Sarwal is hellbent on making his legacy. After eviscerating software support, he's out to destroy systems support now. Without a consideration for anything or anyone, he's proceeding with his plan to consolidate all support centers to four locations globally: USA, Romania, India and China.
It's going to be a disaster, but the process is underway and Sarwal vowed to complete it by the end of FY18.
Everyone in support not based in these locations is going to get their pink slip in the coming months.
Poland was completed one week ago, next up is Spain (layoffs start in just a few weeks, mid-June). Europe should be done before the end of this calendar year.
It would all be fine and fair if Oracle had recruited and trained enough people over the last few years. Except for one simple problem: support isn't ready for this. Oracle has not recruited enough people to take over the workload, let alone trained them enough to provide support for escalated issues.
Sure, there are some really smart people hired, and I suppose that they could have taken over escalation point roles (former PTS) in the next 10-20 years, assuming they would actually stay that long (most of them quit after a few years because they get better paid positions elsewhere).
Wake up call for you, Oracle: Support costs a lot. But if you don't have support, you won't have any customers.
It's going to be a disaster. One that could have been completely averted if it wasn't for Sarwal. He wants to make a name for himself. Any why not? I mean, he had a dilemma in the beginning:
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leave support alone as it is
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make an upheaval
Leaving support alone would have been right for the next decade. Let replacements be trained, then complete it in the mid-2020s. But that's not good enough for executives.
So he decides to make an upheaval. Executives love it because it shows initiative, directors love it because it makes it easy for them to implement decisions that are frankly stupid, but let them cover up the sloppy job they do and they don't have to worry about the boring stuff like fixing inefficiencies and keeping a close eye on statistics.
There are two possible outcomes: either support will tank or it will succeed. If it succeeds, then all those responsible will be hailed as heroes (as though they had anything to do with the success) and will get lavished with praise. If it tanks, then, oh well, they tried, didn't they? They took a risk and it turned out to have been more difficult. They will blame it on external factors, they will blame it on those that failed to follow through, and so on.
And then they will go to another position at another company, leaving a trail of destruction in their wake.
You'll find a new job. But trust me, if you see certain people join your company, especially your vertical, run fast, run far and don't look back.