The shift in management removes a layer between the HP 3000 group and Computer Organization chief Rick Belluzzo. Commercial Systems Division (CSY) general manager Harry Sterling now reports directly to Russell, who reports to Belluzzo. The new organization puts only two managers between CSY and HP CEO Lew Platt for the first time.
Russell, 45, comes to his post after about a year as head of HP's technical computing operations. Prior to 1996 he was head of HP's European Computer Systems Organization. His new post does not include management of HP's workstation business, which has been moved to HP's Personal Systems Group alongside Netservers and PCs.
Belluzzo, in charge of all of HP's computer activities since August 1995, created a separate sales organization to serve the needs of five computer groups. Dick Watts is now in charge of all of HP's computer sales and channels, working as general manager of the new Computer Sales and Distribution Group. Watts, former manager of the Computer Systems Organization, had recently taken a higher profile with the HP 3000 community with an appearance at last year's HP World conference and at a Web site where he answered customer questions about HP product strategy.
The separate sales force harkens back to an earlier HP organizational structure, where sales efforts for all of HP were served from a separate group. While Belluzzo's move mirrors that setup, it adds two new twists: separate groups for marketing and electronic commerce.
Glenn Osaka heads the new business unit devoted to electronic commerce. Osaka, who was general manager of CSY in 1992 and 1993, heads up the Enabled Enterprise Business Unit. He was previously general manager of the Commercial Systems Business Unit, the counterpart to Bill Russell's technical group. Osaka's move is a promotion that now has him reporting directly to Belluzzo, as does Russell.
Most activities of the old Commercial and Technical Computing Business Units are combined in Russell's new Enterprise Servers Group (ESG). The unit includes the CSY and HP 9000 divisions and an Enterprise Storage group that delivers HP disk and tape units for use with HP servers. In addition to these operations which were part of Osaka's old group, the ESG now also includes X-terminal operations from HP's Panacom Division, which is working on HP's first network computer; supercomputer offerings from its Convex operations; and the core technology operations which were part of the old Systems Technology Group (STG).
Those core technology operations revolve around HP's alliance with Intel for IA 64 chip development and the retooling of HP-UX. Rich Sevcik, general manager of the STG, left HP in April to join Xylinx, a maker of CMOS programmable logic and design software. Sevcik left the HP technology group to work for his old boss, Wim Roelandts, who left HP in early 1996 to take the CEO post at Xylinx.
The reorganization also expanded the domain of a rising manager in the Computer Organization, 38-year-old Ann Livermore. Already the head of HP's Worldwide Customer Support Organization, her new Software and Services Group also includes the consultants and integrators in HP's Professional Services Organization and the Enterprise Solutions Organization, home of HP's OpenView and OpenMail products.
Belluzzo's reorganization of his operations marks a complete change in the HP 3000 chain of command during the last 18 months. Since Belluzzo took his post overseeing all HP computer operations, HP 3000-related managers Roelandts, former Computer Systems Group GM Bernard Guidon, Sevcik, Osaka and former CSY general manager Olivier Helleboid have all either left HP or taken jobs further removed from HP 3000 activities. Only Osaka, whose new group will work with HP divisions to accelerate delivery of "secure Internet-based electronic business and commerce solutions to customers," remains related to HP 3000 activities.