Chrysler Outsources IT Jobs

Edward Niedermeyer
by Edward Niedermeyer

In February, we told you Chrysler was outsourcing some of its IT to Tata Consultantcy Services (yep, relation!). At that time, Chrysler Chief Information Officer Jan Bertsch promised to "keep [the employees] apprised of the outcomes of our efforts." Well, now the Detroit Free Press tells the rest of us what some of those "outcomes" are: people got fired. Everyone knew it was the plan, but now it's happened. Chrysler is outsourcing 200 of its full-time employees, some 20 percent of its IT workforce. Ms Bertsch explains: "we thought a year ago that rather than try to cost-cut continually over time, we wanted to step back and look at our business and say, 'Where do we really need to move to service our customers better?'" Without over-analyzing that little insight into the Chrysler management paradigm, this means that recently-signed contracts with Tata and Computer Sciences Corp will eliminate the need for in-house mainframe and computer technology service. No word on how much Chrysler is saving, but Ms Bertsch assures us that "We would have never embarked on this scale of a project had the savings not been substantial." Not to worry though. "Some people will stay, some people will leave and some people will be interviewing with the new provider and perhaps be offered a position with them," purrs the "Chief (Orwellian) Information Officer." Aw.

Edward Niedermeyer
Edward Niedermeyer

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  • Steve_K Steve_K on Apr 03, 2008

    Another IT person here. I echo the sentiments of everyone so far. What usually happens is a group of know-nothing managers find a page from the book of shotgun management and run with it. What's going to happen can be summarized as: "They're going to be SO pissed." By They I mean everyone involved. It will be more costly and be less productive in the long run. IT departments are the stepchild in every business around the world, seen as a pure liability by the exec's and hence disrespected and undervalued.

  • Blautens Blautens on Apr 03, 2008

    Another 20 year corporate IT person here - I've done it all - contractor, full time employee, and something in between. I think this decision makes perfect sense, in a perverse sort of way. Oh, I've seen companies I work for cycle through the processes. Outsource, insource, contract, rehire. Doesn't matter to me - I seem to always do just fine. Chrysler figures IT is so far removed from what their customer touches that it's an easy way to cut expenses. Outsourcing always results in lower performance, but doesn't this make perfect sense for Chrysler? If Chrysler doesn't care about the very quality of the core product the customer buys, why would they possibly care about the infrastructure that runs their business? See? Makes sense that Chrysler would do this. I'm not saying it's the right thing...(far from it). I just see it as a logical move for the company based on their past performance.

  • Pb35 Pb35 on Apr 03, 2008

    I worked for The Home Depot (in IT) under Nardelli's reign and my position was outsourced to TCS. It was part of my job was to train the Indian newbies, or as I called it "digging my grave." I was promoted for my trouble but I got the hell out shortly thereafter. All of the HD jobs were brought back stateside a few months after I left. It was a colossal failure. Good luck Chrysler.

  • Yankinwaoz Yankinwaoz on Apr 03, 2008

    I'm another IT veteran with 25 years. I too have seen the foolishness of outsourcing IT to India. I can't think of one instance where it has either not (a) failed, (b) cost more, (c) had a serious impact on the quality of the company's core business. The beancounters can't see the impact poor IT services has on the rest of the company's productivity and on customer satisfaction. It doesn't take long to find out. Within 12 months they find that their payroll expenses have gone up past the savings from outsourcing. They also find customers will start leaving. And as usual, the Pointed-Haired manager who did this is long gone by the time the s**t hits the fan.

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