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News and Opinion Concerning Health Savings Accounts, Medical Costs and Health Care Reform

• South Florida Sun-Sentinal: ERISA should be part of reform talks. By Lawrence D. Bache. Excerpts: You may have heard the recent story about Wal-Mart suing an employee who suffered severe brain damage when her minivan was hit by a tractor-trailer. Wal-Mart sought to recover $417,000 it paid for her medical care under its employee health plan. This $417,000 was money the woman desperately needed for life-sustaining nursing care. Due to substantial negative media coverage, Wal-Mart dropped its claim against the woman and dismissed its lawsuit.

  Wal-Mart had a legal right to recover from the disabled woman under the federal law of ERISA (Employee Retirement Income Security Act). If you are one of the substantial number of Americans who receive their health coverage in connection with their employment (excepting government or church employees), ERISA applies. Absent from the ongoing debate about health care reform is a discussion about the impact of ERISA. ERISA is an onerous and oppressive law that HMOs and insurance companies love and cherish, but do not want the public to understand.

  Under ERISA, an insurance company or HMO can deny coverage without penalty, even if that denial of coverage causes serious harm or even death. The only consequence for a wrongful denial of coverage under this law is the obligation to provide the benefits that should have been provided in the first place. The occasional report in the media about a large verdict against an insurance company or HMO for failing to pay for or authorize necessary medical care does not involve coverage to which ERISA applies. It must be considered that a refusal to pay $45,000 for a hip replacement, for example, results in a $45,000 profit. The insurance companies and HMOs protected by ERISA have an incentive to deny coverage, and no negative consequence for doing so.

  Under ERISA, the individual who challenges a denial of coverage is required to fight through multiple grievance procedures. That individual bears the burden of proving to the large and well-staffed company that the denial was wrong, even though he/she is often sick and not well versed in the type of sophisticated medical evidence that may be required to perfect their claim.

• Center for American Progress: Myth vs. Fact: Consumer-Driven Health Plans. Excerpts: “Consumer-driven health care” is the euphemism for high-deductible health plans with savings accounts. It is based on the theory that increased financial exposure will encourage patients to act like consumers, comparing quality and costs and negotiating lower prices. It also, according to the rhetoric, gives people greater control over their health care.

  Yet many experts paint a different picture. Rep. Pete Stark (D-CA), Chairman of the House Ways and Means Subcommittee on Health, called a hearing last week to take an honest look at whether consumer-driven health care plans contain, or merely shift, costs. Announcing the hearing, he said, “HSAs and high deductible plans … make things worse, not better. Instead of using the tax code to encourage people to purchase coverage that may be woefully inadequate, we should focus on providing comprehensive health care coverage to those most in need in the most cost-efficient way possible.”

• Watson-Wyatt: Health premium payments to be eliminated in Alberta. Excerpt: Most employers in the province of Alberta will experience significant cost savings from government plans to eliminate premium payments for the Alberta Health Care Insurance Plan (AHICP). The elimination will take effect on January 1, 2009. Employers may need to review contractual commitments and collective agreements in light of the change. ...

  Eliminating health premiums has been a trend in much of Canada. AHICP premiums were eliminated for senior citizens in Alberta on October 1, 2004. Once AHICP premiums are eliminated in the province, British Columbia and Ontario will be the only provinces in Canada with compulsory health care premium payments

• New York Times: After Caesareans, Some See Higher Insurance Cost. By Denise Grady. Excerpts: When the Golden Rule Insurance Company rejected her application for health coverage last year, Peggy Robertson was mystified. “It made no sense,” said Ms. Robertson, 39, who lives in Centennial, Colo. “I’m in perfect health.”

  She was turned down because she had given birth by Caesarean section. Having the operation once increases the odds that it will be performed again, and if she became pregnant and needed another Caesarean, Golden Rule did not want to pay for it. A letter from the company explained that if she had been sterilized after the Caesarean, or if she were over 40 and had given birth two or more years before applying, she might have qualified. ...

