NelsonHall recently completed an in-depth analysis of advanced digital workplace services, in which we spoke to multiple leading IT services vendors and their clients. This blog looks at some of the key themes from this research, the investments vendors need to make to meet client demand, and how the market will evolve over the next 12-18 months. The four overarching themes from t[...]

  We recently spoke with Datamatics about its $17m acquisition of Dextara, which was announced on April 1st. Datamatics is a Mumbai-headquartered IT services and BPS provider with revenues of INR 1,550 Crore ($187m) for FY24, which ended March 31. It has three lines of business: Digital Technologies (IT services: 39% of revenues) Digital Operations (primarily F&A, plus i[...]

  Wipro recently briefed NelsonHall on its GenAI investments for quality engineering, discussing the creation of use cases and sharing the thinking behind some of its decision-making. Wipro’s GenAI investments for QE are part of the company’s ai360 program, a $1bn investment that includes activities in developing use cases, training, and GTM. The launch of its QET GenAI [...]

  Cognizant has a long history of continuous improvement and innovation. However, its grassroots delivery teams were reticent in taking minor innovations to clients, so it underperformed in idea and innovation generation and ran beneath the radar, with clients typically unaware of innovations being undertaken. However, in 2023, following the arrival of its new CEO, the company took [...]

  NTT DATA held its first EMEA Latin America (EMEAL) Analyst Day last week since the merger of NTT DATA and NTT Ltd. announced in June 2022. The event provided some perspective on the new structure of the firm, its capabilities, and its short-term priorities. The new NTT DATA Group is a much-enlarged firm with $31bn in revenues and around 150,000 employees. The group comprises two s[...]

  NelsonHall recently talked with Eviden, Atos’ consulting and application services business, about its QE practice, Digital Assurance. Digital Assurance has 5k quality engineers, 65% offshore, reflecting a high leverage in North America (due to its Syntel heritage) counterbalanced by Atos’ large European public sector client base. The practice has aligned its service po[...]

  During the summer of 2023, we met with Mohammed Sijelmassi, Sopra Steria’s CTO and Digital Transformation Office head and discussed how Sopra Steria was deploying internally and helping clients externally with GenAI and LLMs. Earlier this month, we met with Mr. Sijelmassi again to assess Sopra Steria’s progress on its transformation, its work with clients, and use cases. [...]

  2023 was a year of disruption after the 2021-22 digital catch-up. As the year unfolded, IT services spending slowed down, initially in the U.S. in the financial services, telecom, and high-tech sectors. We expect 2024 to be a year of transition with a modest rebound in IT services spending, continued consulting interest in GenAI, a rebound in cloud infrastructure adoption after a [...]

While more efficient management of IT KPIs and incidents remains highly important, and Capgemini’s Enterprise Automation Fabric addresses these challenges, it now goes further and enables organizations to relate the impact of missed IT KPIs and incidents to individual business KPIs. Not all IT KPIs are created equal, so Enterprise Automation Fabric incorporates a 3-level CMDB linking busi[...]

  The CEO of Atos’ Tech Foundations business recently updated industry analysts on its transformation program. We have commented about the turbulent period Atos Group is going through in splitting into two businesses (Tech Foundations and Eviden). The planned sale of Tech Foundations to Czech billionaire Daniel Kretinsky’s EP Equity Investment (EPEI) vehicle is going ahe[...]

  NelsonHall recently wrote a PoV on the current disconnect between GDP growth and IT services spending[1]. In October 2023, the IMF refreshed its GDP growth predictions; these include better 2023 GDP growth in the U.S. (+2.1%) and Japan (+20%) than the U.K. (+0.5%) and the Eurozone (+0.7%). Unusually, the IMF's predictions are not in line with our observations of IT services spend[...]

  NelsonHall recently visited the TCS Pace Port innovation center in Amsterdam, the first Pace Port opened by TCS in Europe in May 2021 following a delay caused by the pandemic.  TCS is not unique in having opened facilities designed to foster collaboration and innovation to address clients' business challenges and new requirements. In itself, the broad concept of the Pace [...]

  NelsonHall recently attended Compucom’s Analyst and Advisor Event 2023 in Charlotte, NC. It provided an opportunity to meet the executive leadership team, which has evolved over the last 12 months. Kevin Shank was appointed CEO in December 2022, having served as a senior executive at Compucom for nine years. He was joined earlier this year by Matt Olson as COO, also a previous [...]

  Sopra Steria is the latest vendor to announce a significant investment in GenAI/LLMs and its incorporation into its software engineering platform (Ingine). We recently met with Mohammed Sijelmassi, who holds two roles at Sopra Steria: CTO and Digital Transformation Office. We discussed how Sopra Steria is deploying internally and helping clients externally with GenAI and LLMs. [...]

  Cognizant's non-U.S. business, Cognizant Global Growth Markets (GGM), recently held an analyst and advisor day and discussed its regional priorities. New CEO Ravi Kumar has initiated a restructuring plan ('NextGen Program') to reduce Cognizant's cost base to fund investments. While Cognizant had guided on flat topline growth in 2023, Q1 saw a 9% y/y growth in LT[...]

  We recently talked with TCS’ Salesforce practice about its verticalization initiatives. Product verticalization has been one of Salesforce’s key strategies (along with Customer 360/cross-selling and geographic expansion) since 2014, when it launched its Industries business unit. Like SAP, Salesforce acknowledges that organizations spend time and effort customizing thei[...]

  IBM Consulting recently held a two-day analyst event for its European business (a significant region for IBM Consulting). Against an ongoing backdrop of uncertainty for client organizations in many sectors, the tone overall is quietly confident, buoyed by recent client wins and progress in a number of internal initiatives. At a similar event seven months ago, there were clear emph[...]

  Atos recently held its Capital Market Day for Tech Foundations. It is a year since the company announced its intention to spin off its high-growth units into a new company, Eviden, and keep its historic IT infrastructure services (and U.K. BPO capabilities) in an entity called Tech Foundations. Alongside the spin-off, Atos initiated a massive €1.1bn restructuring plan for Tech F[...]

  NelsonHall recently attended Unisys’ Analyst and Advisor Event 2023 in New York. The tagline for the event was ‘Imagination to Realization’ and reflective of the new Unisys branding. Mike Thomson, President, and COO, started the event with Unisys’ new NetZero Goal by 2030 and its vision to provide a single pane of glass for clients to manage their ESG and s[...]

  The IT services industry has entered a new growth cycle, with increased emphasis on portfolio management and vendors increasingly divesting their low-growth, low-margin businesses. IBM was an early example of this trend with its Kyndryl spin-off. Several of its competitors are also following this pattern, including Atos. At the same time, in the Nordics, Tietoevry will go one step[...]