HP has once more restructured its business units serving service providers, network equipment suppliers and media companies.
The IT hardware and services firm has consolidated its telecom and digital content management software with industry-specific professional services under the new Communications and Media Solutions group.
It was less than three years ago that HP last restructured its network and service provider business group. It formed the Communications, Media & Entertainment (CME) in May 2006 in response to the convergence of telecom and entertainment and aimed to take advantage of the rapid shift to digital media.
This latest move, the company says, will streamline product development and improve efficiency by reducing duplication.
The group's CTO Brian Levy told telecomasia.net at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona that the move was aimed at bringing together "a quite complex organization that encompassed the Open Call unit, CME business with vertical product as well as a number of horizon products.
The goal was it make it a more simple and focused organization that addressed the needs of the customer more completely."
The business is part of HP software and has a $1 billion P&L and more than 1,000 employees.
One major shift, Levy said, is that the new business brings together the delivery assets and the sales assets so their objectives are aligned. "It's no good to get a wonder sale but mess up on the delivery, or deliver well but not do very well in the market on sales. The value comes from the combination of executing on both."
On the R&D side, he said there is no shortage of ideas at HP. "We have a system for capturing them and evaluating them. The issue often is not the number of ideas but the ability to bring them into the company and make them work. In the past we have not been as good as we should be. So we have a very structured innovation process and the right level of investment to take that forward."
In the current economic environment, he insisted it's no longer good enough to be a market "waiter".
"In a great market, it's okay to wait for an RFP. But in times like these, you have to be a market-maker and to spot the seeds of where to go next. You have to find the seeds and grow them, so you come of this cycle a winner. You're going to see us aggressively take such a strategy going forward."