HP Enterprise Group SVP Seidl Set To Step Aside

Randy Seidl, the hard-charging head of U.S. enterprise group sales who brought a swagger and take-no-prisoners kick to the Hewlett-Packard sales effort, is stepping down from that post effective in September, sources said.

Seidl, who took the U.S. enterprise sales team by storm when he took the senior vice president post in October 2009, stepped up HP's competitive sales pace against rivals like Cisco in the networking business and Dell in the server business with trade-in incentives and more aggressive competitive offers for customers and partners.

Seidl also brought a no-nonsense focus on sales fundamentals including getting HP sales reps and partners to make more calls on customers and follow up immediately with sales proposals.

[Related: HP Appoints Channel Veteran To Step Up Full Enterprise Portfolio Push ]

Palo Alto, Calif.-based HP would not comment.

Seidl, a 28-year technology sales veteran who began his career at EMC in 1985 and helped drive early international sales growth at the storage giant, was recruited by HP Enterprise Group Executive Vice President and General Manager Dave Donatelli, who worked with Seidl at EMC.

Donatelli, a one-time 22-year EMC veteran, and Seidl, an 11-year EMC veteran -- both Boston College graduates -- teamed together to bring a new competitive fire to what was at the time they took the reins of the enterprise business four years ago a moribund sales effort.

"Randy transformed the HP sales organization from one that was internally focused when he took the job to a customer-focused organization providing improved responsiveness to the customer base," said Fred Traversi, the president of AdvizeX Technologies LLC, one of HP's top 10 enterprise partners and a unit within services giant Rolta, a $500 million IT services powerhouse. "The key word I would use is transformation. He took an organization that was not aggressive and made it extremely aggressive."

AdvizeX's sales engagement with the HP enterprise sales team increased dramatically after Seidl took the helm, said Traversi.

"From a channel standpoint, he embraced and empowered channel partners dramatically increasing HP's channel footprint," said Traversi, noting that AdvizeX's HP sales have grown 50 percent during Seidl's tenure. "Randy built a sales and leadership team in North America that embraced the channel and aggressively competed against other OEMs."

PUBLISHED JUNE 7, 2013