Avaya's Chris Formant on HP-EDSAvaya's Chris Formant on HP-EDS

I caught up with Chris Formant, president of Avaya Global Services, to get his perspective on HP's planned $13 billion-plus acquisition of EDS. I particularly wanted to get Chris's view because he goes back a long ways in the consulting business, and it turns out he was at PWC back when HP was trying to acquire that company (which wound up going to IBM) in 2002. Chris is very bullish on the HP-EDS deal.

I caught up with Chris Formant, president of Avaya Global Services, to get his perspective on HP's planned $13 billion-plus acquisition of EDS. I particularly wanted to get Chris's view because he goes back a long ways in the consulting business, and it turns out he was at PWC back when HP was trying to acquire that company (which wound up going to IBM) in 2002. Chris is very bullish on the HP-EDS deal.Of course, the immediate concerns are around "synergies," aka layoffs, and since Avaya Global Services is in hiring mode, Chris acknowledged that "we're getting lots of calls from people at HP and EDS." Chris noted that the steep price HP is paying makes it imperative that they realize all the possible synergies.

However, Chris belives that if the two services companies can be integrated--always a big "if" in any mega-merger--the result will be an outsourcing "powerhouse" that will provide much-needed competition for IBM Global Services. And while the combined HP-EDS will be strong in outsourced infrastructure, he believes that moving into the systems integration/consulting market--where they could pose a threat to Avaya Global Services for communications engagements--will be a tougher challenge: "Both of them [HP and EDS] have struggled with" SI/consulting, he maintained.

Chris said multi-national enterprises "need more partners you can work with in multi-regions," and HP-EDS gives them another choice beside IBM and Accenture.

"If you're on the other side, the buyer, you love this deal," he concluded.