However, the dispute over how to run IT involves two key goals of the merger -- cutting costs in the IT department and growing HP's services business. "I feel that the implications of this decision for our (managed services) strategy are significant," Holdenried said in the email. "They should not to be resolved through implementing a compromise that eventually will fail in achieving either the significant value capture goals for IT or the strategic goals of the Managed Services strategy. We have tried that and did not succeed so far." Such disputes are rare, Bowick said. "It's a few percent of all the thousands of decisions we made." In most cases, she said, the plans drawn out in the clean room take root, although there is a procedure to alter course if circumstances change. One HP services executive said that the company is continuing to let services run the IT department. Juergen Rottler, a vice president who reports to HP Services chief Ann Livermore, said that the dispute has been largely settled, with HP intending to do things the way it did pre-merger. "It was a very strategic choice by HP to outsource its IT environment and infrastructure to HP services -- this was premerger," Rottler said. "So obviously as you merge you kind of have a discussion with the new part of the company." When asked his views about outsourcing computer operations in a May interview, Napier said, "I might consider allowing somebody to fly the plane for me, but I'm going to be the one who owns the flight plan." Rottler acknowledged that there are lingering issues. "I won't argue that there might not be some people who are disappointed or would like to have more control," Rottler said. "(The) reality is, HP is in the services business and we've got to leverage all of the assets we've got, and HP IT is one of the assets." Rottler said that workers will adjust to the new structure, by necessity. "There is an element where, at some point in time, that's just tough. Get with the game, and if you can't, you probably should be doing something different." Still, Rottler said that HP's services group will have to choose its battles. "There is a strategic choice that companies make and then there is a migration path into that strategic choice," Rottler said. "You don't want -- and I am not talking HP specifically -- but you don't want the internal IT organisation to be your enemy because they'll find ways to undermine your success as a services company."
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