HP imports services director

By Staff Writer for HP

Johannesburg, 13 Dec 2007

HP SA has appointed Hansjoerg Walz to lead its services division.

A 20-year veteran of the vendor, Walz joins the local operations from HP Western Europe, where he was services delivery operations director.

The company says he has been tasked with growing the HP services business in SA, while "ensuring the continuous improvement of customer satisfaction levels".

Late last year, HP revealed it hoped to buy its way into the services market through a local acquisition. This deal was expected to be concluded in the first half of 2007, said HP senior VP and MD of Europe, Middle East and Africa Francesco Serafini.

Three months ago, HP confirmed acquisition talks had failed.

HP VP and MD of the Middle East, Mediterranean and Africa region Ken Willett explained: "For a lot of reasons, we decided not to pursue that particular deal. We had hoped we could clear all the details, but the deal just wasn`t working for us. The challenge is how do we become a major player in the market? We are still looking at acquisitions, but have added an element of organic entry to our strategy as well."

Yesterday, HP SA said its services division will focus on various industry sectors, including financial services, manufacturing and distribution, public sector, as well as communication, media and entertainment industries.