Apple has already declared major downsizing in its international selling unit and this is one of the few times when Apple has choose to downsize its workforce on a large scale.
The reorganization will be to simplify the operation and redirect most of the sales to third party resellers.
This transformation will impact on employees and institutional clients- such as governments, businesses and schools.Apple re-organs Sales, reduces the workforce.
Apple has started informing employees in its enterprise, education, and government sales departments about an impending layoff in a move that hints at the change in priorities.
The move impacts both the experienced account managers in charge of the institutional relationship and personnel in charge of the high-profile clients’ briefing center.T
he layoffs were reported by Bloomberg and the company has verified the news but the company has not given the exact number of positions that has been hit.
The affected employees will have until January 20 to find other employment opportunities at Apple. Severance will then be given to them after the said date provided that they cannot find other positions.
Apple has made it known that it has job postings in sales and other departments, which provides the impacted employees with an option of moving within the company.
Most employees report that the changes are being directed towards the increased use of third-party resellers, also known as the channel, to execute big institutional accounts.
This will be a strategic step to enable Apple to save on operation and costs amid the recent governmental budget cuts and shutdowns within the United States.Teams and Industry Implications Affected.
The biggest clients, who include the U.S. Department of Defense and the Department of Justice have been the worst affected.
The reorganization is preceded by the lesser involvement occasioned by the 43 days U.S government shutdown and fiscal tightening strategies.
Internal communications by Apple talk of the layoffs as a need to remove redundancy and increase efficiency, which are general trends in the industry of having leaner sales functions and third-party relationships.
Although it has had recent overlaps with the project cancellations and workforce downsizing, Apple is poised to experience a healthy quarter of revenue and has planned new hardware releases at the beginning of the coming year.
Reduction in the sales department is not representative of organization wide recruitment freezes, as Apple is still hiring in different business areas, changing its design based on the market environment.
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