Azlan faces HP wrath over resource scale back - sources

Several jobs at Azlan's Basingstoke base thought to be at risk

A round of job cuts at Azlan's HP unit, driven by the integration of SDG, has reportedly put the vendor's back up after it pumped thousands of dollars of investment into the division, according to sources.

CRN understands Azlan's HP business manager John Ward is set to leave the firm, with a number of other members of Basingstoke-based Azlan's HP team at risk of redundancy as well. The move is said to have vexed HP because it gave Azlan the lion's share of a multi-million dollar fund aimed at helping Tech Data develop its pan-European convergered infrastructure resources.

Sources said the redundancies were prompted by the recent SDG acquisition, which left Tech Data with an overlap in its HP resources - with one main HP hub in Azlan's Basingstoke base and another new one in SDG's Birmingham offices. Initially, the distie was keen to talk up the preservation of jobs at both offices, but sources pointed to a power struggle between the two branches, which they claim SDG has won in light of the scale back in Basingstoke.

"[Tech Data] decided that the real high-end enterprise-facing [HP] business should be managed by SDG," said one source. "They were looking to cut costs and decided to get rid of some resources from Basingstoke, but that was a mystery to everyone. It was a very successful unit over the last few years; the reasons [Tech Data is cutting back there] are known to nobody."

Another source said the move to cut jobs has left Basingstoke staff uneasy.

"Lots of people are a bit unnerved by this - John Ward was very much the heartbeat of the HP team," the source said. "Other guys are under threat and don't know the outcome."

Another party unhappy with Azlan's decision to scale back its HP resource is the vendor itself, according to sources.

CRN understands HP had a $2m (£1.22m) pot of cash aimed at helping Tech Data beef up its HP resources around its converged infrastructure (server, storage and networking capabilities combined in one box) across Europe. It is thought a "substantial" amount of the cash was handed to Azlan UK.

Although the investment is thought to have come after the SDG takeover, sources said HP was under the impression that Azlan would get the cash as SDG's vendor focus was mainly on other vendors such as IBM.

"HP is not happy," a source said. "The whole point [of the investment] was to improve capability and get more reach and coverage, so it was very strange [of Azlan] to get rid of resources."

Another source said: "HP [believes] they have invested in Azlan and they have not executed on it - it has got rid of those players they were given the money for."

HP declined to comment directly on the claims but said in a statement that Tech Data remains an important partner.

"Tech Data continues to be an important player in HP's indirect route to market," it said. "HP remains committed to the relationship and is working jointly with Tech Data to leverage their scale and expertise in the UK and across EMEA."

Tech Data was unavailable to comment at the time of publication.