  With individual insurance, unlike the group coverage usually sponsored by employers, insurance companies in many states are free to pick and choose the people and conditions they cover, and base the price on a person’s medical history. Sometimes, a past Caesarean means higher premiums. ...

  Individual insurance differs sharply from the group coverage with which most people are familiar. Group policies generally require that the insurer cover everybody in the group, and charge the same rates for all. But with individual coverage, insurers in many states can vary their prices based on medical history, exclude certain services or reject anyone they consider a bad risk. (Several states, however, including New York, New Jersey and Massachusetts, ban such practices.)

• US News & World Report: The Limited Appeal of Limited-Benefit Insurance. By Michelle Andrews. Excerpts; Is having some sort of health insurance—even spotty coverage—better than having no protection at all? That's the conventional wisdom behind initiatives like the bill signed last week by Florida Gov. Charlie Crist that allows insurers to sell inexpensive health insurance policies with limited benefits to uninsured Floridians. The new law is the latest example of a nationwide trend toward offering "limited benefit" or "bare bones" plans that often cover some everyday medical expenses like visits to the doctor and prescription medications but may come up seriously short if a policyholder gets seriously ill.

  The governor acknowledges that the new Florida plans won't offer "Cadillac coverage." But for $150 a month or less, he says, they'll include some coverage for preventive services, drugs, surgery, screenings, and durable medical equipment, among other things. And how is that possible, you're wondering. Some plans won't provide catastrophic coverage that would pick up the tab for major medical expenses like cancer treatment or heart surgery, for example, nor will they necessarily cover all of the benefits available through comprehensive plans, like podiatry or certain transplants. There could be dollar limits or other restrictions as well.

  It's easy to understand the appeal of these policies to politicians and business owners, who are scrambling to find ways to insure people amid escalating costs. But consumers need to ask hard questions about what they're really getting for their money and read the fine print of any policy they're considering. "I could cover everybody for a dollar a head, but the policy wouldn't cover a toothbrush," says Karen Pollitz, a research professor at the Health Policy Institute at Georgetown University.

  Low premiums can make these plans seem very affordable, but people should focus instead on what they'd pay out of pocket if they got sick. "The whole point of health insurance is what happens if your health gets worse," says Pollitz. I've written about how people with cancer, for example, can be hard hit by coverage shortfalls.

• National Bureau of Economic Research: Covering the Uninsured. Excerpts: The U.S. is the only wealthy industrialized nation that does not guarantee universal health care for its citizens. Currently 47 million Americans, or 18 percent of the non-elderly population, lack health insurance. The problem of the uninsured has been a major concern for policy makers for years and is back in the spotlight this year due to the presidential election and a recent major health care reform in Massachusetts. In "Covering the Uninsured in the U.S." (NBER Working Paper 13758) researcher Jonathan Gruber reviews the lessons of economic research regarding the uninsured and conducts simulations to show the effects of several popular reform proposals to increase access to care. ...

  Gruber also asks why we should care about the uninsured. One reason is externalities, costs that insured people bear as a result of uninsurance. These include physical externalities from communicable diseases (uninsured people may spread disease to others) and financial externalities from uncompensated care. However, these costs are too small to provide a major rationale for universal coverage. A second reason is "job lock" - workers may be afraid to change jobs for fear of losing their health insurance, which can lead to a mismatch between workers and jobs and lower U.S. productivity. Other reasons include paternalism (people may not realize the value of insurance) and redistribution (many of the uninsured are low-income). ...

  Gruber closes by noting that his study largely ignores the other major problem plaguing the U.S. health care system, rapidly rising costs. He notes that most cost control measures currently being discussed, like electronic medical records, will lower costs very little if at all. Effective control of health care costs will involve denying coverage for care that does little for health but that consumers now want. He concludes "until we are understand more fully which health care spending is justified and which is not, we are not prepared to take on the American public on cost control. The fundamental insight of this round of reform is therefore not to hold the attainable goal (universal coverage) hostage to the (currently) unattainable goal, fundamental health care cost control."

