Reply to: Aviva

[Martin Bank Holiday]

Management "research" trips to India.
Brown envelopes and much cheapness.....I witnessed 2 of those (and suspected the other) at a large retailer in Yorkshire

I can't go into much detail but an ex colleague of mine is going to be testifying at the High Court in a case brought by a whistleblower who was working in some capacity within the Scottish Government.
He has evidence that one of the big outfits got themselves an inside man to make sure all the work was put their way.

Will be watching with interest. All the UK Home Office stuff (from my experience) seems to be going through an Indian outfit so wondering if there's something bent going on there as well.

[Wobblyheed]

One question about TCS, Wipro and the likes...

From reading all your experiences, it sounds like they've been making a huge mess everywhere they go and they've been doing it for years and years and years.

If they're so consistently bad, why do companies still engage them? I can understand using them 2 even 3 times because they're cheap and because the senior managers/decision makers don't have a clue of how bad they are/haven't learned the lesson, but why do companies STILL use them after 10-15 years of constant feck ups?

There must be a reason.

Management "research" trips to India.
Brown envelopes and much cheapness.....I witnessed 2 of those (and suspected the other) at a large retailer in Yorkshire

[Wobblyheed]

That sounds as bad as the Barclays website - what a pile of poo that is!

It gets worse with every update - aesthetically it's rubbish

[Age quod agis]

Should be on the lookout for Aviva roles in 1-2 years, when TCS screws the pooch.

I don't know if their website can get any worse, last time I had to use Edge !!! because it wasn't working properly in Chrome and IE.

Amazing. Who would even think of using Edge?

[Peoplesoft bloke]

They're throwing them out because of IR35 and its idiot re-engineering from next April; I suspect their Human Remains team are driving this, since IME they appear to have little idea how contractors are supposed to be hired.

Not everything is about Brexit, especially if you work in a predominantly UK market...

The trend will get worse for a while as more idiots make bad decisions. Come back in 18 months when they discover they have thrown the baby out with the bathwater and they need to resolve a host of technical challenges. then, all of a sudden, contractors are back in demand, and the good guys are already working for smarter clients.

Agreed - hilariously at last clientco I worked in the same office as the Human Remains person who was tasked with investigating IR35. Aside from the fact she had swallowed a ******* loud hailer, she had less than zero clue.


Sent from my iPhone using Contractor UK Forum

[Peoplesoft bloke]

- Lats but not least kickbacks

I was going to post that but I bottled out. I don’t have any hard evidence - but I would be very surprised if there wasn’t something fishy about at least some deals.


Sent from my iPhone using Contractor UK Forum

[malvolio]

They've certainly canned everyone at HO. An email went round with words to that effect. Either way, it illustrates a worrying trend that I predict will get worse; especially once you throw IR35 and Brexit into the mix.

They're throwing them out because of IR35 and its idiot re-engineering from next April; I suspect their Human Remains team are driving this, since IME they appear to have little idea how contractors are supposed to be hired.

Not everything is about Brexit, especially if you work in a predominantly UK market...

The trend will get worse for a while as more idiots make bad decisions. Come back in 18 months when they discover they have thrown the baby out with the bathwater and they need to resolve a host of technical challenges. then, all of a sudden, contractors are back in demand, and the good guys are already working for smarter clients.

[Paralytic]

My client is binning all contractors. New CEO's orders. The case to keep me on has been accepted.

All != All.

[Old Greg]

These things always work the same way.



The footnote is not always included.

Everyone (likes to) think they are indispensable and that all other contractors are easily replaced, but there are very few roles which are not fillable elsewhere.

My client is binning all contractors. New CEO's orders. The case to keep me on has been accepted.

[sal]

On the other hand I've never seen a problem where TCS or WiPro was the answer.

That's because you are not a C-suite with a problem like "How do I get bigger bonus?"

One question about TCS, Wipro and the likes...

From reading all your experiences, it sounds like they've been making a huge mess everywhere they go and they've been doing it for years and years and years.

If they're so consistently bad, why do companies still engage them? I can understand using them 2 even 3 times because they're cheap and because the senior managers/decision makers don't have a clue of how bad they are/haven't learned the lesson, but why do companies STILL use them after 10-15 years of constant feck ups?

There must be a reason.

Mostly it boils down to a combination of low cost on part of TCS and greed on part of the decision makers at ClientCo

- General ignorance on part of the C-suite that are easily bamboozled by the only properly functioning part of TCS etc. - their sales team.
- C-suite more interested in their bonus increasing due to immediate cost cutting, than the long term stability of their company.
- C-suite still treating IT as cost and service function little different than the office cleaners, ripe for cost cutting.
- Lats but not least kickbacks

[PermieToContractorAndBack]

If they're so consistently bad, why do companies still engage them? I can understand using them 2 even 3 times because they're cheap and because the senior managers/decision makers don't have a clue of how bad they are/haven't learned the lesson, but why do companies STILL use them after 10-15 years of constant feck ups?

There must be a reason.

They are usually engaged by Enterprise organisations that are stacked full of people very scared of making big decisions, they don't have the skillset to move larger projects forward and don't have the budget to pay market rate for non 3rd world workers.

A lot of these companies are also based in spots where no-one in their right mind would want to commute to as a permie.

[PCTNN]

Agreed - finance beancounters prefer fixed predictable low costs over stuff actually getting done or being of any use.


Sent from my iPhone using Contractor UK Forum

I guess if hiring TCS (cheap sh1te) and then hiring contractors to fix the mess is still less expensive than hiring the right contractors (but more expensive) from the start, fair play to the finance beancounters. Would do the same myself.

[Peoplesoft bloke]

They’re cheap.

Agreed - finance beancounters prefer fixed predictable low costs over stuff actually getting done or being of any use.


Sent from my iPhone using Contractor UK Forum

[oliverson]

One question about TCS, Wipro and the likes...

From reading all your experiences, it sounds like they've been making a huge mess everywhere they go and they've been doing it for years and years and years.

If they're so consistently bad, why do companies still engage them? I can understand using them 2 even 3 times because they're cheap and because the senior managers/decision makers don't have a clue of how bad they are/haven't learned the lesson, but why do companies STILL use them after 10-15 years of constant feck ups?

There must be a reason.

They’re cheap.

[PCTNN]

One question about TCS, Wipro and the likes...

From reading all your experiences, it sounds like they've been making a huge mess everywhere they go and they've been doing it for years and years and years.

If they're so consistently bad, why do companies still engage them? I can understand using them 2 even 3 times because they're cheap and because the senior managers/decision makers don't have a clue of how bad they are/haven't learned the lesson, but why do companies STILL use them after 10-15 years of constant feck ups?

There must be a reason.