ITV reaches for remote by cutting loose techies
Trims UK workforce, looks overseas
Posted in Management, 20th October 2009 11:16 GMT
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Techies at ITV face an uncertain future after the company's management told staff about plans to "rationalise" and "centralise" the team as well as outsource some IT services.
Workers at the loss-making commercial broadcaster were given the bad news on Friday 16 October by ITV's technology boss Richard Cross.
One anonymous source told The Register that around 200 permanent IT employees and 65 contractors based at sites throughout the UK, including Cardiff, London, Manchester and Birmingham, were affected by ITV's planned cull.
An ITV spokesman confirmed in a statement to us that the firm had been "conducting a cross-company outsourcing project which has focused on a number of key business areas".
ITV's service desk, third line technical support, remote infrastructure management, project administration, application support and maintenance are in the company's sights as possible areas the broadcaster plans to offshore.
"Our technology division was the first department to be reviewed and it has been concluded that the operation should be rationalised and centralised," said the ITV spokesman.
"It is also proposed that a number of technology functions be outsourced to a third party provider."
ITV said it was currently undergoing a "period of consultation" with all affected workers on the tech team.
Earlier this month the struggling TV network appointed John Cresswell as its temporary CEO after outgoing boss and chairman Michael Grade announced plans to step down from the firm later this year.
The broadcaster was hit by a painful drop in ad revenues last year when it reported a net loss of £2.55bn that led to 600 job cuts at the company in March. ®
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COMMENTS
Broadcasters! Don't outsource your IT!
Simply put, if your organisation's IT doesn't fall in the definitions of "financial" or "General Office" don't be tempted to outsource. And don't think it'd be worth going to an outsourcing company that's already had it's fingers in the Media industry already.
There is this general perception in the IT world that If it doesn't run under Office or Media Player, then it's not serious IT. This is why outsourcing contracts change so quickly: show most of these companies a media server - all disks and fibre! - and they'll call it a SAN and try and install VMware on it!
Stick with the IT people ** that know your business** ie the ones you originally hired.
Off Shoring will stop soon
it is a no brainer to make income tax payable on offshore staff or services.
The real damage is in the security of these companies, the shit lists just build don't they, and people will retaliate, there may not be much of a system left to offshore soon.
The best move is an immediate walkout of all tech staff. They are going to get rid of the jobs, best to make it a nightmare now, and then the cost of offshoring will be much higher on the books.
@ The Original Steve
"What's left?!"
A streamlined technology department of 74, including:
6 Directors
12 Heads
26 Managers
17 Consultants
I wish this was a joke...
AC - obviously
boo hoo
face it. the only reason that there's so much bleating over here is because the jobs being outsourced are IT jobs. what about other jobs? it's not just IT jobs that are being outsourced, manufacturing has long gone. and no one cared, because all they could think about was how cheap the latest "made in china" gadget/tool/apparel was.
for the record, i'm an indian working in bangalore. and i got my job because i'm darn good at what i do. go figure!!
re: IT is not an optional extra for a broadcaster
Siemens are the bane of all BBC employees and anyone that has to work with the BBC.
Somebody that i know works for Red Bee Media (Formally BBC Broadcast). Red Bee is basically a broadcast outsourcing management company, they playout all of the BBC channels, All of the Channel 4 (C4) channels, channel 5's disaster recovery and many many more.
*All* of the public service channels expect for ITV are outsourced and run by Red Bee Media.
The problem with this (aside form the obvious one of a single company having full technical control over the nation's public service broadcasters) is that underneath the flashy red bee logo it is still BBC broadcast. They are actually trying to run a 1000 employee outfit as if it were still the size of the BBC.
Red tape aplenty - unbelievably expensive, essentially broken and unusable IT systems to "make life easier" - not one but three set's of timesheets for every individual to complete
A change management system that requires *any* and *all* changes to be written up(Using said expensive and unworkable "make life easier IT systems"), documented and presented to a "Change Management Board" who meet just once a week. If you need to be reboot a server or make a small change to a script you must wait until Monday regardless of how serious it is or how none of the fat, overpaid managers that snort down there noses at you without ever understanding what it is your begging them to do - will usually deny your request due to you not providing a made up Budget code or an incident reference. NO no, we wont just have you add the details we ask and get on with it. NO no, you can wait until next monday. After all, the management are very busy.
Outsourced IT and Phones to Serco. MY god, it is a miracle that the world functions with Serco at the helm. anyone that has every phoned an IT helpdesk, been driven to court etc... will share the pain on this one. The person i know who works for Red Bee is a Principle Engineer an his company laptop is so locked down he is not even allowed to change his IP address. The web proxy filters such naughty sites as apple.com, Google.com!! and, well most sites actually. Lets see you try and download some software and updates from behind and over configured bluecoat !
insane management muttering orders seemingly in defiance of the blatantly obvious whilst thumbing through a Dummies Guide to running a business that has to pay it's way and make money,
Overstaffed due to the immense inefficiency of the corporate workflow and under equipped due to a total lack of understanding of the nature of the business by senior, middle and for the most part junior management.
A place where there are no tools (screw drivers and the like). More than 30 engineers doing the work of 10 engineers.
A company that does not see a problem in having to pay 30 engineers to do the work of 10 since the 30 all have one hand tied to their balls and and have to spend more time doing worthless paperwork to generate worthless statistics for the management than they do actual engineering.
A company where nobody knows the root password let alone the administrator account....nobody actually set one
ITV Tech, mark my words, if they are not already talking to Red Bee then they soon will be. And god help them all.
AC as my "friend" would like to remain so.
Linear TV funded by the 30 second advert is dead anyway, unless ITV step up their game and show content that people would watch online or on demand then ITV is finished. Bin the 30 second ad model (it isnt working anyway) and go to product placement and sponsorship, get your shows onto a new distribution platform and move on from there.
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