon if you like.

      My service at Fujitsu is veerry long and I seem to be on my first strike, despite being in the union all that time. Did I miss something?

  15. MrTrumpy
    Paris Hilton

    There, there, oh dear, never mind

    EDS staff morale is so low in HP that you'd struggle to find anyone at peon level that gives a rat's arse that we've lost this. Fujitsu can't be much worse than HP.

    There are some excellent people in Desktop and SLAs have been good. HP and it's money grabbing, profit at all costs, hard sell on kit attitude lost this deal not them. That and the fact that DWP didn't spend a fortune on segregating the contract out to get locked into one supplier. Particularly a supplier that is desperate to tie them down on hardware and not particular subtle about the way they go about it.

    Paris because Hurd's got more chance of pulling her than he has pulling hardware business through on DWP

  16. Joe K
    FAIL

    Great buy HP

    Wasn't the huge DWP contract the only real reason for the EDS buyout?

    Now HP are saddled with a weight around their shoulders, which they will respond with by massive job cuts.

    Like it wasn't bad enough.

  17. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Got the message yet HP

    The way that EDS/HP have treated their staff, I am not supprised with the DWP opting to go with someone else, with potentially less risk. A risk that EDS/HP had an opportunity to extinguish very early on, but instead threatened loss of jobs to call off strike action. Honestly don't think that fujitsu could be any worse.

    Although, suspect that management definitely won't be taking any responsibility for losing the contract, and probably suggest that the only reason they lost it was due to the high bid, or blame the union members threatening to go on strike. I think that HP were probably also counting how many machines they would have been able to sell, rather than focusing on what the customer wanted. Happy staff, provide service to happy customers, it is pretty simple. Cost is a factor, but would be supprised if this is all that DWP took into account, or was their main reason for not renewing the contract with EDS/HP.

    If you have unhappy staff and treat them like complete idiots, you are going to loose contracts. The thing is that at least most of the people will most probably transition, because fujitsu will most probably still need bodies with knowledge of the environment, except now they have new managers.

  18. Inachu
    Coffee/keyboard

    My understanding.

    Here in the states we have learned that EDS is pure hell as so is BAH.

    Happy they lost it.

    So everyone start working for Fijitsu.

    New job same faces.

  19. Optymystic
    Linux

    How do you know the outsourced contractor has changed?

    Well with the same people occupying the same jobs and answering the same phones, it may not be obvious, but I'll let you into a secret. The key is they all get new email addresses. They all change from joe.bloggs@oldcorp.co.uk to joe.bloggs@newciorp.co.uk and nothing else changes. Plus ca change, plus le meme chose (someone sort out our French for us please)

    1. Anonymous Coward
      FAIL

      Unlikely

      I doubt 70-odd helpdesk staff who work in the EDS office block are going to be able to answer those same phone calls from the same desk.

      Nor will they all want to move to wherever Fujitsu's offices are, unless they are local.

  20. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    One set of jokers for another

    When I worked at Fujitsu, as a temp on £7.00 per hour (and that was generous by their standards), I always assumed they were no better or worse than the other big outsourcing outfilts.

    You don't retain decent staff by paying that kind of money, and those that remain are either demoralised or useless or both.

    On the last contract I worked on, for a prominent regulator, Fujitsu implemented a hot desking environment. The desk booking software hadn't been properly stress tested so it would crash every Monday morning when everyone was trying to book a desk. The laptops that were issued to everyone had a tendency to blue screen randomly or to hang while booting up, despite them being a standardised build that was supposedly tested beforehand.

    That said, I went to a job search workshop at the Jobcentre plus in Catford last autumn and having watched a deskside tech faff about with a projector connected to a laptop (which he eventually got to work by pressing keys at random), I would say the level of incompetence is pretty near that of Fujitsu already.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Incompetent Tech..

      With the obvous point that he had a job and you didn't. Good job you're not posting under your own name really.

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Boffin

      paid your worth

      If you're not getting the right pay, either skill up and change jobs or work harder

  21. GaileF0rce

    Insourcing is the answer

    All these providers are as bad as each other. Fujitsu wont be any better than HP. Insourcing is the way to go. Hiring external companies to look after your assets when they have no real interest in your organisations success is a mistake. The only people that really suffer from these outsourcing deals are the users stuck in the middle between their own organisation trying to squeeze their suppliers on price and the supplier doing as little as possible for as much money as possible. Fujitsu will have gone in with a extremely low price to get the contract and will then drown DWP with expensive change controls no doubt!

