HP reported heavy losses when it revealed its third quarter 2015 financial results this week, with the enterprise IT giant raking in net revenues of $25.3bn, down 8 per cent year on year.

PC revenues were down 13 per cent year on year, printing revenue down 9 per cent and software down 6 per cent. In cloud, it’s as-a-service business was down 4 per cent.

The company’s enterprise services group also took a big tumble, with revenues dropping 11 per cent, infrastructure technology outsourcing declining 11 per cent, and application and business services revenues dropping 7 per cent.

The results were well below analyst expectations.

“HP delivered results in the third quarter that reflect very strong performance in our Enterprise Group and substantial progress in turning around Enterprise Services,” said Meg Whitman, chairman, president and chief executive officer, HP. “I am very pleased that we have continued to deliver the results we said we would, while remaining on track to execute one of the largest and most complex separations ever undertaken.”

In a call with analysts this week Whitman tried to allay any fears of its stated strategic direction – the company is on track to split up later this year – and said it saw growth in key pockets of SaaS solutions, but that this growth was offset by weaker big data and IT management revenues.

“We remained focused on aligning our portfolio to the Hewlett-Packard Enterprise strategy and driving software-led integrated solutions across EG and ES while addressing the challenges around the market shift to SaaS and internal execution challenges,” she said.

“We’ve also refined our go-to-market over a longer period of time. And part of the challenge we had prior to me was the fact that we changed our go-to-market so many times. Every CEO had a different idea about how to go to market. We just locked on one and we’re driving it.”

“There might be things we can do to optimize, but we’ve got a strategy and we’re driving it. And I think that’s given the sales force and customers a lot of confidence. And we’ve all been out with a lot of customers. The first couple years was more internally focused. We’ve been out with customers. I would say our customer and partner confidence is at an all-time high. And the backlog, by the way, going into fourth quarter is the highest backlog I’ve had since I’ve been at the company. So all signs are good, but we remain on constant alert,” she added.