I was having lunch with a Documentum super-hero on Sunday; he was completely unaware of the scandal involving EMC Select Services Partner Satyam Consulting. According to the NY Times the firm's been cooking its books, Enron-style, for quite a while. How bad was the deception? 
"Mr. Raju said Wednesday that 50.4 billion rupees, or $1.04 billion, of the 53.6 billion rupees in cash and bank loans the company listed as assets for its second quarter, which ended in September, were nonexistent. "- source NY Times.
Another source says that Raju admitted that 94% of the cash listed in assets at the end of the company's second quarter was fictitious. It simply didn't exist.
Satyam, which was a 2008 sponsor of EMC World in Las Vegas, claims to provide expertise in verticals such as Automotive, Banking and Financial Service, Insurance and Healthcare, Manufacturing, and Telecom-Infrastructure-Media-Entertainment-Semiconductors (TIMES). They say that their network spans 55 countries, across 6 continents. Nearly 30,000 dedicated and highly skilled IT professionals, work in development centers in India, the USA, the UK, the UAE, Canada, Hungary, Singapore, Malaysia, China, Japan and Australia and serve over 489 global companies, including over 156 Fortune 500 corporations.
The Wall Street Journal's LiveMint.com reports that Forrester Research "has asked customers of Satyam Computer Services Ltd to begin reviewing their contracts amid concerns of potential management change or a potential sale after 10 January."
So what does this mean to you?
If you're a Satyam/EMC customer, you need a back-up plan, and quick. I know the Documentum and Documentum/SAP landscape well, feel free to give me a call. (I don't provide outsourcing services, so you don't have to worry about me trying to sell you.)
If you're a Satyam employee, you need a job/contract/assignment. That being said, if you're EMC certified, have strong customer references, and rate an 8/10, or better (and if you're presently in the USA, I might be able to give you a hand. First send me your resume, then give me a call; if you rank with the rest of our consultants, we'll put you to work.
Finally, I'd urge companies, of every size, who rely on outsourcing/insourcing/vendor management, to take greater control of their consulting arrangements; after all, many Documentum customers and consultants in the Financial sector were hurt in 2006 when Computer Horizons sold an ailing Chimes to Axium and then again in 2008 when Axium filed for bankruptcy liquidation.
Corporate America turned to Vendor Management and Outsourcing firms to save money and minimize risk. Maybe it's time to ask ourselves that old walk-around management question, "How are we doing?"
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