Dell Prepares To Cut UK Workforce

Tom Jowitt,

Dell has confirmed that it is preparing to trim its UK workforce, although it remains tight-lipped over numbers

Dell is preparing to make an unknown number of its UK workforce redundant as the PC maker seeks ways to reduce its operational costs.

Dell confirmed to TechWeekEurope that it was planning redundancies, although it did not confirm how many people will be affected.

Dell Statement

“Dell has shared with the teams that with regret we need to make some very limited reductions to our workforce at our UK sites,” a Dell spokesperson told TechWeekEurope in an emailed statement.

“In order to serve our customers and grow our business, Dell must operate as effectively as possible,” the Dell spokesperson said. “ This requires that we rationalise resources and capabilities between business units, and continue to build the best and brightest teams to support our customers.

“Through this process, we’ll continue to keep our teams informed and look for opportunities to develop our people,” the spokesperson added, before going on to reaffirm the company’s commitment to its UK operations in Bracknell, Nottingham, Glasgow and London.

“Dell remains committed to its successful operations in the UK,” the spokesperson said. “The UK will continue to play a pivotal role. Our goal is to ensure that this is maintained by continuing to look creatively and critically at what we do.”

Acquisition Spree

The news that Dell is planning on axing some of its workforce will come as a bitter pill for the UK staff, who have witnessed Dell’s transformation from being a simple PC or server maker to more of an IT solutions provider.

Indeed, the company has been on something of a spending spree of late, as the company seeks to reinvent itself under the new leadership of John Swainson, President of Dell Software. Swainson was formerly the CEO of CA.

In April, Dell announced the purchase of Make Technologies, a provider of legacy modernisation software and services. This deal came just days after Clerity Solutions and Wyse Technology were swallowed up by Dell and in March this year, Dell also announced plans to acquire unified threat management (UTM) and firewall vendor SonicWALL. In February it acquired backup and replication software maker AppAssure and in January 2011 it also acquired SecureWorks.

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