BT in the poo

[badger7579]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/8049276.stm

I'm not surprised, it was a total mess when I was contracting there last year.

[PM-Junkie]

BT has been in the pooh for donks....it's been a company in the "best avoided" category for as long as I can remember.

[badger7579]

They did pay decent rates though

[Cyberman]

They have an unaffordable pension scheme that is a legacy of their public sector days, just as the Post Office also has.

Now what is the public sector doing about its other unaffordable schemes ? Oh yes, it has decided to tap the taxpayer.

[MrsGoof]

They really lost their way with BT Global Service, formerly Syntergra.

When Syntegra became GS, BT took the view that everything Syntegra did was wrong, so then enforced change so that they worked like BT Retail. It didn't work.

Now they are shipping projects to India and even when it patently doesn't work they just keep going.

The project I was on were forced to get the Indians in, they are now paying a lot more money for a lot less and the quality is carp and takes 5 times longer. Management on the project hate it but their voices are not being heard, probably because someone's bonus is dependant on getting projects off shore.

[swamp]

They really lost their way with BT Global Service, formerly Syntergra.

When Syntegra became GS, BT took the view that everything Syntegra did was wrong, so then enforced change so that they worked like BT Retail. It didn't work.

Now they are shipping projects to India and even when it patently doesn't work they just keep going.

The project I was on were forced to get the Indians in, they are now paying a lot more money for a lot less and the quality is carp and takes 5 times longer. Management on the project hate it but their voices are not being heard, probably because someone's bonus is dependant on getting projects off shore.

Does this mean they will be sacking the Indian out sourcers?

[DaveB]

Having also worked in BT Global Services I can say that their managment systems suck.

The guy who was nominally my line manager had nothing to do with authorising my timesheets and the people who authorised my time sheets knew nothing about what I was actually doing. Neither of them had any contact with the agency I was working through. In the end no-one was actually authorising timesheets, they were submitted and logged electronically and we had to print out screen shots of them to submit to the agency for with our invoices.

For permies it was even worse, day to day line management from one person, appraisal and performance reviews from another and project assignment and planning via a third. Most of them were heartily sick of it.

On the project I worked on 70% of the staff were contractors and I know for a fact that a good number of them had allowed themselves to fall through the cracks and were getting paid out of projects they were no longer part of and working for line managers who didnt know they existed. Keep schtum and keep invoicing was a prevalent attitude.

This was two or three years ago now and it looks like it's all finally caught up with them.

[Alf W]

BTGS is in the crap because it is being run by accountants almost as if it's in Administration.

Recent example?

BT has this supply of unwanted permies that sit in a resource pool at home and just have to log in occasionally or apply for the odd job they know they won't get. All being paid full whack. Ex-engineers, salesmen, long term sicknotes etc etc (the sort of people who tend to end up in 'resource pools'). So, anyway, some bright accountant happens to notice that are about a similar number of contractors working in specifically skilled, client facing roles - often with particularly good knowledge of the clients themselves.

Obvious solution. Summarily bump ALL the contractors and replace immediately with the living dead. Save a fortune and the clients won't even notice a thing.

Only problem is, they have noticed and they really, really don't like it.