Recently in HP and EDS Category

Weeks after the announced acquisition much of the coverage and analysis surrounding the proposed HP and EDS deal still focuses almost exclusively on the effect this transaction will have on the respective companies. What missing is the impact this will have on their customers. As the Economist wrote, "Culture aside, EDS's big selling point is to be the largest services firm that is independent of any hardware or software vendor." That independence is about to be challenged.

Perhaps they are culturally dissimilar but the marriage between the two can be summed up like this: one has huge pockets and desires to be IBM, while the other empty pockets and desires to be ‘a somebody’ again. Fair or unfair, this assessment is precisely why the same Economist article also notes that while EDS "…will continue to advise clients to buy systems from all vendors…those clients are now likely to pay more attention when the boxes come from HP."

And customers ought to pay more attention to those boxes for a very simple reason: big vendors don’t have a track record of playing well with others. Now that HP has acquired all the software vendors it needed to build a BSM strategy, customers should be concerned that with the purchase of EDS, HP will outsource them too. The sales pitch will evolve almost nonchalantly, perhaps even unknowingly, from selling products -- to selling implementation services -- to outsourcing everything.

The promise to eliminate all IT headaches may sound alluring initially -- but the second and third order of effects can be severe: The client has absolutely no control of their IT destiny, and by extension -- given the reliance of business on IT -- no control of their business. Once again, having an independent, transparent, best-of-breed vendor, with a mastery over integration, will be essential for clients to retain an element of control over their businesses.

- Sean