Hewlett Packard to push top-end growth

HEWLETT-PACKARD bulks up its sales army to chase IT work at the big end of town.

Hewlett Packard is bulking up on its sales staff in a bid to cash in on the improved economy / File

HEWLETT-PACKARD Australia is bulking up its sales army to chase IT services work at the big end of town as the economy recovers and the firm's digestion settles after buying EDS in 2008.

HP Australia chief Paul Brandling said the company was snapping up extra sales and consulting bodies for its business as the economy picked up speed after the global financial crisis, The Australian reports.

Getting feet on the street in the top end of town was the main aim of the recruiting effort.

"The area we have hired the most into is global accounts, which is the top 1600 IT spending corporations around the world, of which there is a subset in Australia," Mr Brandling said.

In the past HP has played more at the low to mid range of the IT services and consulting game, but its acquisition of global IT services company EDS has pushed its sights higher.

"We are investing big dollars to grow fastest in that top-spending community." he said.

Our intention is to have a sales team in the global accounts space that engages at a strategic level."

Headcount in the global accounts division would be boosted between 50 per cent and 100 per cent this financial year and HP would be snatching staff from competitors. "Not exclusively from our competitors, but some of it would be from competitors," Mr Brandling said.

Globally, HP grew 13 per cent in its second quarter compared with the same period last year.

Read more at The Australian.