I have noticed lately that at least in the area I work, ibm consulting us public sector, that we are losing clients faster than signing on new clients. Anyone noticing this in other departments/divisions of ibm?
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based on number, i can confirm the observation for ibmc europe public as well, however this alone is not necessarily a bad thing. The more interesting point is which kind of business they want to do and in which sectors. local business was never a key priority of the big blue.
There are a lot of trends at play. Politics and the economy are certainly factors, but so is the maturing of the consulting space. A lot of players like KPMG, EY, Booz Allen Hamilton and Deloitte have moved into the technology consulting space that was once dominated by the likes of IBM, Accenture, and Capgemini. Even if you ignore the foreign firms and stick to US firms (public sector consulting), why should clients choose IBM? They've got lots of options.
I can't speak for IBM specifically, but I can say without hesitation that the US economy su-ks a lot more than you'll get from any official news source. You name the market sector, and you'll find less activity. The political climate su-ks as well...one political party is doing everything they can to not only ruin the US economy, but to force the population to accept lesser conditions as an ongoing way of living.
This is what happens when you shut an economy down and tell people to stay home.
Force that party out of office, and you'll see immediate improvement all around...even at IBM.
If it’s really 40-1 asking for work, or even 10 - 1, shouldn’t we expect a rather large headcount cut via RA or PIP or does consulting just burn thru folks quickly. (gig employment) Since management is saying there will be approx the same headcount at the end of the year as the beginning, what is going on in the USA vs the rest of the world to cause so many folks begging for work? Something is in play, as most consulting shops want a 10-15% bench
Take a look in the professional marketplace.. I've never seen so few seats with so many people in play for them. I saw one seat with 40 people in play for it.
Also, go look at fed_staffing or whatever the slack channel is called. Lots of people begging for work. Clicking on their name will reveal that most are now deactivated accounts--they no longer work for IBM.
I hate to say it, but given IBM’s 4th q results, I don’t see how IBM is going backwards
Kavanaugh said the segment saw signings growth of 17 percent, trailing 12-month book-to-bill over 1.15 and absolute backlog up 8 percent, “the strongest we've had in quite some time.”
https://www.crn.com/news/cloud/2024/ibm-q4-2023-earnings-ai-book-of-business-doubles-room-for-improvement-with-red-hat-security
Yes, I too have noticed this in the Plexiglass division. We are no longer supplying any plastics for any producers of lizard or spider enclosures. I hope this helps! Remember, unionize and all will be better!
Consulting is rather unique within IBM in that the consultants are the product. You could also say that about GTS pre-Kyndryl, but after the split that is no longer the case.
For other divisions, it would seem that new product sales are a key metric, along with license renewals or something like that. I'm sure there are key metrics in those divisions that indicate when customers are walking away.