Siemens-Unify to cut 3,800 jobs and push more work to channel

Unify – formerly Siemens Enterprise Communications – is cutting its workforce in half to focus on software over hardware.

The vendor is slashing 3,800 jobs from its global headcount of nearly 7,700.

Central Europe will be the worst hit, accounting for 50 percent of the cuts, according to a statement from the company.

"This transformation is designed to enable Unify to measurably improve the productivity of customers through software solutions and services, an enhanced partner approach, and a significantly streamlined organisation," read the statement.

The unified communications vendor will focus on "innovation in software development, integration and managed services".

"These plans will entail a restructuring of the company worldwide, a shift to a multi-tier go-to-market approach, and the consolidation of sites around the globe. This also includes a review of the future location of the global headquarters."

The announcement comes just a month after Unify revealed a renewed channel push, led by chief executive Dean Douglas, who joined from Westcon Group in January this year.

In February, Unify appointed Jon Pritchard as executive vice-president of worldwide channels; Pritchard brought senior expertise at Comstor Worldwide and Ingram Micro.

In April, Douglas said: "This is the year that we change the industry viewpoint of Unify and become the first choice for the channel.

"We are not only strengthening our channel, we are completely reworking our strategy, business model and programs to have a channel-first sales approach."

Unify's sole distributor, CommsPlus, revealed to CRN that it was heavily recruiting for new partners.

One major focus for Unify is Project Ansible, "an immersive solution that erases the boundaries of multiple communication channels and business process applications and integrates them into an intuitive ‘single pane of glass’ user experience".