After a twenty year run I was “impacted” last Thursday when I was informed my services with Staples were no longer required. Later in the day in an email sent out by CTO Masud, I found out that my, and most every other “impacted” Staples Digital Services employee’s, job would be outsourced to TCS.
Tata Consultancy Services is an Indian company that in April 2016 was found guilty of illegally accessing Epic System’s data when working for a common client and has been ordered to pay Epic $420 million.
Epic Systems Corporation, or Epic, is a privately held healthcare software company. According to the company, hospitals that use its software hold medical records of 54% of patients in the United States and 2.5% of patients worldwide. Thus, it is conceivable that my, or your, or someone we know, has medical data residing on a server in India.
Of course Staples isn’t responsible for that breach but it is accountable for vetting their business partners and “consulting” services.
Sycamore Partners, I saw your collective body language and facial reactions when you were all in Framingham for the CEO’s “Dog and Pony” show announcing the finalization of your purchase. Pretty horrifying, eh?
Don’t worry though, it gets worse. That eCommerce BtB technology you paid so much for, craps out about once a week on average. It didn’t when it was Corporate Express’ Eway platform but when Staples refactored it as “New Way” it sure went to hell in a bucket. BTW, the people who have the knowledge to fix it, just got walked out the door.
The “20/20” Strategy, that’s what Corporate Express was trying to do and which failed just before Staples bought CE for 2.8 BB in 2008.
Some free advice: Sycamore, you may want to inject some of your own people into Staples and really take a long hard look at how your investment is being run. You’re not playing with “House Money” on this one and when it goes south, you’re on the hook to a lot of “people” who don’t take kindly to losing large sums of money.
As for me, Staples thank you for a good twenty years and a solid severance package. I appreciate the nod. Finally, “Onward and Upward” makes sense.