BancTec Reviews

Pros

Technology-driven company where sales defines the products and services offered, not engineering.

Cons

The biggest issue is availability of top-level management time for strategic decisions. Response times to even the most important decision queries is extremely lagging, if a response comes at all. People at the acquired subsidiary are very dissatisfied, as management communicates sparingly at best and is rarely seen at the subsidiary location.

Advice to Senior Management

Since management resources are clearly lacking due to work level, you absolutely, positively need to add resource (internal or external) to help take the day-to-day off top management shoulders.

Pros

Some nice clients and interesting projects
Good induction programme

Cons

Old technology in use for internal systems
Long hours with no recompense

Advice to Senior Management

Better technology planning needed

Pros

Most of us have to work somewhere. Its just a job in a tough economy.

Cons

A layoff could come up next week. Always looking over your shoulder. Not a bright future.

Advice to Senior Management

I know its tough, hang in there and recognize the value of your emplyees

Pros

Very hardworking and innovative environment. Lots of new technology and great customer base. Lots of smart people who enjoy working there

Cons

Lots of change of direction and ver y American bias. Pay plans are slightly behind the market. In that they are prepared annually. On balance still very positive place to work.

Advice to Senior Management

Work with the employees and gather feedback that can then be refined and acted upon in a timely fashion. Take some benchmark data from the market place

Pros

Ok benefits, ok salary, ok responsibility

Cons

Losing business and market share

Advice to Senior Management

Do a better job selling your product

Pros

Pay---Can't complain about compensation. Base Pay rate was reasonable but management was constantly screaming about overtime..something you need to live with when writing 7X24 contracts.

Benefits---Company provides standard bebefits but is charging more and more for less and less.

Cons

Respect----This company has ZERO respect for their employees. They are treated like a necessary evil that the company would love to get rid of at the frist opportunity. We were supposed to be in the business od solving problems...but when a problem arose, instead of figuring out what to do about it, the company gets upset and starts looking for someone to blame. Machine stats were submitted to management daily...This stats system was originally implemented as a diagnostic tool. But they have tried to turn it into a marketing tool and want to know why there is any decline and a detailed report on why it happened and what will be done.

Job Security----There is none. Upper management has no confidence in being able to secure business. They loose what they have through incompetence. They finally resorted to insisting the field people provide sales leads. I thought that's why we had a sales department.

Work/Life Balance----What balance? They run a skeleton crew..(if you are lucky) and there is no backup. You are constantly on call will be chastised if you are unavailable for any reason.

Career Potential/growth-----Zero. Especially in the Field services. All areas are being cut drastically to the point of being unable to do the job.

Location-----Was able to spend most of my time in my home area with only a small amout of out of town travel. But management forbid travel of any kind and even looked hard at local travel to assigned areas.

Co-Worker competence----For the most part I must say that my co-workers were VERY competent. They knwe what they were doing and deserved far more than the constant browbeating given by management.

Work Environment---In a word...Horrible. Management didn't know and didn't care what was going on in the field unless there was a complaint. Then instead of supporting the employee...they would leave him/her twisting in the wind. Pricing structure of products was such that making money was almost impossible and they refused to raise rates instead constantly cutting parts and people. They passed on legit billing opportunities for fear of angering the customer. And regional manager constantly OK'd free moves and installs. Something IBM would never do.

Advice to Senior Management

Treat your employess with the respect they dseseve and please price your product so you can make a reasonable profit without having to cut corners.

Pros

Good People, good technology and ideas

Cons

Top heavy, too many silos, too many sales organizations

Advice to Senior Management

Quicker response to customer and market needs

Pros

It was a great stepping stone, since they "hired" me with no field experience, based on demonstrated knowledge and "hands-off" experience. I more or less set my own hours by scheduling my service calls directly with the customers which allowed freedom to take an afternoon off if I desired and call volume allowed (which it usually did). Very little feedback from management worked both ways -- something had to really get screwed up before I got yelled at (which I don't actually remember happening in my two years with the company).

Cons

As far as I could tell, each complete reorganization (twice in the two years I was with the company -- not counting the one between my date of hire and my start date, which resulted in me having to officially reapply) resulted in the company hiring another (or two) $150k+ VP of Something or Other to find out why the company wasn't making enough money, and the answer was inevitably "too much money being spent on the field employees." Every conference call was dreaded as the possible end of your career with the company as front-line positions were eliminated left and right, and if you survived, your pay and benefits would take a hit anyway. Also, my entire training consisted of running two service calls with another technician. Never worked on that machine before? Figure it out quick!

Advice to Senior Management

Without front-line employees such as field technicians, you have no income. No income, no jobs for senior managers either. You can't expect each field technician to pay for three vice-presidents, which was the direction I saw the company going. Lose some of the expensive dead weight and spend the money in the field.

Pros

I get paid on time.

Cons

Very little room for advancement on the technical side unless you want to be in middle management for the rest of your life. Poor personnel management, the inability to keep location properly staffed. Possibly related to the last point, pay is substandard for the region.

Advice to Senior Management

Don't be the lowest bidder on contracts, make sure that you add some safety room into them. "A trend" takes place over a period of time, not one day. Using your employees as a yo-yo (hiring and firing constantly) is not a great way to build morale.