HP and other global companies are battling to attract new talent and retain what they have, especially in active markets such as ERP deployments and application modernisation - and any merger provides employees with a chance to reassess their career paths. Although not a perfect comparison, HP could take a lesson from IBM and its PwCC acquisition.
IBM moved in quickly with incentives to make sure the bulk of PwCC partners stayed on through the integration, even maintaining elements of PwCC's partner-led organisational structure. The result was less employee attrition post-merger than many had predicted.
Ultimately, whether IBM, Accenture, CSC and Capgemini need fear the outcome of this potential deal would rest on the success or otherwise of what would undoubtedly be a very ambitious corporate integration project. On paper an HP-EDS combination looks workable. But in practice it could prove anything but.
Phil Codling, Principal Analyst
John Madden, Research Director, Ovum Summit
Tom Kucharvy, Senior Vice President, Ovum Summit