The outsourcing industry has evolved in the years since HP bought EDS. The number of multi-tower, single-sourced deals have diminished, the number of providers offering contract and services flexibility has increased, and virtualization and cloud-based offerings have multiplied. "Given those trends, it is increasingly difficult for providers within the IT outsourcing space to offer differentiated services," says Robinson. That could mean that some IT service providers, like HP, will simply need fewer bodies to stay in business, says Robinson.

But it could also mean real trouble for HP. "HP has been late to the game with respect to new service offerings that enable greater flexibility to buyers. Their competitors--both large and small--have been moving in this direction for some time," Robinson says. "Some of the legacy EDS staff [are] less capable or willing to incorporate the necessary blend of services into their client offerings."

Existing HP customers are most likely to feel the first effects of the mass exodus. "If HP has been over-delivering on service levels, you can expect them to reduce support staff to only achieve [standard] service levels," says Mark Ruckman, an outsourcing consultant with Sanda Partners. "In staffing reductions of this size, whole departments will be cut and the remaining HP staff will be unsure where to turn for internal support. The confusion will last for a few months." Service levels and project delivery could suffer. Longer term, customers must find out what kind of provider HP intends to be and whether that works for their sourcing needs.

Clients that are relatively satisfied with HP's performance and price points may not be too worried, says Engel of Sylvan Advisory. "[But] if a client has entered into an onerous relationship where HP is enduring engagement-level profit margins that are deemed to be sub-standard--less than 30 percent gross profit--they would be well-advised to have plan B."

For customers sourcing new IT work, it may not make as much of a difference as it should. They may rely more on the company's size and history than current uncertainty. "Historically buyers don't care as much about the financials and performance of their providers as we, the so-called experts, think they should," says the outsourcing consultant. "They get caught up in the heat of their decisions and are so hyper-focused on their own deal terms and conditions that they're not thinking about the state of their provider in five years. But it should be something they consider."