  22. Anonymous Coward
    Grenade

    FJ v DWP

    FJ taking the DWP is good news for us.

    Work = Go on strike.

    Pensions = Close it down.

    Will service get any better, probably not, no spare capacity in field engineers, onsite staff will TUPE so no change there.

    Give it a year and wait for our local head hunter to get his axe sharpened.

  23. John Smith 19 Gold badge
    Thumb Up

    @Richard 125

    An impressive list. I note they all seem to have fairly limited functions and / or geographic coverage.

    But most of all I wonder what *all* of them together add up to. Only if they *together* add up to a *fairly* small fraction of this contract even if *all* of them were on budget a *very* small overrun on this (Even if desktops are 10% of £4.5 Bn that's still 450m) to make the good, well run project costs simply *irrelevant*. Everything saved has been lost.

    It's good to be reminded that some UK IT public sector IT work is done on time and budget (or at least one of those) hence the tuhmbs up. But it *never* seems to be the big ones, NIRS 2, The CSA (Was that also around £450m at the end?), assorted monster MoD projects and of course the NHS national Programme for IT (£3.5bn ->£12bn and how many years late?).

    And if I were a UK taxpayer, that's what would bother me.

    1. chr0m4t1c
      WTF?

      Thanks for that Daily Mail response

      I've worked on quite a few large projects inside and outside of government and I'd say it was fairly rare to find a large one that comes in on time and budget.

      There are a number of perennial problems that crop up time and time again.

      - If the project runs long enough there may be a technology shift that makes the original solution obsolete, so you need to decide to either put the obsolete solution in or re-engineer. Obsolete solutions often need specially written and expensive support contracts, re-engineering can mean starting the project almost from scratch. For example, if you'd spent six years working on a solution based around using a Palm Pilot in the field would you go live with it in say three months time?

      - Inside government owned projects there is often a lot of politics leading to whole departments not talking to each other. I remember a chap who didn't get on with the head of Data Processing (what would now be the IT dept) and so developed an entire service without once asking about supportability or existing standards. The entire project was scrapped within 8 months of going live.

      - Customers often don't know what they really want until the project is well underway. Some changes can be swept under the carpet, but many cost money to implement; if you picked the wrong colour for a new car you could probably get it changed at no cost as long as you catch them early enough, but if you order a Mondeo and then ask for a Bentley just before you take delivery then you might find a change in both budget and timescales.

      There are no simple solutions, there's too much politics in government circles and too much profiteering in private ones.

      In addition to all of that, we have no concrete figures for non-government IT projects. I can't see someone like Starbucks releasing a report that says "We put in a new system, but it was 6 months late, cost twice as much as planned and still doesn't work", so there is nothing to measure against.

      Looking at NAO press releases, they say that the NIRS2 contract provides good value for money and that the original contract failed to provide sufficient flexibility to allow for 1998 legislation changes and so had to be re-negotiated at additional cost.

      For the CSA their conclusion was that the system was poorly specified, designed and implemented, but that the legislation was also unduly complex. So, I don't think all of the blame can be placed at EDS' door.

  24. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    What happens when your Outsource 'partner' sells hardware / softeware...

    Is they sometimes (always!) focus on making sure that whatever 'solution' is proposed has as much of their hardware / software offerings as possible. Eventually, the customer realises this (this can take years however) and at contract renewal time decide to select a 'partner' where this is less likely to happen. Sometimes.

    1. charlesmatthews

      Tough times ahead...

      I can't see this making much difference. The major problem with Government IT is micro-management from the client. I've worked with 3 arms of the UK Government: the old Inland Revenue, DWP and MoD. Until 2001, we were left largely alone then, probably because Blair rightly thought he was unbeatable, his administration started interfering and telling us how to do our jobs.

      I am so glad I'm out of both the UK Government and, for that matter, the UK - I now live in Germany.

      I hope all goes well for the staff being transitioned. By law, they can't be made redundant straight away under TUPE. I think there's a limit of a year.

      Time to polish up that CV in any event.

  25. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    RE: TUPE

    "I bet most of the HP/EDS staff get TUPE'd over to Fujitsu Services. If so it will be little more than a case of rearranging the deck chairs!"

    Actually it is much better than that, HP will only TUPE over the staff they want to TUPE over (within the framework rules of course). So Fujitsu will actually be getting all the people HP no longer want.

