Without words...

[Jan van den Ende]

Just received email from ann.mcquaid@hp.com:

>>>
Dear OpenVMS Community,

After 15 years with OpenVMS Engineering, Sue Skonetski will be pursuing new
opportunities. She has made many contributions to OpenVMS during her tenure which
have led to OpenVMS' long standing success. Many thanks to Sue for her energy and
dedication.

Sue will be succeeded by Sujatha Ramani who will assume Sue's responsibilities
including Technical Customer Programs and Communications,

Sujatha holds a Bachelors degree in Computer Science and an MBA. She comes to this
position with over 17 years of experience in the IT industry. She has been working
for the last 11 years at HP and has experience in a multitude of business units
including PSG, TSG and IPG. Sujatha brings rich experience in Sales, Marketing,
Operations, Channels Management and Enterprise Account Management. She has won
several recognitions including the "HP Presidents Club Winner" for consistent sales
performance. Sujatha was recognized the "Young Achiever" By CII (Confederation of
Indian Industries) in the Corporate IT category.

Please join me in welcoming Sujatha and in wishing Sue the very best.

Best regards,

Ann

P.S. If you plan on attending the HP Tech Forum, please stop by the Business
Critical Systems Booth and meet Sujatha.

<<<

Can there be sadder news????

jpe

[John Gillings]

End of an era :-(

[David B Sneddon]

> Can there be sadder news????

I suspect there will be... stay tuned.

[Hein van den Heuvel]

>>> Can there be sadder news????

Yeah. 'fraid so.

Think India.
Forget New England. :-(.

Mind you, Nothing wrong perse with India. Nice country and some spectaculary good engineering going on.
But it won't be the same...

Folks going to HPTF in Las Vegas will be early witnesses.

Hein.

[John McL]

It seems like Sue has been been with OpenVMS forever, and I don't say that unkindly. She's always gone into bat for OpenVMS, and that's not been an easy task, especially under CPQ.

Sue wil be sorely missed.

[Hakan Zanderau ( Anders]

No, no, no.......I'm in chock

and to make my day a bit worse,
I got a mail this morning that Paul Anderson ( DCPS-engineering ) is leaving HP.
I have known Paul since I started support DCPS in 1995/96.

My best to Sue and Paul.

Hakan

[Volker Halle]

This looks like probably the first of a series of 'not so good' news about OpenVMS.

When asking HP about the future of OpenVMS support, I received answers like:

- HP is heavily investing in OpenVMS training internally
- the OpenVMS support SLAs will be fulfilled

We seem to see some results of these promises in this public forum...

Sue, the OpenVMS community will miss your dedication and support !

Volker.

[Kris Clippeleyr]

I heard it thru the grapevine...
and now the confirmation.
A very sad day.
All the best to Sue, and thanks for all the fish.
Kris (aka Qkcl)

PS: I agree with Hein. VMS engineering/support is migrating to India.

[Jon Pinkley]

These are your future Technical Support Engineers:

http://discuss.itacumens.com/index.php?topic=42099.0

Excerpt:

We are recruiting for the positions of Technical Support Engineers who would be handling key Technical Support processing jobs/assignments.

...

Candidate must possess:

Excellent written & spoken communication skills
Qualification: Any Arts/Science/Commerce graduate (10+2+3) OR BE Fresh Graduates (Candidates should have completed 15years of education)

Experience: Max 2years of work experience

---------------------------

Is this why we get so many questions from hp India about technical questions here on ITRC?

Like John McL said in his May 5, 2009 23:56:01 GMT comment on http://forums.itrc.hp.com/service/forums/questionanswer.do?threadId=1337312

"How I miss good telephone conversations with knowledgeable Digital TSC people!"

[Ian Miller.]

This is the end of an era but not the end of VMS.

Sujatha has a lot of good ideas and brings a good background in marketing to OpenVMS.

[Jon Pinkley]

My guess is that 2008 was the last VMS bootcamp in the U.S.

If there is a next one, it will probably be in Bangalore, India, since that's where VMS Engineering will be.

[EdgarZamora_1]

Well I've just lost all confidence in the future of OpenVMS.

And it's not just HP. Our jobs are on the line too. And we're (well I'm not) answering/helping the very same people being trained to take over our jobs.

[Ian Miller.]

I think it's best to wait and see how this works out.

Do not assume that all the people with Indian sounding names who post here work for HP as most large IT companies have staff in India and some of those companies run VMS.

As I find it educational and rewarding to attempt to answer questions on this forum I shall continue to do so when I have the time, irrespective of who asks the question.

[Peter Zeiszler]

"Do not assume that all the people with Indian sounding names who post here work for HP as most large IT companies have staff in India and some of those companies run VMS."

This is very true. Our support staff of 11 people 5 years ago in the US is now 1 person in the US and 1 in India. I do not work for HP and neither does the person in India.

What will be missed is the "drive" and push for VMS. So far I haven't met a person supporting systems from India to have the same push and questioning of things.

I hope that all the engineering that ends up in India realizes that there are alot (ok - maybe only a few now) of people depending on them to push for new and exciting changes and features in VMS.

[Dave Gudewicz]

I for one will miss Sue. She was (much) more than a person in a particular position.

Sue was a beacon, a cheerleader and an ambassador of the highest order. She went the extra mile/kilometer for customers who, in many cases, became friends.

While I wish Sue's replacement all the best, Sue will not be easily replaced.

Succeeded yes. Replaced?

[Dave Gudewicz]

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.

[Andy Bustamante]

Sue, thank you for being the lightening rod for customer contact in the VMS world. You made me look good to my customers and managers by connecting me to right people in the VMS world. Youâ ll be missed.

One last hug,

Andy Bustamante

[Paul Jerrom]

I for one am gutted that Sue has been retrenched. So from now on I am not buying HP - starting with my next laptop purchase tomorrow.