IBM shedding more Tulsa jobs?

[cannon_fodder]

A buddy works for IBM, they were called into a meeting and told that IBM's customer service unit was sold and that most people should expect to lose their jobs.  Apparently, the oil and gas division is staying - the rest is going.  My friend is the sole source for my information on the jobs (he isn't an executive or anything, just what his manager told him...)

The Tulsa World hasn't reported on the transaction at all, but at one time IBM had more than 1000 employees in downtown Tulsa:

June 2004—Tulsa based Williams Cos. transfers about 460 jobs, primarily in information technology, to IBM under a $320 million outsourcing agreement. IBM also makes a separate outsourcing deal with Marathon Oil Co.

December 2004—IBM, which then has nearly 1,200 employees in downtown Tulsa, says it anticipates nearly doubling that local staff by 2009.

April 2006 — Big Blue holds its annual meeting of shareholders in Tulsa, as a way to recognize the city as the home of its largest facility for handling outsourced accounting and finance work in the Western Hemisphere.

October 2007 — IBM announces plans to consolidate its contract work with Manpower Inc., a change that affects about 200 of IBM's contract employees in Tulsa, but not its 1,200 regular, full-time workers. The action results in several lawsuits by existing staffing firms.

May 2008 — IBM says 350 positions in Tulsa will be transferred to a company facility in Buenos Aires, Argentina.

2013 - IBM sells it's customer service assets.... Tulsa loses more jobs?

Old article abuot IBM cutting 350 jobs
http://www.tulsaworld.com/article.aspx/Tulsa_will_lose_350_IBM_jobs/20080514_1_a1_hthep78248

New article about IBM selling assets
http://www.eweek.com/it-management/ibm-sells-customer-care-unit-to-synnex-for-505m.html


Our newspaper clearly hasn't reported on the issue - IS OUR CITY IN CONTACT WITH THE NEW OWNERS TRYING TO CONVINCE THEM TO MOVE JOBS TO TULSA?  The purchasing company is based in Greenville, NC, and their local paper is talking about the potential of bringing jobs to their town as a result of this transaction:

http://www.greenvilleonline.com/article/20130911/BUSINESS/309110017/SYNNEX-grows-IBM-deal

[cannon_fodder]

The company, Synnex, is based in Freemont California, but has a large center in Greenville, SC.  They also have an office in Tempe, Florida, and sprinkled here and there.  I don't see "job openings" posted for anywhere near Tulsa.  COULD BE AN OPPORTUNITY. 

[swake]

I know some of the local companies that outsourced work to IBM brought at least some of the work back in house. IBM, at least in the past was worthless. One of my wife's relatives was a Williams employee that was transferred to IBM and she quit almost immediately because they were so bad.

I have worked with a lot of IT contractors over the years and actually worked with IBM 10 or so years ago when I worked for another company than I do now when that company outsourced all IT work to IBM. It was a miserable experience. They literally did nothing and charged us for spending a lot of time doing nothing.

Short term contractors and contracting firms like IBM are usually worse than worthless. They are a waste of time and money, do an awful job that has to be redone and need tons of handholding to complete that awful job. Many of the contactors I work with today speak poor English and have a really helpful habit of only calling you with stupid questions on a project at 4:45 on a Friday so they can tick off your work for the week without actually doing anything. I don't mind long term full time individual contractors housed in one of our offices that are brought in with a particular skill that we don't have in house, but bringing in lower level short term contractors, often part time, to ease work backlogs or using "solutions" companies to handle entire projects is a bad, bad idea.

[SXSW]

I know IBM is building a new 7 story building in Baton Rouge, to provide "software development, maintenance and integration services" and will employ 800 people.  It is part of a larger downtown development there that also has an 11 story residential tower. 

http://theadvocate.com/home/5551260-125/ibm-selects-br

[TheArtist]

  But remember. We don't care about growth in Tulsa.  We are happy sitting around doing what we have been doing, nothing.   At best we sit around "hoping" that things will not get worse.  Who cares if some jobs leave, surely other jobs will grow.  No news here.

[Gaspar]

Tulsa is growing, commercial leases are increasing.  Home sales are up (in fact it's an awesome time to become a realtor). 
The real indicators of growth for Tulsa are good, and our economy is attractive to others.  Better yet, the opportunities for our young people seem to be getting lots of good press! http://www.tulsanow.org/forum/index.php?topic=19987.0

This means small business growth, and that's where the opportunity is!

Good time to be a Tulsan. 

[sgrizzle]

Doesn't say anything about their technicians. I enjoy having them a block from my office when I need a part.

[TheArtist]

Tulsa is growing, commercial leases are increasing.  Home sales are up (in fact it's an awesome time to become a realtor).  
The real indicators of growth for Tulsa are good, and our economy is attractive to others.  Better yet, the opportunities for our young people seem to be getting lots of good press! http://www.tulsanow.org/forum/index.php?topic=19987.0

This means small business growth, and that's where the opportunity is!

Good time to be a Tulsan.  

How are we compared to our competitor cities? And again, how does an online program out of Stillwater equal more opportunity than some other city (if it's online, you could be in Austin or Bangladesh and take the program), and good press for our young people in Tulsa?

[heironymouspasparagus]

  But remember. We don't care about growth in Tulsa.  We are happy sitting around doing what we have been doing, nothing.   At best we sit around "hoping" that things will not get worse.  Who cares if some jobs leave, surely other jobs will grow.  No news here.

But we DID manage to cut 25% in school spending since 2008 in this state - in REAL, inflation adjusted dollars!!  Yay for the Republicontin saviours of us!!

[heironymouspasparagus]

How are we compared to our competitor cities? And again, how does an online program out of Stillwater equal more opportunity than some other city (if it's online, you could be in Austin or Bangladesh and take the program), and good press for our young people in Tulsa?

Reality is a non-impinging event way to often on Gas....