After 19 years with HP, Ann Livermore has moved to a new HP business organization as part of a reorg of the company’s computer and services business. Livermore, who was president of HP’s customer-facing Business Customer Organization, will now be in charge of a new Hewlett-Packard business unit, one chartered with accelerating the growth of its IT services business. Livermore has been named president of the new HP Services operating unit and will report directly to Carly Fiorina, HP chairman, president and chief executive officer. Fiorina managed a unit with a similar charter at Lucent Technologies before taking the CEO post at HP. Livermore was responsible for driving the e-services concept at HP before Fiorina became CEO, a post which Livermore was also a finalist for.

HP said the move elevates the status of its IT services organization to an operating unit. Livermore, who’s been at work on selling HP’s servers and related products, is now in charge of growing HP's services businesses — consulting, outsourcing, support, education and solutions deployment — and strengthening HP’s relationships with system integrators. She continues as a member of HP’s Executive Council. Webb McKinney takes over her old position in the Business Customer Organization, and also joins the HP Council. Meanwhile HP’s consumer and commercial PC business, formerly part of the HP Computing Systems business led by Duane Zitzner which includes the HP e3000 division, will move to HP’s new Embedded and Personal Systems (EPS) business. In moving away from product management, Livermore said services are more important than ever to HP customers.

“Our consulting and outsourcing businesses have been growing at a healthy clip in recent quarters, and our support services have a vital role in solutions for an always-on Internet infrastructure,” she said. “Our services capabilities are essential components of our strategy to help companies transform their businesses.” HP Services becomes the sixth HP business organization. Two other customer-facing organizations — one for business customers and one for consumers — are focused on marketing, selling and packaging HP solutions. Three product-generation organizations — Computing Systems, Imaging and Printing Systems, and Embedded and Personal Systems — are responsible for inventing, creating and manufacturing technology solutions and products.