  26. Anonymous Coward
    Grenade

    Good news

    As an ex EDS now HP staffer working in the Blackpool area on the DWP contract (although not in hosting) maybe this will give management (who are the reason for all the cock-ups) the bih kick in the pants that they need - and maybe get rid of a few levels of dead weight that we have been carrying around.

  27. John Smith 19 Gold badge
    FAIL

    TUPE anyone?

    As I beleive that is what will apply. However if Fujitsu are laying off staff how that will work is an other matter.

    Basically same staff, same middle managers, different upper management.

    Result?

  28. Cowboy Bob
    FAIL

    Let's Face It...

    ...the sooner these monkeys get out of the IT business and wasting our tax money the better. Working for one of these body shops and calling yourself an IT professional is like working at McDonald's and calling yourself a chef.

    1. Lokinux
      WTF?

      Proof

      another post that proves the main use of the internet is for retards to publish their inconsequential opinion and all this from a self confessed cowboy.

      The truth is you have quality staff doing a quality job being throttled by worthless management

      If anyone on here believes its down to anything but cashflow then you need to wake up

      Roll on the apocalypse

  29. Anonymous Coward
    WTF?

    Fujitsu!? - not with a sh!tty stick

    Not a good move. Worst desktop & people management I have ever encountered.

  30. Anonymous Coward
    FAIL

    ICL

    I was working for ICL, before they became Fujitsu, when they were bidding against EDS for the original big DWP contract. We lost because our solution was too innovative and EDS was the "safe option".

  31. Anonymous Coward
    FAIL

    All the eggs in one basket

    The DWP gave the contract to Fujitsu because it doesn't want to give all the contracts to HP. If EDS were still its own company, they would have got it. Now they're branded with the printer maker's name, they've lost out.

  32. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Serves you right Hurd

    Working for a company which isn't run by a corporate criminal like Hurd is nothin but good news to me.

    What are the chances he'll bail now he's milked the company for a ridiculously large bonus?

  33. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    @jeremy 3

    Hmmm Fujitsu staff too willing to strike, it's taken over 10 years of below inflation pay rises, killing the final salaries pension scheme and 1200 redundancies to provoke a strike.

    Why don't you go back to reading the Daily Telegraph (or is it the Daily Mail) and check your facts while you are at it.

    If the Fujitsu staff took a leaf out of the French book it would be burning barricades rather than standing peacefully with placards in the snow.

    Every large company has it's share of wasters, inept and generally crap staff, sometimes they are all corralled in one particular site, sometimes on one contract.

    You wouldn't want to tar everybody with the one brush would you?

  34. Ancient Oracle funkie

    Public Sector Contracts

    I've been involved on a number of public sector projects over the last 15 years for 3 different organisations. Some have gone very well, including my current project, and some didn't. However, there is certain things that connects them all (OK not all of them but more often than not) and that's getting the client to:

    a) actually agree what the requirements are

    b) not change their minds a long way into the project and still expect the same go-live date depsite the change requiring a fundamental change to the design(usually because a minister has announced it in parliament)

    Now I've also worked on private sector when this sort of this happens but in the public sector, no-one is willing to take responsibility for anything. Again I'll contradict myself, I did work on a veru large project where the requirements were very well documented and "set in stone". That meant that even when the requirement didn't actually make sense no-ne was willing to accept that fact. What's more I've even had requirements that described the expected solution rather than the business requirement. Again, despite the client agreeing that was the case, they still wouldn't agree to a change. Jobsworth? Oh yes.

    So sometimes it's not surprising that very large projects go tits-up as the client often hasn't the faintest idea what they really want and change their minds all the time. Not excusing the contractors, senior management just see the billing as "a good thing" rather than actually trying to manage the client.

    I'm way down the food chain (so far in fact that I actually do the work) and am always happy to argue my case, both internally and with the client. I'm here to do a good job for the client and provide what they need, rather than what they ask for. But it isn't always easy ...

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Have to agree

      Having just finished a public sector project I couldn't agree with you more (have to be anon for this)

      You get a design hammered out and agreed to. Great wheres the problem

      Then for the next 2 years everyone and their dog in the public sector becomes an expert and insist on many many (usually unnecessary) changes. Thy say "WE OWN YOU BITCH!"

      This continues until the original project bares no resemblance to the original project.

      .

      At some point a new public body is included in the project despite their requirements having absolutely relationship to the project.

