The e-mail went out to RTP employees saying everyone is 'consolidating' to the small 500 complex. This sounds like they are either selling off the main campus or shutting it down. Either way this doesn't sound good at all. Anyone have more details?
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Everybody in Consulting is a Partner, Senior Partner or Senior Senior Senior Partner - Cut this by 75% and get rid of most of the lipstick crowd - return to growth - not that hard!
@aa I started IBM in 1981 and left after 5 years. I sensed it coming way back when. No regrets.
@zi SW group in 2024 has proven that AI can replace at least 50% of their headcount and to date they have been replacing 75% of their legacy headcount with automation. Once a SW modernization algorithm is functional, you just need algorithm maintenance folks to fill in the gaps, and almost all of the legacy support staff can be replaced. HR tried to replace 90% of their headcount with AI from the get go, but discovered 10% of their requests required 25% of the legacy headcount. THUS the bean counters have settled on a 65% AI replacement number. Please NOTE that the target headcount replacement via AI in consulting is almost exclusively repeatable support staff tasks. Very few if any actual face to face consultants will be impacted Only the support areas / staff are in scope.
If these clowns think they can replace 2/3 of Consulting headcount with watsonx + ICA then I want some of what they're smoking because it must be incredibly good stuff.
HR was the demonstration project
No customer will want to pay anything for the privilege of interacting with some useless, ignorant, and hallucinating IBM AI consultant bot.
Customers will leave in droves. Great strategy.
You want to know where IBM is heading, just look at each divisions margins and what they are pursuing
- SW 80% margins Buy innovation and be the worldwide distributor for that purchased innovation. As you buy innovation, you get to replace legacy. This strategy has been working since the Redhat purchase
- Infrastructure 55% margins (note its 70% and up on enterprise and 30% or lower on scale out) Exploit the enterprise monopoly. If it doesn’t relate to enterprise customers your job at IBM infrastructure is very limited. IBM wants to partner off all of the low margin stuff
- Consulting 25% margins Lower all consulting costs no matter what it takes. 25% margins are considered commodity, and management has been tasked with improving them dramatically (50% is the goal) Short term plan was move to commodity labor (1/3 the first world price), which is currently being aggressively pursued as consulting isn’t growing. Long term plan is to replace most commodity labor with AI (this lowers head count by 65% and ups productivity due to automation). HR was the demonstration project, but automation of repetitive tasks via AI has been shown to have a very positive ROI, thus the focus on eliminating labor. IBM wants the current 150k in consulting reduced to 50k over the next 3 years. Almost all of that reduction will come from AI.
@kr With the conditions of main site buildings it would be financially better to sell the site and build else where with buildings better suited for raised floor space.
If they get rid of main site then where is all the raised floor computer labs going. So I say not. Admins may all go to 500 (now leased) but main will expand into raise floor architecture.
@e9 - Over time, almost EVERYTHING is going to get sold in order to fund the acquisition of growing SW companies like RH and Hashi which is what's needed to maintain the dividend.
its almost like if they let us WFH, they could close offices without laying people off...
@e7 So you are implying that over time IBM will close Rochester, Austin, Tucson, Raleigh, and Silicon Valley labs, OR just partner them out?
I’m assuming IBM would keep Albany and other sites that have active partnerships
So, I guess we will have to move to either VA or NY, or all have to leave IBM...
Can't wait until they close the last office in Atlanta... Let's have it... big savings there!
Arvind, what do you say?
Long term in the US they'll keep:
- Armonk HQ
- One Madison in NYC for the banking/insurance clients
- DC/Herndon for the govt clients
- Poughkeepsie for Z
- Yorktown Heights for Research
A NY company with a satellite office in DC. Everything else will go.
expect everything to close in a few years. company is being positioned to be sold off.
In Atlanta, we are down to a single office after the end of this week. Only two floors, that office is a real dump!
You can bet that at some point that last office will close and the thousands of employees in Atlanta will be laid off.
It is coming in the next couple of years.
It is all about costs cutting… revenues are not growing but they want the free cash flow to grow by leaps and bounds… layoffs, offices closing will continue. This is a fire sale… get rid of things/people quickly
@a1 no different from the mess that the CIO and other IBM groups made in Southbury. A beautiful campus just left to rot ... and they call it Progress and Agile. BS.
Same...I went there years ago and wandered around bldgs that were packed and busy back in the PCO CO days. So sad. IBM cares about: 1. stock price and 2. cash flow. NOTHING ELSE. I started with IBM in the early 80s and if I knew then what I know now I would have left after 3 yrs. It really is psychosis. Greed. Illegal. Immoral. They no longer make anything nor does anyone what know what IBM does. Same with Poughkeepsie. INDIA BUSINESS MEANDERINGS-MEDIORCRITY-MADNESS-MO--NIC now...
I went there for a couple of weeks 10 years ago and it was a ghost town even back then, with 80% of the offices empty.