Oracle i-flex takeover:  snacks stopped
By Shalini Singh

Yesterday, I-flex solutions, the premium technology company that became a stalwart in finance vertical with flexcube - the core banking product - was truly one of the big fish in the pond.  Today, it became just another company to merge with Oracle. It seems to become petite by the day.  And the cost cutting steps include the stoppage of free snacks and travel.

The migration to Oracle Financial Services Software limited made the good old i-flex a place of uncertainty amongst the employees. Change became a constant - the reason - part of the change is closure of the existing projects and part of it the recession. Meanwhile the Citi, TRIMS and State Street projects started narrowing down. This triggered more employees to be released from the projects. The head count of the employees on the bench started growing. 

I-flex started its own way to manage and see to it that the ROI is not affected much. Some steps were taken to withstand the change. The heavy recruitment slowed down dramatically. The vendors were asked to leave while the resources in-house could be replaced.  There were other measures of cost cutting like the daily snacks that were fully subsidized were stopped. The transport service partially subsidized before is now a paid addendum. 

Printers were reduced. Mails were sent to the employees to save paper. Rules were introduced so that if any employee prints more than 40 pages at one go, they will have to get their supervisors’ consent.  According to insiders they even removed the paper napkins in all the pantries for more than 3 days.
   
All this apart, most employees of Oracle Financial Software Services are even more agitated.  More than 200 employees were given pink slips this week.  According to sources, the management called 25 to 30 people for a meeting and announced the grim situation. It was said that some employees were offered the ‘opportunity’ to join the KPO with half the pay check or move on.  Some others were asked to come only half a month for half pay check.

In the midst of all the chaos, the employees working in projects/products are still putting in their hard work to get the best software possible on their clients’ table which was inherited from their leaders like Deepak Ghaisas.

Yesterday, the motto of iflex was “Life at iflex turns me on” today it turned to “life goes on….”

The Iflex logo was removed at Goregaun, Mumbai after Oracle took over a few months back.  The building now is called Oracle Park.

Techgoss note:  Oracle owns 81 percent of i-flex and in April, 2008 it was decided to rename it to Oracle Financials Services Software