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Computerworld - Hewlett-Packard today made some seismic level changes to its top management that included the exit of its CIO, Randy Mott, who is leaving "effective immediately."

Another major change was the exit of Ann Livermore, an HP employee since 1982, as head of HP's Enterprise Business. But Livermore, who has been on the short-list of potential CEOs of the company, will continue to work for HP as a member of its board, the company said.

The organization changes also point to the people who will form the core of CEO Leo Apotheker's leadership team at HP.

Dave Donatelli, executive vice president of enterprise servers, storage, networking and technology services, and Bill Veghte, executive vice president, software, who both reported to Livermore, will now report directly to Apotheker, HP said. Jan Zadak, executive vice president of global sales, will also report directly to the CEO.

Other changes may be coming as Apotheker, a former CEO of SAP, works to improve HP's software and services businesses.

"In our ongoing effort to accelerate our progress in executing our strategy, we will continue to make the necessary changes that streamline our operations, drive focus and agility, and position us for success," said Apotheker in a statement announcing the executive changes. Apotheker was appointed HP's CEO last fall.

The roles of some other top executives are expanding as well. Citing the critical markets of China and India to HP's growth, the company said that Todd Bradley, executive vice president of the personal systems group, will lead cross-business initiatives focused on expanding HP's market share in China, and Vyomesh Joshi, executive vice president of the imaging and printing group, will lead similar efforts in India.

Major organizational changes were telegraphed last month by Apotheker when he told investors during an earnings announcement of his plan to find an executive vice president to head HP's services business, a function that had been part of Livermore's enterprise business.

Livermore "has done a lot for the organization," said Crawford Del Prete, an analyst at IDC. With Livermore's move to HPs board, Del Prete says she "may be very well have been wanting to do something different," particularly after Apotheker changed the dynamics of the job.

HP is also changing its internal IT management. It will eliminate its chief administration officer role and "broaden the role of its chief information officer," the company said. As a result, said HP, Pete Bocian, the executive vice president, and Mott, the CIO, both left HP effective immediately. "The company will conduct a search for a successor," said HP, which thanked them for their service.

Mott led a massive consolidation of HP's IT, reducing 85 data centers down to six, consolidating data warehouses and sharply reducing the number of internal IT projects. A former CIO of Dell and before then Wal-Mart Stores, Mott believed in creating an IT system that delivered "a single version of the truth" to the business.

Regarding Mott, Del Prete said with the build phase of the IT consolidation largely over, it now looks like HP wants to combine the role of the CIO with the chief administrative officer, "and that's why I think he is leaving."

Patrick Thibodeau covers SaaS and enterprise applications, outsourcing, government IT policies, data centers and IT workforce issues for Computerworld. Follow Patrick on Twitter at  @DCgov or subscribe to Patrick's RSS feed . His e-mail address is pthibodeau@computerworld.com.

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