Siemens Enterprise Communications announced plans to cut 3,800 jobs worldwide as the company shifts its focus from hardware to software and professional services, a transition we covered a few weeks ago.

In a prepared statement, Siemens said that “planned sales or solutions involving a third party would affect roughly 3,000 employees worldwide, of whom about 1,200 are in Germany." The job cuts include the elimination of 2,000 jobs in Germany. The Siemens statement adds: "In Germany, ...headquarters and other administrative and support functions are expected to be affected the most. These moves are intended to accelerate the company’s transformation from a hardware supplier to a software and solutions provider to fit changed market conditions.”

In the same statement, Thomas Zimmermann, COO of the Siemens subsidiary, pointed out, that the company “will remain a reliable partner for its customers, whom we will continue to serve in the future with our highly innovative products and professional services.”

The company noted that despite the restructuring, “more focused investments in innovative product solutions are to be continued, and, among other measures, the company’s market position will be expanded in growth markets such as Russia and China.”

Siemens Enterprise Communications is the remaining communications business formed about two years ago when its parent company, Siemens AG, spun off its carrier communications business to a joint venture with Nokia called Nokia Siemens Networks and the enterprise communications group was not part of the arrangement. Siemens AG has been trying unsuccessfully to sell the enterprise networks business since the joint venture was announced. Siemens Enterprise Communications currently employs 17,600 people worldwide, and it reported a pre-tax loss of EUR 602 million in 2007.

Steve Taylor is president of Distributed Networking Associates and publisher/editor-in-chief of Webtorials. Larry Hettick is a principal analyst at Current Analysis.