• Health Affairs: On The Road To Universal Coverage: Impacts Of Reform In Massachusetts At One Year. By Sharon K. Long. Excerpt: In April 2006, Massachusetts passed legislation intended to move the state to near-universal coverage within three years and, in conjunction with that expansion, to improve access to affordable, high-quality health care. In roughly the first year under reform, uninsurance among working-age adults was reduced by almost half among those surveyed, dropping from 13 percent in fall 2006 to 7 percent in fall 2007. At the same time, access to care improved, and the share of adults with high out-of-pocket costs and problems paying medical bills dropped. Despite higher-than-anticipated costs, most residents of the state continued to support reform.
• New York Times: Study Finds State Gains in Insurance. By Kevin Sack. Excerpts: Massachusetts reduced its proportion of uninsured adults by nearly half in the first year of mandatory health coverage and made gains in the share of people receiving routine preventive care, according to the first major study of the 2006 law. The decline in the share of residents without insurance was nearly equivalent for those with low or moderate incomes and those with higher incomes. ...

  “The entire increase in coverage appears to have been drawn from the ranks of the uninsured, because there is no evidence that publicly funded programs are crowding out employer coverage,” wrote the study’s author, Sharon K. Long, a principal research associate with the Urban Institute, a nonpartisan research group in Washington. ...

  Undercutting the positive trends for Massachusetts are signs that the state’s supply of primary care physicians is not sufficient to handle the increased demand created by newly insured residents. Though there were overall declines in the percentage of residents who said they were not receiving needed care, the study showed increases in the share who said they did not get care because they could not find a doctor. That finding may support anecdotal reports from internists and family practitioners that they have been stretched by an influx of newly insured patients, causing long delays for some appointments. The study actually found a slight increase in the share of low-income residents who sought treatment in hospital emergency rooms for conditions that were not urgent.

• Chicago Sun-Times: Lipinski, Kirk seek life extension of COBRA. By Monifa Thomas. Excerpts: Pointing to the rough economy, U.S. Representatives Mark Kirk and Dan Lipinski are pushing to revive a measure that would drop the 18- to 36-month time limit on extending health-insurance coverage after leaving a job. The proposed Health Insurance for Life Act, introduced last year, would allow people to pay for insurance coverage from their former employers until they qualify for Medicare at 65.

  COBRA coverage now allows people who have left a job to keep their group insurance for up to 18 months, and sometimes up to 36 months, by paying the entire premium.

  Removing the time limit would benefit people who wouldn't qualify for a new insurance plan because of pre-existing health conditions and whose jobs don't offer insurance, Kirk said Thursday. It would be a bridge for retirees who are too young for Medicare.

• Wall Street Journal, courtesy of the California Nurses Association: McCain's Free-Market Health Plan Would Boost Role of High-Risk Pools. By Laura Meckler and Anna Wilde Mathews. Excerpts: John McCain's plan for a health-care system built around consumers shopping for their own insurance comes with a significant downside: for people with a history of illness, it can be impossible to find coverage on their own. The Republican presidential candidate's main answer is to bolster the role of high-risk pools, which sell insurance to people with pre-existing conditions such as diabetes, cancer and AIDS.

  These pools, typically created by state governments, require significant government subsidies, charge high premiums and sometimes sharply restrict benefits or enrollment. Nationally, fewer than 200,000 people are enrolled in such pools, while 47 million people in the U.S. are without insurance.

  "They tend not to work particularly well," said Sara Collins, an assistant vice president at the Commonwealth Fund, a nonprofit health-care-research group. "States have really struggled to finance these adequately."

