Just three years ago, Jo Brobbel would never have dreamed of switching employers. He was a 20-year veteran of Shell. His father before him had spent his entire professional life at the Dutch petroleum giant, “It seemed only natural for me to follow in his footsteps,” says the 47-year-old. That he would one day be sitting in a T-Systems office in The Hague and, without batting an eyelid, referring to himself as “magenta through and through” was inconceivable. It all started around two years ago.

In the spring of 2008, Shell transferred responsibility for its global hosting and storage infrastructure to T-Systems – along with Jo Brobbel and 900 other IT experts.

Shell joined the swelling ranks of organizations that have decided to outsource their information and communications technology (ICT ). “External companies are more innovative and can see things across companies and industries that we can’t see,” explained Shell CIO Alan Matula at the time. He also said that T-Systems would support Shell by fine-tuning an IT infrastructure that had evolved piecemeal over the years.

Positive experience overcomes doubts

When it comes to ICT, expertise matters. Technology-driven business processes constantly open up new possibilities, but they also pose new challenges – not least due to rising complexity. By handing ICT over to outside specialists, organizations can focus their resources and efforts on their core business. The external providers can manage ICT processes more flexibly, effectively and cost-efficiently. The only catch: if an outsourcing arrangement leads to reductions in in-house IT staff, the process will seem fraught with uncertainty for affected employees. Human resources experts call this typical emotional roller coaster a “change curve”.

When Shell released its RFP, Brobbel was initially not happy – until he met his new employer. “I was a part of a network at Shell that was tasked with talking to shortlisted companies and providing feedback. I was positively enthusiastic after speaking to the T-Systems team. They seemed extremely open and honest, and explained exactly how they had planned the transition. That put to rest all my worries about the transfer.” Some outsourcing projects affect only a few employees; others several hundred. “Either way, you have to plan the transition between jobs and employers conscientiously, responsibly and, above all,
compassionately,” says Susanne Dietrich, Senior Vice President of HR at T-Systems. The Shell project, for example, required flawless change management because T-Systems intended to take on nearly 1,000 of the multinational’s employees in places such as Malaysia, Canada, the US, the UK and the Netherlands. It was also the solutions provider’s first contract of this magnitude. “Perhaps,” says a satisfied Brobbel, “that’s why there was a plan for everything.” With issues ranging from salaries, bonuses and individual employment contracts to professional development, potential site choices and career advancement, T-Systems came to regular meetings with entire teams, small groups or one-on-one to quickly answer every question – from the posttransition vision to the nitty-gritty details. Managers such as Brobbel, a global component service delivery manager, received personal mentors to coach them on T-Systems’ processes and hierarchies. Thinking back, Brobbel can’t suppress a grin. “In the Netherlands, we say that Germans are nothing if not thorough. Well, we saw that thoroughness in action.”

Experience integrating new employees

With its mentor program, town-hall and group meetings, face-to-face talks for contract issues, and workshops on travel reservations, managing expense accounts and other routines, T-Systems’ human resources experts have carefully honed the transition process to be as smooth as possible in the course of several major projects. Alongside Heineken and Philips, Shell is one of the three multinationals headquartered in the Netherlands to entrust its IT to T-Systems. The integration programs for new employees – whose knowledge of the client’s structures and contact people was a key success factor – were fine-tuned ased on post-transition surveys.