European Linux distributor SuSE Linux has axed over 20% of its
staff, but claims it will turn over a profit by the first quarter
of next year.
The company has made 120 of its 500 staff redundant and in the
process has closed its central call centre. All service calls other
than support, have now been outsourced.
SuSE is also reorganising its business into no more than five
distinct business groups, to enable it to focus more closely on its
specific markets.
The business units will focus on qualified users such as
traditional Linux customers, the SME sector, enterprise and
corporate customers, and IT companies.
"Traditionally we have been very technology focused," explained
Malcolm Yates, SuSE's strategic alliance manager. "We have realised
that we have need to get some commercial balance from the outside."
The changes and the job cuts follow some difficult months for SuSE.
In August it lost its second chief executive officer of this year,
and the job cuts are the third round the company has made since
March. However, SuSE is keen to point out that the staff who have
been made redundant have been located at the firm's German
headquarters and its US sites.
SuSE's strategy is now focused on partners and the channel, which
handle all of the company's sales with the exception of those
conducted online. The company has just two sales staff in the UK
now.
The company has also secured £10m in venture capital funding. "This
money is fairly important because we are in the process of
restructuring and redeveloping SuSE's strategy," said commercial
director Jasmin Ul-Haque. "We do need to have additional funding to
put in place a lot of the changes we need to make."