Hewlett-Packard to employ sales personnel

December 8, 2009 - 9:00 am | 34 views

Technology.am (Dec. 08, 2009) — Hewlett-Packard plans to improve its sales force to carry on winning clients and gets better the way it pitches computers and associated services to corporations, Executive Vice President Ann Livermore said.

Hewlett-Packard The company will employ from services firms and in addition aim chief information officers with sales skills, Livermore said in an interview at Bloomberg’s headquarters in New York today. The company has over 24,000 salespeople, a 50 percent increase from four years ago.

Livermore oversees a unit that account for 47 percent of Hewlett-Packard’s revenue and includes server computers, storage devices, software and services. The company, which competes against International Business Machines Corp., is engineering- focused and not as “polished” with its sales pitches as some rivals, Livermore said.

Hewlett-Packard has made “a tremendous amount of progress” over the past some years building the sales force and improving the client experience, Livermore said. “That’s the proficiency set we’ve been building and totaling to the organization.”

Livermore, 51, aims to draw more customers by making Hewlett-Packard a one-stop shop for corporations’ information- technology wants. The company has made about 30 acquisitions in the past 3-1/2 years to enlarge its product and services lineup, Livermore said.

Largest unit

Livermore has headed Hewlett-Packard’s enterprise business group ever since 2004. Under her leadership, the group — one of the three core product divisions along with the personal-computer and printing units — has roughly doubled its sales to $53.6 billion. That puts the unit in front of the PC business, with sales of $35.3 billion.

‘Team Player’

Livermore joined Hewlett-Packard in 1982. She’s the longest-serving member of staff to hold a spot on the executive team after Vyomesh “VJ” Joshi, head of the Imaging and Printing Group. Joshi joined in 1980.

Livermore said she has stayed at Hewlett-Packard as the opportunity to redesign the technology market by offering a blend of networking, storage and services.

Last month, Hewlett-Packard decided to buy 3Com Corp. for $2.7 billion, countering moves by Cisco Systems Inc. to develop into the main supplier of networking and computer gear for corporate data centers. The networking market needed a “big No. 2 player” so that clients have choice, Livermore said.

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