Growing traditional revenues in IT services remains a challenge

TBR’s quarterly IT Services Vendor Benchmark published last week, with the following comment from lead Senior Analyst Elitsa Bakalova: “Vendors are scaling transformational portfolios; however, lingering growth challenges in traditional service areas challenge revenue performance. Trailing 12-month IT services revenue growth, at 1.9% year-to-year in U.S. dollars, was down 140 basis points sequentially in 2Q19 and 670 basis points against the year-ago compare. While vendors are not making major downward revisions in revenue growth targets for 2019, revenue growth for the benchmarked vendors has been decelerating due to growth challenges in commoditized traditional service areas; increasing competitive pressures, especially around advisory, implementation and management of next-generation solutions, such as transformational engagements around digital and cloud; and potential macroeconomic uncertainty.”

Additional commentary

“This week TBR publishes its 3Q19 IBM Initial Response, focused on IBM’s corporate and Systems Hardware performance. As the first formal report since the announcement of IBM’s z15 in September, this report will dive into some of the implications of this new launch across the broader portfolio while continuing to provide analysis on IBM’s quantum computing investments and developments. Implications of the Red Hat buy will be highlighted in this report as well, but deeper analysis on this topic can be found in TBR’s IBM Cloud Initial Response. Be on the lookout for TBR’s 3Q19 IBM full report, which publishes on Nov. 6, for a more in-depth look at these topics.” — Stephanie Long, Analyst

“IBM is using its advisory, digital design and technology expertise to win and execute holistic transformational projects and drive management consulting revenue growth in 2019. Value-led and IBM-asset-powered solutions; collaborative innovation, such as in the IBM Garage facilities; and specialized consulting expertise and talent, such as in Global Business Services’ Digital Strategy & iX, Cognitive Process Transformation and Cloud Application Innovation segments, enable IBM Services to position as a digital reinvention partner for clients’ cognitive enterprise journeys.” — Bakalova

“As Julie Sweet takes over the helm, Accenture will continue to capitalize on its momentum, targeting Diamond clients by deploying industrialized, AI-enabled solutions. In FY20 we expect investment in ‘the new’ to help the company expand wallet share within existing businesses as well as position for new logo opportunities, inching total sales from ‘the new’ closer to 100%.” — Boz Hristov, Senior Analyst

Additionally, join TBR’s Professional Services team Oct. 16 for a webinar and Q&A on India-centric vendors, including how they compare to leading IT services vendors and which IT services vendors have the most to lose due to sustained success among those that are India-centric.

Interested in learning more about IT services, cloud, data center and IoT?  Contact TBR today!