      The business managers sing "the customer knows best" after all if the project moves to another company after completion they will be transferring to the new company.

      Eventually the project mutates into something fuzzy that cant carry out the original task with the customer insists is what they really want.

      3 months before go live the customer is dragged kicking and screaming to the final testing stage (they don't like actually having to do anything, the staff want the old (or no) system and the customer don't want to pay their own staff for "playing" with then new system).

      Oops the system doesn't fulfill the original spec and the whole damn thing is late.

      The public sector is not fit to have a calculator never mind a shared laptop they really are the worst type of customer

  35. Anonymous Coward
    Thumb Down

    Good

    It was inevitable. The greed and arrogance at 'HP Enterprise Services' is sickening. The DWP must have seen the risk and probably Fujitsu were cheaper. Also it probably helps civil servants justifying their jobs as the landscape just got more complicated.

    There will be more redundancies at HP and the tuped Fujitsu staff because of this, but most want redundancy as they are fed up with the false promises.

    Mark Hurd this is YOUR fault.

  36. fred bloggs 1
    Grenade

    It's Fujitsu these days not "Fujitsu Services"

    The contracts swap around the main suppliers every few years.

    1. Gobbyfeller
      FAIL

      No it isn't

      Type your comment here — plain text only, no HTML

  37. Anonymous Coward
    Terminator

    Let's hope the shit goes and the good stay.

    Having worked with the desktop guys in Lytham I personally know most of the support/engineers and they are second to none in doing the job they do. Especially given the circumstances they have to deal with working for a company that values nothing but the share price.

    All the planks posting about how bad HP/EDS are should actually get down from the fluffy white clouds they live on and try working with a government client.

    Oh and for the plank posting about deskside techies in jobcentres newsflash they are Dwp staff not HP staff.

  38. Anonymous Coward
    FAIL

    Was it worth it?

    So, months of blindly getting rid of staff, saying publically that "HP doesn't care about the service, all we care about are the numbers" and basically treating EDS staff like sh!t has backfired and you've lost a MAJOR contract.

    I wonder, was it worth losing $4bn+ of revenue? Was it worth the bad publicity?

    I doubt it.

    Why are they allowing these HP idiots to destroy a reasonable company (EDS)?

    These are the people who failed to break into the Services industry because their "Sales-Centric" philosophies simply don't work in the service industry.

    Time to hit CWJobs.

  39. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Poor Ex EDS'rs

    The DWP announcement is a farce and purely a political decision. The former staff at EDS have had 3 yrs of hell.

    When Rittenmeyer and his cronies decided they'd sell up, they decided a cull. All contractors with fast experience were soon gone. Soon after a massive redundancies followed and Desktop Tower took a hit early to keep ahead of the game. Once Rittenmeyer decided to sell out he'd made EDS a attractive option. Big contracts with low staff levels. His propaganda of how the 'MERGER' would benefit everyone was a joke. He soon vanished into the thin air leaving all the EDS staff in a position of no pay rises, no training, no moral, no staff. Therefore effectively taking a pay cut due to inflation and working extra hrs for no added benefit. Then Mark Hurd arrived..... more redundancies, even less training, pay reductions and pay freezes.

    So every person at HP who are ex EDS have effectively worked for 5 yrs in a down hill mode.

    Back to current developments. Desktop Tower have probably been to good for their good. They are one of the best performing tower in terms of making money for HP. And also the service they provide to DWP, there are very few issues to report and compared to many areas the processes are smooth and efficient.

    Unfortunately for the HP Desktop staff DWP possibly correctly have made a example of HP and their bullying tactics.

    Many people may feel they have worked hard for very little reward therefore a change of employer may not be the worst news in the word

  40. BaseHunter
    Megaphone

    RIP EDS

    After more than 25 years in IT and communications and 10 with EDS its disappointing to see all the hard work and effort the poorly paid EDS’ers have put in go down the drain due to the HP acquisition. I agree with many of the comments about some poor deliveries but EDS has also achieved some great accolades and is no different to IBM Fujitsui and all the others in poor contract delivery in some cases. Im not surprised EDS lost this contract as the HP bean counters steered by Mark Hurd had no structure in there execution of headcount reduction letting good people go without even proper handovers. It was also obvious HP had no idea about service contacts and Mr Hurds bias to his tin shifters was very obvious from the outset. Shame on you Mark Hurd maybe you should loose your job too.

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