A number of Hewlett-Packard enterprise users are
dissatisfied with the quality of support on offer since HP
restructured its operations to increase the use of offshore
centres.
The supplier has undergone a major restructuring after cutting
staff by nearly 15,000 last year and establishing global support
centres in India, Costa Rica and China. Users told Computer Weekly
they were unhappy with the quality of support following the
changes.
A local authority head of IT, who asked not to named, said, "We
have had some issues both with procurement of HP equipment and
quality of service."
And a senior IT director, responsible for managing supplier
relationships at a FTSE 100 company, said, "We are not getting the
level of service of support we expected. We are looking at moving
support."
One company has decided to switch from HP's version of Microsoft
Premier Support back to Microsoft's more expensive offering because
it was not happy with the service it received from HP.
A support engineer who works for many large businesses told
Computer Weekly, "The support team at HP seem to have no
understanding of what they are dealing with."
He said he had encountered HP support staff taking down
incorrect contact details and recommending incompatible parts.
In response to the claims, HP said, "Every support agent who
works for our domestic and international service partners completes
a rigorous training programme.
"We strive to ensure that quality of service [is] satisfactory
and consistent regardless of location and cultural differences. We
have a number of controls in place to provide customers with
support.
"All agents are provided continued training. Their performance
is closely monitored and reviewed to ensure that skills and
knowledge are in line with requirements."
Ollie Ross, research manager at enterprise user group The
Corporate IT Forum, said that criticism about HP focused on
specific issues - in particular, account management and the
businesses that HP had acquired.
"Since users are not always driven purely by cost, but
increasingly by value, services and quality, suppliers need to
focus on the latter," Ross said.