New on the Alliance@IBM Site:

• From the Job Cuts Status & Comments page
  • To readers of the Alliance comment sections: Please read the front page of the Alliance web site for important news on our membership drive. Many of you read and participate in the comment sections and find them a valuable resource for what is going on inside IBM. But in order to keep this resource we need growth in our dues paying membership. Please click the links above and join the Alliance. Your only source for the real news inside IBM.
  • Comment 06/01/08: To "wantapackage" : How did you make out? I also have heard mixed messages on this - 1) If you ask for a pkg then forget it, you won't get one. More or less a result of reverse-self-selection and 2) Since mgmt. is under pressure to cut, it makes more "sense" to cut those that WANT to go so as to save moral... this is something perhaps a rational manager would do but then again many managers these days are not rational, and indeed you might be one of the more valued team members and thus... "Why would IBM pay you to quit?" Anyway... let us know eh? Thanks! -Anon-
  • Comment 06/01/08: Good Luck to all my friends from printers in your new positions in Ricoh. Unionize now so you have a say in your future. Stop the abuse before it becomes standard operating procedures. Your position will never be stronger then it is right now to organize. -Exodus 2007-
  • Comment 06/02/08: I am hearing more job cut notifications going out tomorrow June 3rd from HR to Managers. I know Tivoli is being Impacted and other units. I verified this with a IBM manager and he stated he gets his email from HR tomorrow letting him know it is okay to let people know. -Anon-US-Tiv-
  • Comment 06/02/08: I heard today that there is a huge move to outsource some of the Project Managers. Has anyone heard anything similar??? -ABIW-
  • Comment 06/02/08: June 2, 2008 2pm EDT - IBM just announced a move of "Classic SBC" (AT&T Account) jobs from USA to Brazil. IBM began cS account on 12/1/2007. I'm told these folks were guaranteed a job for only 6 months. About 350 to 400 employees came over from the "new" AT&T (the former SBC after buying AT&T). No USA employees will be offered jobs in Brazil.

    IBM claims this is not a "resource action". IBM claims it is a "global company" and uses this as an excuse to offshore jobs. No individuals have yet been selected for offshoring. People were told today but no one knows which individuals will be targeted. Transition starts June 1, 2008 - May 2009.

    IBM employees are expected to train their new counterparts in Brazil. Managers of people affected once again are doing nothing to stop this. They are merely pawns in the corporate torture chamber known as IBM. -Next On The List-

    Alliance reply: A news reporter is looking to interview any former IBM employee who had to train their offshore replacement and then lost their job. Contact the Alliance at allianceibmunion@gmail.com with your name and phone number.

  • Comment 06/03/08: ABIW - Yes, the reports I hear is that we're far too short on PMs so they will move foreign PMs to be the TPMs managing the GR's. US based PM's will be forced to be more business and customer centric and be expected to travel 100% of time. I also heard one of our cores has offered to take over all US PM slots and promise to deliver 20%+ reduction in costs. -PMs Get Ready-
  • Comment 06/03/08: As I'm sure you are all aware the Dublin plant is losing its I/P series assembly operations to China. We have been predicting this for the last 2 years. It looks like the end is coming. We have been told Jan 09 with a major announcement due in October....so guys any info pls reply. -Cisco101-
  • Comment 06/03/08: Yes - Project Managers are in the spotlight for off-shoring. Not a good career move if you're in the US, unless you want to be layed off. -miss understandgin-
  • Comment 06/04/08: I was on the AT&T Account Cycle Time Initiative Project before I was cut due to funding. This is one messed up project. Duplication of work on both the IBM and AT&T side with a push to off-shore most of the work. It's funny that one of my managers on the project just got an IBM Technical Excellence award from corporate - just amazing. -Aron-
  • Comment 06/05/08: Ok, I/T Specialists and SysAdmins are being phased out in the USA and go to the BRIC and now PM's seemed to be next. Question: what position or career path is a good career move in the USA in IBM now? Isn't it clear folks we need a union to protect USA IBM jobs? -anonymous-
  • Comment 06/05/08: Hearing cuts are happening in Tivoli (Software Group) in RTP, NC -black&blueAllOver-
  • Comment 06/05/08: 08A Family - YOU ARE IN THE SPOTLIGHT. I was RA'd last May. I still have plenty of friends all through out the upper ranks within the blue pig.The PM's have been targeted for quite a while. Most of them are band 8 and above and are pulling in more money than what what the pig pays for contract PM's, so you're next.

