IBM relationship 'absolutely horrible', claims new inside source at Aecom
Unhappiness with Aecom's $2.3bn outsourcing deal with IBM goes 'all the way up to the CEO', claims new inside source
A new inside source at construction giant Aecom has claimed that the relationship with IBM is souring and that the ill feeling now extends all the way up to the CEO.
"The IBM relationship has been absolutely horrible," the source told Computing. "I think there's a lot of upset people, and that goes all the way up to the CEO. Even at that high level, they're not happy," they added.
Aecom took the decision to outsource its entire IT department to IBM in early 2017, which resulted in around a thousand redundancies. Since then, a large number of insiders have contacted Computing to complain of deteriorating working practises and low morale.
The source added that the deal with IBM is unlikely to last.
"My guess is it won't stay with IBM as people are too unhappy."
I think there's a lot of upset people, and that goes all the way up to the CEO. Even at that high level, they're not happy
The new source corroborated what others have claimed. They stated that the deal was financially, as opposed to strategically motivated and that CIO Tom Peck tried to resist it.
"Tom Peck is no saint. But he didn't want the outsourcing at all because it [would] put him out of a job. They took all the people who worked for him and moved them over to IBM, and that made his job obsolete. Tom likes leadership and power so he didn't like that."
The source claimed that there are now a host of broken processes within IT, and that if IBM is aware of the problems, it is doing little or nothing to repair the situation.
"We see broken processes on a daily basis. We see things like tickets persistently being assigned to the wrong teams. You try pushing back and explain that the ticket doesn't belong here, but there's no process for that so it comes right back again.
You try to escalate through the chain of command that's supposedly there on paper, but nothing happens
"That happens 20 times in a row and no-one fixes it. IBM's left and right hands are completely ignorant of one another. It creates a lot of frustration and you spend time doing things that shouldn't have to be done."
They continued to describe a total lack of escalation path.
"You try to escalate through the chain of command that's supposedly there on paper, but nothing happens until it goes all the way up to the top at Aecom and back down through to IBM again."
The insider stated that there is no apparent acknowledgement of problems from IBM, and seemingly no attempt to make improvements.
"If there's been a response from IBM it's not manifested in better service."
According to the source, the deal was badly structured from the start, with blame on both sides.
"The people they had at Aecom putting the contract together: did they have the right experience to execute that successfully? As for IBM, it's that typical thing where the salesman shows you one thing, and says it'll save you money and give you a better service than the one you have now, but the reality is very different."
Previous insiders have told Computing that the plan to outsource parts of IT to India, Brazil and Cost Rica has given rise to language issues, which the news source corroborated.
"Every time you try to make a call to anyone in IT, someone with broken English responds, and it's really difficult to understand them. Or they send an email in broken English and you have to try to figure out what they're talking about."
They also stated their fear that more and more employees at Aecom will try to solve their own IT issues, turning to shadow IT, which could bring with it a host of security issues.
"People could get so dissatisfied that they start developing shadow IT and decide not to call IBM. Aecom has grown through acquisitions so we've seen that in the past anyway, and always tried to discover and squash it, but it could get worse now."
Aecom and IBM have been contacted for comment.