Re: In IBM's defence...
They had locals on the account, customer decided they want delivery entirely offshore to save $$$ and pushed IBM to cut local asap. So work was transferred per a schedule and locals were cut per the schedule and to meet staff cuts decreed by Singapore. Problem being that schedule slipped, offshore resources needing to be trained as most were newly minted freshers straight out of school but the cuts locally were made anyway. Factor in attrition of people leaving before they got kicked to the curb and they were down to the point where any absence would have an impact on delivery if offshore teams weren't able/unwilling to take on the work.
Offshore teams (more than just India) didn't step up to take up the work for which they were engaged and the usual excuses provided - not enough Knowledge Transfer, unfamiliar environment, don't know tools, need to hire more staff - not uncommon to see 2-3 times as many offshore staff hired than there were locals on an account and delivery still worse than local teams who had already been decimated.
Other accounts are in similar situation - cut so much locally that there are no free resources available to help out other accounts - most local teams can't cover workload if someone is sick, goes on annual leave - work is prioritised based on who will scream the most if it's not done (or whichever has the highest financial penalty.)
Factor in tight change windows (4 hours in some cases (including customer post implementation validation and testing)) and inheriting systems that had either never been patched or patched inconsistently and barely having enough staff to cover normal activities it doesn't take much for it to all fall apart.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