    IBM can get skilled experienced PM's for approx 60K to 80K MAX on the outside all day long. Take into consideration that BRIC PM's are substantially cheaper than that. There will be a sizeable reduction in PM's over the next 3 quarters.

    SO / ITD will continue to bleed profusely. Unless your outsourcing contract is in litigation for failing to meet the terms of the contract, you're overstaffed. That's the new standard, not customer sat.

    Polish your resumes and start looking. Be prepared, so when you do get ra'd, your leave with a smile. I wish I was more prepared, so I didn't stress like I did, but I landed on my feet with more money and RESPECT.. something sorely missing in the blue pig. Remember when we had work life balance and spirit? Remember when we had an across the board increase to retain folks? Its over. North American works are targeted. -former IBM'er-

  • Comment 06/05/08: The rumor mill is buzzing that there will be layoffs at the Burlington VT plant this summer. I heard from a very credible source (my former 2nd level manager) that IBM plans to pull out of the Williston buildings and sell them off. Williston employees will move to the main site and there will be substantial layoffs as part of restructuring and cost cutting. Best of luck to to all. -Don't shoot the messenger-
  • Comment 06/06/08: My goals for next year include 103% utilization. My manager told me last week that just meeting the goals will result in a rating of 2. IBM really wants people to leave with these unrealistic goals. Majority of people in my group will a 3 next year due to business development team not able to close on deals (we already several business development team members leave/retire/quit in the last few weeks). I am barely hanging in right now. I hate working everyday knowing the end is coming - no motivation right now. -Anonymous-
  • Comment 06/05/08: Reply to -why a union- Very few companies have the revenue and business position to leverage that IBM has. IBM WAS a great place to work and can be again. A union would force Greedy Executives to invest some resources in employees instead of themselves. IBM as a corporate entity can afford any change a union would want without any pain at all. In reality why should a CEO get a 29 Million dollar Bonus and his employees nothing in a profitable business.

    In these times a cost of living raise would be a great help to ALL employees and not an unreasonable thing for IBM to provide because they certainly can afford it. My last 10 raises in my 30 year career were most certainly merit raises because they were far too small to be cost of living raises and I was a 2 plus or a one

    In the past year alone costs in Maryland have gone through the roof. The Gas and electric company got 78 percent in rate hikes and gas has climbed almost a buck a gallon and most IBMers in Maryland will see less then 3 percent in raises in a company posting record profits.

    A successful organization of IBM will set the standard for the whole industry and raise the quality of life for an awful lot of American workers. When you hear workers talking about their profession and they say " Union scale is XXX" that's leading the way and improving life for people. You seldom if ever hear union scale being LESS then a company pays. Unions help define the workplace for ALL American workers. IBM is not a doddering failing business on the verge of collapse. IBM is a vibrant worldwide player making record profits from the labors and sacrifices of its workforce yet pleading poverty to its workforce when its raise time. Or benefits time. Or retirement time. Unless you are an executive of course. -Exodus 2007-

    Alliance reply: Excellent answer Exodus 2007. I would add that any company is made 'great' by it's employees; the ones who use the means of production to put out a quality service or product. Thomas Watson Sr. once said to his employees during a dept. meeting in Endicott, "Managers are a dime a dozen. You people are the ones that keep this company going. You are all very important to this company's success". I know this, because my father heard those words directly from Thomas Watson Sr. himself, at my father's dept. meeting, in 1956. At that time, IBM was making sure that their employees knew that they were valuable, so that management didn't have to worry about unions.

