Hi A=MH² &
to the forum.
I do hope your right as that will be good for both the staff and customers, whcih ultimately benefits ntl and IBM.
I'm perhaps a little cynical due to my only experience of "outsourcing" and TUPE type transfers of staff - a local authority Architect Surveyors and Maintenance staffing including support line for building tenants and occupiers - to a large multinational service contract provider (you name it they have the finger in the pie somewhere - rail maintenance - tube - local government - hospitals - I could go on). The bottom line was cost - do it cheaper so that the parent company could see a profit. Doing the job professionally went out the window. It was no longer a case of how long do you need to do this properly, i.e. the staff dirve the job and resources based on their experience, just you have x hours allowed and that's it, driven by the accountants. If you didn't get the job done in that time, regardless or extenuating cirumstances you were in line for the chop. Problem is to get is done in time, you cut corners, and then had to take the blame when it fell apart on site (literally) cos the necessary bases weren't covered.
As for recruiting via an agency, does that gurantee better staff quality. I doubt it, more it's lining the pockets through the fees payable of yet somebody else, rather than investing in the actual support system's facilities and staff directly operating it.
We wait and see whether IBM will, with their vast experience actually resource it properly.