This is not about offshoring (although some of the work will go overseas of course). This is about IBM's customers growing tired of the endless expense and head

This is not about offshoring (although some of the work will go overseas of course). This is about IBM's customers growing tired of the endless expense and headaches of dealing with consultant-provided software. Need an upgrade? Hire a consultant. Need a new feature? Hire a consultant. Need to reconfigure? Hire a consultant. Now that corporations have grown more comfortable using Software-as-a-Service solutions, they're telling companies like IBM to stop billing for consultants and instead just take over all hosting and maintenance. Obviously IBM should try and host as efficiently as possible (that is, with as small a staff as possible) so they'll need to shed consulting labor.