By Nathan Luck
HCL AXON, the SAP-focused subsidiary of global Indian IT conglomerate HCL, recently took a step closer to its ideal of full integration with its parent company through the restructuring of its sales force for SAP services.
“Up until February of this year, all SAP sales were handled by a dedicated HCL AXON sales team, focused on a relatively small number of large deals, often from a standing start,” said Clive Ewin, general manager, HCL AXON Australia. “We have disbanded this group in preference of the larger HCL sales team, which has given us access to a wide range of clients – where HCL has existing relationships and credentials – through the sale of other IT services. This is proving to be a successful strategy in terms of increased SAP services sales, and also in the provision of better integrated IT services to our clients.”
“The HCL sales force in Australia is deeply and broadly connected to all industry sectors. It simply didn’t make sense not to harness those connections, and early results are very encouraging,” Ewin said.
Part of the restructure included separating the operational aspects of the Australian and New Zealand entities. “Australia and NZ were split for a couple of reasons,” Ewin added. “Firstly, we needed a dedicated management focus on Australia to improve the performance here. Conversely, NZ performance was very good. The business was being managed very well by Wayne Pohe, and we wanted Wayne to manage all HCL operations in NZ. We also wanted to reduce the large management and administration overhead, which had developed partly because of the trans-Tasman structure.”
The restructure also saw HCL AXON trim sales and management overheads and reduce its consulting workforce by 15 staff members to more closely match demand. With approximately 80 SAP consultants remaining in Australia, Ewin said HCL AXON is now in growth mode to meet new opportunities.
“Business transformation is still our core focus and offering to the market, but we now have an appetite for any SAP-enabled change where a client is seeking defined business benefits. This means smaller projects as well as large programs,” said Ewin. “The unique value proposition of HCL AXON – local, business-outcome based SAP consulting supported by the breadth, depth and cost advantages of an onshore/offshore provider – remains current and highly valuable in the current market.”
Transfield is one of HCL AXON’s main current projects.
