While life is grand at the San Jose headquarters with new gyms and lavish cooking facilities, the field, the backbone, gets laid off. Monday March 5 we were all notified that we would be outsourced to Unisys.
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It was explained by my manager that HPE is outsourcing the business of field delivery to UNISYS, not just the jobs/employment. HPE will still own the customer contracts and experience - ADM/ASMs are staying with HPE (for now). UNISYS is looking "to bring on as many former HPE employees as possible" because they do not have enough techs to handle HPE business. I would bet that UNISYS will take most everyone at first and then start cutting once they figure out how to integrate HPE support into their model of business. It's also a sneaky way for HPE to avoid paying severance, as declining a UNISYS offer is considered "voluntary resignation."
The more information that comes out, the less confident myself and other CEs are that UNISYS understands HPE's field delivery model. The details from the HPE side have been pretty cut and dry regarding termination, but the UNISYS side has been clear as mud. Those that go to UNISYS will be clumped together as "field techs," no matter their role at HPE. I'm personally curious how the DHS role and proactive activities will function under UNISYS.
The reaction from customers has been mixed - some have threatened to cancel deals or not renew contracts, others seem OK with it as most other vendors are 3rd party as well. Most customers say they are getting rid of the best part of their support model and HPE is now no different than any other hardware vendor. We have reached mediocrity.
My understanding is that the whole process of field service being outsourced to UNISYS is being made more chaotic because management was so tight lipped about the plan and when they pulled the trigger the message is inconsistent and not well understood (A senior DHS was in a townhall meeting with Unisys that ended in less than an hour - Unisys simply walked out when people started asking questions (unprepared or simply annoyed is unclear). There have been rumors for sometime now that this would be happening, but every such agreement between businesses are different. In some cases, the outsourcing company simply absorbs the existing company's staff, but that needs to be agreed to from the start.
The fact that different people on these threads have different understand as to what is happening is not a good reflection on the HPE or Unisys leadership. In the world we live in, it is understood that no one owes you a job, but for many of the people caught up in this situation, the basic expectation is to be treated with some measure of respect (i.e. be outfront about what the company is doing and try to have a plan for how to execute the transition with some measure of excellence, so that people are not being told conflicting information).
We had a town hall meeting with UNISYS and it was made clear that Break&fix, installations and proactive support would be outsourced to UNISYS.
On the other hand, the jobs are NOT being transferred. You will need to apply to possible opening on the UNISYS website