Entries by Patrick Heffernan, Practice Manager and Principal Analyst

TBR 2020 Services Predictions: Everything is up for grabs

With or without chaos, 2020 will be a turning point TBR’s 2020 predictions for the IT services vendors and management consultancies we cover center on a potential external disruptive force, ongoing internal changes, and a market shift that will happen regardless. If a global economic slowdown occurs in 2020, changes to the consulting business model […]

From ‘breathtaking to very good’: PwC on India’s startup scene

According to PwC, Bangalore, India, is one of the leading startup cities that houses several blockchain and machine learning engineers, an assertion that is difficult to substantiate but one that probably feels accurate to the people on the ground in India who are working with the startup community. Focused primarily on financial technology (FinTech), driven […]

Revving the engine in Stuttgart: Accenture in the heart of the German auto zone

In July, Accenture announced a new Customer Experience Center in Stuttgart, Germany, focused on working with automobile manufacturers and their partners to accelerate the future of connected cars. With seemingly every IT services vendor and consultancy rolling out initiatives around automobiles, TBR spoke last week with Accenture’s Axel Schmidt, senior managing director and industry managing […]

Fujitsu, digital trust and the future of technology

Strike a balance between the utilization of data and the protection of data Opening the event, Hiroshi Tsuda, head of Security Laboratory at Fujitsu Labs, set the tone by acknowledging that every enterprise and consumer must understand the balance between the utilization and efficiency of data and the associated privacy and protection. Other speakers and […]

Betting on business model transformation through appointment of new leaders

As companies must manage multidisciplinary andmultigenerational workforces, maintaining properlytrained leaders, with visions closely aligned to theorganization’s DNA rather than investor expectations,will provide a strong foothold in a largely disrupted ITservices market. The impact on employee culture,morale, purpose and other organizational behaviorlargely depends on the CEO of the company, particularlyif a new one needs to be […]

Ecosystems and trust: What KPMG brings to blockchain

‘It’s not about the enterprise anymore; it’s about the ecosystem’ Opening the event with KPMG’s view of innovation and technology, including specifics around blockchain, National Managing Partner for Innovation and Enterprise Solutions Fiona Grandi and Global Blockchain Leader Arun Ghosh emphasized that achieving meaningful blockchain adoption requires moving beyond the enterprise to the entire ecosystem. […]

IBM and the Raptors: Building an NBA champion and looking for a repeat

While watching the NBA’s defending champion Toronto Raptors begin their season, I thought back to a trip to IBM’s Toronto office in late summer 2018, where we got to play with the technology IBM built for the Raptors’ draft and trade war room. We created teams, selecting college players, current NBA players and even European […]

Blockchain makes more noise in 2H19: Hearing from services vendors and consultancies

Last month, my colleagues Geoff Woollacott and Boz Hristov published a report on the business of blockchain, and next month, Geoff and I will be attending a KPMG event on the same topic. We are looking forward to learning how that Big Four firm approaches both the technology and the business model impacts, on itself […]

Family and friends: PwC makes Analyst Day in India all about the clients and their stories

8 clients with 8 stories and plenty of common themes Setting the tone for the day, India Advisory Leader, Deepankar Sanwalka explained that the event would be about discussion and about clients and the work PwC is doing with them, with four successive breakout sessions in the morning and four more in the afternoon. The […]