Within three weeks of retaking the reins at Ing C Olivetti & Co SpA, Carlo de Benedetti has largely dismantled the company structure put in place three years ago by Vittorio Cassoni, bringing administration and finance, personnel and industrial relations back into a centralised organisation, in a move that is expected to cost 2,000 jobs but, it is hoped, will save $330m a year in operating expenses. The present structure of Olivetti Systems & Networks for mainstream systems, Olivetti Office for personal computers and related products, Olivetti Technologies for components, and Olivetti Information Services for software will disappear, with the large overlap in sales forces to be eliminated. There will be three new units, Operations, Diversified Activities and Public Administration, putting a new stress on public sector business, but Information Services will survive. Elserino Piol, head of Systems & Networks, will head Operations, which covers about 90% of the total business, and will have Information Technology and Office divisions.
