HP: Do as I say, not as I do?

BusinessWeek has a flattering article on Randy Mott, new CIO at HP. Randy has one of the best CIO resumes after his performances at Wal-Mart and Dell.

The article says if Randy is successful HP's annual spending in tech will be cut in half in the years ahead from $ 3.5 billion in 2005. Now that is what HP, the company, should be preparing for its customers to also be doing to it.

HP' has several areas where its customers will be pushing and probing in the next few years - putting pressure on its high printer margins, removing excess hardware capacity through consolidation and HaaS, demanding more offshore and automation leverage in its outsourcing contracts.

HP salespeople should be shadowing Randy's team. It will be good training for what CIOs are planning around their HP spend. Instead of trying to convince customers what is good for HP, is not good for them.