Interpac Business and Migration Solutions Melbourne Australia

（January 5,2012）

ABOUT 260 technology workers will flood the job market this month following retrenchments at computer giant Hewlett-Packard Australia and steelmaker OneSteel.

Funding issues with HP's $US1 billion ($968 million) global IT transformation program would result in 180 jobs being axed, sources told The Australian.

Seventy per cent of the job losses are in Melbourne, and the rest are in Sydney.

Workers affected included project managers, analysts and various subject matter experts, sources said.

The move will affect contract workers attached to the transformation program, which has up to 1000 contract staff globally.

It is understood that a major factor affecting the project is the cost of contractor labour, which is running at $US30m a month.

The multi-year transformation plan consists of several projects and is aimed at standardising and automating internal processes so HP can compete more effectively.

 On Monday, local workers were told that the company had to "action shutdown activities for affected (transformation) programs", according to sources.

"This is because no funding has yet been secured from global or the regions.

"We also communicated all other transformation programs would either move to regional funding or stop. Effective immediately all other programs will be shut down."

A HP spokeswoman declined to comment on the job cuts, but said workforce changes were part of "normal business practice".

"It is part of normal business practice to review and align resources in line with business priorities," she said. "As part of the transformation program, we announced the HP next-generation data centre in Sydney in February 2011. Construction was completed by the end of 2011 and will be followed by a period of systems migration and testing to ensure the best levels of service for our clients."

Data centre consolidation and a handful of other projects have survived the cuts. HP is building a $100m-plus data facility at Eastern Creek, in western Sydney.

Gartner analyst Rolf Jester said while HP was among the leaders in its field, its transformation plan still had some way to go.

"Sometimes when you drive change it is tough . . . there are issues with HP's strategy, but HP is getting itself clarified," Mr Jester said. "Overall, HP is . . . in a promising position."

Gartner analysts believe most of HP's individual product areas are healthy and competitive, but at the corporate level "we are seeing HP struggle to move towards a more visionary, integrated strategy to leverage the collective assets of the company".

In a research note, the analysts said: "The transition will be challenging, given that it places HP in new market segments, and specific strategies and execution plans are unclear."

Meanwhile, struggling steelmaker OneSteel would slash 80 jobs from its 180-person IT division, sources said. It will result in the departure of chief information officer Michael Dines.

（Source：the australian）