Blockchain in the context of digital transformation: A slow-moving, inevitable revolution

In fast-approaching fourth industrial revolution, bureaucratic labor will become as nonessential as manual labor became to the agrarian economy with the advent of the combustion engine. Blockchain technology will enable smart contracts throughout our economy and will be the red thread stitching together multi-enterprise business networks for frictionless commerce that will greatly reduce demand for bureaucratic labor. As one management consulting partner put it, “If you are not at the point of consumption or at the point of creation, then your job will disappear.”

In TBR’s latest Digital Transformation Insights Report: Emerging Technology, Senior Analyst Boz Hristov and Principal Analyst Geoff Woollacott describe in detail how blockchain technology sits firmly in the hype phase today and, in little more than a decade, has reasonably distinguished itself from cryptocurrency even as blockchain underpins that digital reality. Solving the coopetition paradox, revolving around establishing common governance and standards across competitive and cross-industry ecosystems, is the biggest challenge, yet offers the long-tail opportunity for vendors.

Additional assessments publishing this week from our analyst teams

IBM Services remains challenged by its internal portfolio and resource transformation, such as in traditional infrastructure management and technology support, and reported a fourth consecutive quarter of revenue decline in 2Q19. Pockets of revenue growth in constant currency in business and technology transformation areas, such as consulting, application management and cloud, indicate IBM Services’ portfolio transformation to higher-value services is working. While profitability will remain IBM Services’ core priority in 2H19, the company’s work with clients around advising, moving, building and managing next-generation technology solutions will continue to increase and begin to offset revenue growth pressures in 2H19. — Elitsa Bakalova, Senior Analyst

TBR’s IBM report highlights some of the recent developments in IBM’s Systems Hardware portfolio as the market awaits the newest refresh of IBM Z, which is likely to be announced at the end of 2019 and become generally available at the start of 2020. Hardware-centric investment trends are also highlighted, for both IBM’s traditions Systems Hardware portfolio and its investments in quantum computing. TBR’s financial projections in this particular iteration of the report include how TBR anticipates the Red Hat acquisition will impact corporate numbers. — Stephanie Long, Analyst

Lackluster performance in traditional IT and telecommunications continues to weigh down T-Systems’ revenue, but cloud-based services will help revenue rebound in 2Q19. Strengthening its partner network improves T-Systems’ innovation as well as drives adoption of its cloud and IoT capabilities. For example, its recent partnership with Software AG allows T-Systems to underpin its Cloud Internet of Things platform with the Cumulocity IoT platform, expanding its delivery scale in Europe and North America.
— Kelly Lesiczka, Analyst

HCL Technologies (HCLT) emphasizes its engineering and R&D core services to support foundational revenues as the company balances acquisition integration with portfolio management. With the completion of its acquisition of IBM Software assets at the beginning of July, HCLT launched HCL Software, which we expect will help the firm deliver software and product solutions that bridge HCLT’s legacy services with its Mode 2 and Mode 3 emerging technologies and services, particularly for cloud, digital and analytics, and security. — Kelly Lesiczka

In our upcoming DXC Technology Initial Response, TBR will look at whether DXC has been able to overcome recent pressures stemming from completion of several large contracts without replacement and ongoing headwinds in legacy applications work. — Kevin Collupy, Analyst

Additionally, check out our recent insights into IoT and KPMG, available in our Special Reports section.