• General Visitor's Comment page:
• Pension Comments page
• Raise and Salary Comments
  • Comment 06/02/08: Salary = 41000; Band Level = 3; Job Title = SSR; Years Service = 12; Hours/Week = 40; Div Name = 48; Location = Florida; Message = Can you help me to compare what I am making compared to other technicians in Florida and Alabama? I believe I am very underpaid for the work I do. -Anonymous-
  • Comment 06/02/08: Salary = 15% Less; Band Level = 7; Years Service = 10; Message = -Panon- Along with 50+ other people in my organizations, I appealed, and ALL of us were denied. Go figure... I am also waiting to see if any of the 15% less people also get a chance to get a raise this year. Of course a 15% raise would be optimal, but has anyone heard anything about raises for those affected by the pay cut? -ABIW-
  • Comment 06/03/08: to -Anon- Sam's Raise was pretty robust the last 5 years or so. So were other executives I'm sure. Proof once again that you only get what you negotiate in IBM. Not what you deserve. What's that you say? You didn't negotiate your salary increases ? You didn't negotiate your benefits and severance and retirement benefits? Lou did and I'm sure Sammy did too. It's not too late. A successful organization will result in all these things done by trained, experienced negotiators . With leverage of a strike over IBM's heads we can see how well they handle pressure. All we have to do is ORGANIZE. Record Profits and no raises is Bullchit!! -Exodus 2007-
  • Comment 06/03/08: Here is the latest salary survey summary:
    • Band 2: 5 respondents, avg: $33K, standard deviation: $10K, range: (min/max reported): $20K to $42K
    • Band 3: 3 respondents, $34K, std dev: $8K, range: $25K to $41K
    • Band 4: 11 respondents, avg: $46K, std dev: $10K, range: $32K to $60K
    • Band 5: 5 respondents, avg: $62K, std dev: $13K, range: $48K to $77K
    • Band 6: 61 respondents, avg: $56K, std dev: $9K, range: $37K to $78K
    • Band 7: 125 respondents, avg: $70K, std dev: $12K, range: $48K to $110K
    • Band 8: 103 respondents, avg: $96K, std dev: $16K, range: $55K to $130K
    • Band 9: 35 respondents, avg: $119K, std dev: $18K, range: $89K to $152K
    • Band 10: 11 respondents, avg: $148K, std dev: $25K, range: $107K to $190K

    To the Band-3 person who posted on 6/2: your pay of $41K seems to be on the high end of that band, although the sample size is small (only 3 respondents). -Anonymous-

    Alliance Reply: As always, on behalf of all Alliance@IBM members; thank you for your efforts to help us all understand the IBM salary statistics. We hope you have become a member of Alliance@IBM, at some level. We encourage you to consider it and to contact us.

  • Comment 06/04/08: My (manager) friend told me that this year raise bucket will be smaller than last year. They will give you BS about ...yeah even though we had a record profit yr last yr, that was for bonus. Raise bucket is based of the current market, economy, and the future spending, etc. Another way to screw employee this year. So, you can expect the raise to be a lot smaller than last year. -Anonymous-
  • Comment 06/05/08: I understand any raises will be announced at the end of this month instead of during the first half of this month like in years past. You will not see any raise for the 6/15 paycheck. Any raise will be made retroactive to June 1st on the 6/30 paycheck. Why this change from years past? IBM wants to hold onto as much $ due to the employee as long as they can. So IBM is keeping 2 weeks of employee $ and pockets whatever interest from it they can despite record profits and solid revenue growth. It's another subtle form of cost control at the expense of the employee. Next year they might make you wait till the end of July to see a raise, if any are given out. Cheap bastards. I want a contract so I will know the exact date when I am getting the $ from a raise instead of relying on the whim of IBM. -anonymous-
  • Comment 06/06/08: Unless you are an executive call it what it is. A raise Thimble. Not a raise bucket. Amounts as small as raises have gotten would not even wet the bottom of a bucket. -Exodus 2007-
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Vault Message Board Posts:

