IBM wants to be a fortune 250 supplier (does this sound like what Cloudera announced yesterday (Eg 800 top customers)). If The division you work in at IBM has sub 45% margins, consider yourself unwanted. IBM’s strategy is a high margin / high growth business. There are some exceptions due to those exceptions opening doors. (system Z jumps to mind). This is driven via the 1 trillion in legacy code written for Z. HPC also will fill that void, as IBM wants to fill the AI gap that exists within Intel’s offerings. Certainly consulting around strategic initiatives and the services that they generate will command great margins. Lastly IBM will continue to invest, and mine patents, as they have good margins that extend for a long period of time. Outside of these general areas, the pickings are quite slim. Will there be some “niche” high margin markets OF COURSE, but they will be the exception, not the rule. Get ready for a skinny IBM headcount wise. Think 175k heads worldwide max. More likely 150k. PLEASE NOTE SO and AMS will still be offered via IBM, BUT via a spin-off company much like HPE/CSC did, and not directly via IBM. IBM will have a vested interest in the spin off (most likely a partnership, where IBM gets paid a finders fee, or gets to mark up the spinoff’s base rate). Either way IBM is going to shrink, and shrink a lot. As far as current IBM employee futures, look to the IBM margins of your division, and you will be able to see where you are heading
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IBM will eventually layoff all the folks and get Watson to make, sell and maintain products for customers !! Great objective.
In addition to what is said in the original post, what we are seeing is an undisguised attempt to put the sales and technical sales force worldwide to sleep. This has been a dream of IBM senior management for a long time as it would enable them to start achieving the per employee profit enjoyed by born-in-the-cloud companies such as Facebook, Google, Salesforce, Dropbox, etc.
The problem is that born-in-the-cloud enterprises are built from the ground up for customers to order online, provision their services online, and even pay for APIs (Application Program Interfaces) through the cloud. The only time -- in this scenario -- a real IBMer becomes involved is when additional billable, customization services are required. And this would likely be provided remotely out of India at 25% of the NA / Europe cost.
IBM's attempt to replicate this cloud model has not been successful since the company is burdened by process, never made the appropriate investments as those investments would hurt the cherished EPS (earnings per share), and -- most of all -- led by a new breed of senior executives who only understand headcount reduction, intimidation, and hyper planning and re-planning of actions which have proven failures time and again.
I don't see the IBM story ending well. There are just too many forces working against it. I think Warren Buffet finally realized he'd been sold a bill of good, took his licks, and moved on. If Lou Gerstner made "the elephant dance" (itself ridiculous self-glorification for a man whose primary skill was financial chicanery), I think we're going to see that elephant devoured -- one piece at a time -- by the larger market.
Fake news ! Just remember, the last week in June ... This will be the next round of layoffs. It will never end folks. It’s part of IBMs way they do business. Not making the quarter, layoffs ! Get smart and get OUT !
Another buzzword barrage. If you don't have anything to say, just throw around some smart-sounding words.
-pow...more speculation. This layoff covered a wide range. What’s the source of your “years served” data? Sounds like more BS to me. Lots of that lately.
Well to state facts ibm is in the process of laying off all employees that have worked for 14-20 years and yes age is a big part in this.so if your not worried about your job.truth we will all be out very soon. HR