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Boeing may outsource desktop-support jobs to computer giant Dell

By Dominic Gates
Seattle Times aerospace reporter

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Boeing's desktop-computer support staff in Washington and Kansas has been given an ultimatum: beat computer giant Dell's bid to do their work or else.

Boeing said yesterday an audit by the Gartner Group, an information-technology consulting firm, showed that Dell can provide desktop-computer support for 37 percent less than the current in-house cost.

The affected Boeing unit, with about 200 people — 80 percent of them in the Puget Sound region, the rest in Wichita — has until April 16 to at least match Dell's proposals as if it were an external supplier.

"We need to act on this obviously," said Boeing spokesman Bob Jorgensen "Giving employees the opportunity to bid on this and retain the jobs, as opposed to just going outside (immediately) is not something you see most companies doing."

The employees are part of Boeing's Shared Services Group, which provides support to the company's other business units. Based in Bellevue, the division has almost 16,000 people.

Two employee teams selected by Boeing began work last week on a plan to meet the cost target, Jorgensen said. Other affected employees were told of the situation only yesterday.

If the work goes to Dell, based in Round Rock, Texas, some Boeing employees may be hired by Dell but with substantially lower wages and benefits. Others may face layoff.

"Our goal would be to reassign them either to have them the next day working here with a Dell badge, or ... to find other positions within the Boeing company," Jorgensen said.

Shared Services Group chief Rick Stephens has ordered cost studies in every department.

"He has made it clear that he wants every organization under his control to measure its performance against standards set by the marketplace," Jorgensen said.
 
In August, Boeing hired Océ, a Dutch company, to take over internal printing work in Wichita and the Puget Sound region. The move affected more than 280 Boeing employees. Some were laid off; the rest found themselves with a new employer, lower wages and fewer benefits.

Jorgensen said not all cost studies lead to outsourcing. He cited Boeing's internal call center for desktop-computer support as a unit the company chose to retain when its costs proved competitive with external vendors.

Since October, when a contract with IBM expired, Dell has provided desktop support to the former McDonnell Douglas parts of Boeing, chiefly in St. Louis.

The Gartner study found that the quality of services offered by the in-house computer-support group of the legacy Boeing operations in this region and in Wichita would be basically the same as Dell's.

"The (Boeing) group is outstanding," Jorgensen said. "The quality of their service is equal to the best in the market that we can find externally. However the cost of delivery is significantly higher."

Many of the affected workers are nonunion employees; most of the rest belong to the Society of Professional Engineering Employees in Aerospace (SPEEA).

SPEEA Executive Director Charles Bofferding said the support group could probably come up with more efficiencies and potentially match Dell, but even that would inevitably lead to fewer people employed at these jobs within Boeing.

"Absent a commitment to employees to retrain them and find them other jobs, this feels an awful lot like extortion," Bofferding said.

Dominic Gates: 206-464-2963 or dgates@seattletimes.com

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