This Sunday, November 30th will mark the first anniversary of my retirement from EDS. In that time, the economy has tanked, we have elected a new president, the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan continue, and not to be forgotten, EDS has ceased to exist as an independent company.
EDS' fate was better than other corporations such as Bear Sterns or Lehman Brothers--at least it still exists as a division of HP. Similar to Citi, HP has announced massive layoffs at EDS, but those layoffs are smaller in absolute number and spread over a longer period of time. Timing is everything--who knows what would have happened to EDS if the acquisition was delayed by three months.
It is interesting to look at EDS from the outside, having shed some of the biased lenses that come with a job inside the company. While remaining a stockholder in HP, having no stock interest in EDS as an independent company also helps shed some bias.
Something is going to happen soon, based on activity by EDSers on LinkedIn. I have never seen the level of activity by all levels of the organization on LinkedIn representing either worry about their jobs, or dissatisfaction with their jobs. Employees are joining, making links, or expanding links, and joining groups at a rate I haven't seen in years. Whether employees think something is happening or something is really happening, it's hard to say.
With that said, EDS seems to have done well in the last year. It has significant challenges over the next 18-24 months, as do other companies in the IT marketspace. I believe that HP's CEO has the intelligence, perspective, and will to fully integrate EDS as a successful adjunct to HP's hardware offerings. However, it will be an interesting few quarters to see what happens. The transition will be complete when EDS' CEO leaves. My guess is that will occur in the next year.
Your thoughts?
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Well Walt -- I did not realize it had been a year -- how time flies [or is it something about rolling stones and moss - I never can remember].
Here's my perspective for what it's worth...HP is attempting to be the balancing 300lb gorilla to IBM. That being said, the two companies do have a slight difference in what they do, how they perceive their work, and what really matters to them [i.e. bottom line]. HP has work to do within Services -- integrating EDS is and will remain a challenge [although both companies have shared an attitude of "get rid of people" to shave costs], the difference is that HP also believes that the organization should be lean from top to bottom -- something that was not the case at EDS.
Next -- HP is a channel company and they understand that there are multiple sales channels to their customers. Easy to do when it's around product, we'll see what happens in the service side of the business. EDS has know only one customer -- big [very, very big] companies and organizations -- not lots of variance in their customer base [which has limited their growth from time to time]. But that also means they understand working within the world of big organizations, which is a good skill to have.
But I believe what is really going to set HP + EDS up for growth is the move to "virtual" services. The world is changing - and automation within technology is going to increase at a very fast pace over the next few years. HP is focused on "managing the infrastructure" through products and services -- now the challenge is how to turn all that "power" into a utility - turn it on, pay for what I use, then turn it off. That's the battle ground for the next generation of IT management and operations -- companies are going to figure "why buy the cow, when all I really want is the milk". There are other companies doing it today, the problem is, they aren't working with the [or even know how to engage] the top 500 organizations in the word - which will drive a boatload of revenue for the whole industry.
At least that's my take.
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