Thus, the decision has been made to grow a consulting staff internally. HP claims to have added some 1,700 consultants over the past year and aims to add another 1,500. HP is certainly capable of growing a respectable professional-services organization, but doing so will take considerably longer than purchasing one. Perhaps more than anything, HP will miss gaining access to PricewaterhouseCoopers' Rolodex. Whether revving up its internal consulting is the right thing to do is debatable.
Some analysts say that buying consulting from systems vendors is a bad idea.
After all, the professional-services arm of a systems house is going to consider only one provider. For systems vendors, however, the allure of offering consulting is irresistible. After all, consultants often have closer relationships with customers than do systems vendors. As a result, gains in HP's key enterprise and service provider markets will be hard won. The most likely scenario for domestic growth is one in which the entire market grows.