Novell telephone support staff will be amongst the first to go in Asia Pacific under global cut backs that will see the company's workforce of 5200 reduced by five percent.
Twenty-three positions, mainly in technical support, will be axed over the next four months, according to Ashley Wearne, managing director, Novell Australasia.
"We have notified everybody in the entire technical support organisation as a group and have spoken to everyone individually so they all understand why, how it will affect us and how it will affect our customers," Wearne told ZDNet.
Wearne said that the job cuts are part of a new business model that will "provide better service for our customers".
Whereas telephone support used to be provided in every region, it will now be centrally managed from the US on a 24x7 basis.
"Telephone support in every region worked really well when it was just answering questions about features of products," Wearne said.
Standard queries of this kind would now be addressed by the Internet, and more expert advice garnered from support staff in the US, he added.
Some staff from the Asia Pacific region may be transitioned to the US, however "we don't yet know what the efficiencies will be in the US by the introduction of that model centrally," Wearne said.
Novell hopes to redeploy all 23 staff into other parts of the business, including onsite roles where employees go to customer premises and fix problems there.
Some staff will be cut from the company's marketing division, which is transitioning to a more centrally driven business model also.
Wearne, who is currently in New Zealand notifying staff of impending job losses, said he'd be sorry to see any staff member have to go.
"Frankly we are amazed at their reaction," Wearne said.
"They just want what's best for the company. That's why we want to keep them in the business."