Vault's IBM Business Consulting Services message board is a popular hangout for IBM BCS employees, including many employees acquired from PwC. Some sample posts follow:

• "IBM GBS or CSC" by "nelly56". Full excerpt: Hello All. I started working for CSC and now have an offer from IBM GBS. Initially they declined to make an offer and so I went ahead and accepted CSC, but now they have come back with an offer more than CSC. I am in a dilemma to accept it or stick on to CSC. I don't want to burn any bridges here and moreover, don't really know how it would be worth the move? any suggestions
• "Neither" by "civilliberty". Full excerpt: I have only worked at IBM, not CSC, but I don't hear many good stories from CSC. I think they may all be a much of a muchness, with IBM tipping the scales towards being more dehumanising.

  Consider the rigged appraisal system at IBM. Consider the recent 15% reduction in salary for many workers (in the US). This should tell you something about management's attitude towards workers. Consider the persistent lies about bonuses and never seeing them materialise. Consider the 4th quarter apologies for not making enough to pay you a bonus or give you a salary increase, and then in the 1st quarter of the next year announcing a stellar profit. Consider that you will be shoe-horned into roles totally unsuitable, just to keep you billable, and which don't reflect you career interests (would you like to do Excel macro work when you've run very successful teams on high profile engagements ?).

  That's just for starters. Consider you won't learn how to do pretty much anything correctly (good process/methodology and structure). Consider IBM has a number of managers who've never worked at the coal-face of a project (never coded, tested, designed or implemented anything). They are more akin to bureaucrats who squabble over project costs and deadlines than facilitating on-time delivery and realistic deadlines.

• "Stick it to the Blue Pig" by "bluebie". Full excerpt: Let's say you are leaving today on the Resource Action and you had yourself set up to put $2,000 in your MSA this year. But, you've only deposited 5/12 of that and have medical expenses of about $800 this year so far. Don't forget that you can spend up to the full $2,000 today and get it all back from your MSA--and the Blue Pig pays! You get $1,200 in free money. Go get your teeth cleaned. Buy 89 days of every conceivable OTC medicine, contact solution or whatever and claim it against your MSA. Don't need the stuff? Donate it to a nearby church or shelter, they'll figure out what to do with it.
• "Compensation" by "suid79". Full excerpt: Anyone know what the compensation is for the Sales leader roles at IBM? (ITS, GTS) Thanks in advance...
• "Services Sales Leader" by "ancientblueconsultant". Full excerpt: I have interviewed 6 folks out of the GTS space in that position in the last few weeks. Salaries from resumes average 68K to 118K, including commission. Apparently they call their sales plan the 50% plan because you get a 20% cut in salary in exchange for a up to 130% possibility in total compensation. Of the 6 interviewees, none ever had made the maximum pay. Too many caveats and fine print to stop you from making the big bucks.

  Job appears to be more a QA management SOX CYA function than actual sales. Not much chance to learn anything but very rigidly defined service products within service lines. This is done to ensure reduced chances of defection. Very reduced client face time, since that's reserved for ITSM position and client execs.

• "Skills shortages forcing changes" by "ancientblueconsultant". Full excerpt: Rumors abound that ITS and SO (both within GTS) in Americas will have to merge because they can't keep up with the growing retention problem. People quitting and they can't get quality replacements. Most sales engagements now being staffed with GTS forced sales labor and business partners even when they know they won't get commissions on the sale.

  You'll see ITS-GTS give up the SPL mess let it go to business partners as they try to save that they think is the more lucrative SO business. Shortage most acute with architects. Most PM's and IT specialists in all of IGS and SWG getting laid off and being replaced with offshore labor.