Entries by Patrick Heffernan, Practice Manager and Principal Analyst

Consultancies and IT services vendors face uncertainty in a shift to data and automation for 2019

As we start the final three months of 2018, TBR’s Professional Services Practice (PSP) has begun wrapping up analysis on the year as a whole and thinking more about what 2019 will bring, specifically in the areas of healthcare IT services, data management and consulting. Top-of-mind issues for TBR’s clients and the PSP analysts reflect […]

Ending consulting roulette: BXT evolves from grand idea to engaged approach

Aspirational ideas while executing on BXT Flight delays and cancellations spark anger in travelers and cost the airlines, in both revenue and brand, making predictive maintenance an easy sell to airlines looking for help. Delivering on the promise of being able to predict when a plane needs to be serviced, the positioning of the necessary […]

As the 2018 finish line nears, will McKinsey continue its breakaway or slip back into the peloton?

Every six months, we review McKinsey’s performance, analyze its strategy and consider likely scenarios for the firm in the near term Back in June, we said, “If McKinsey truly gains market permission to take digital transformation from design through execution, its peers will be pressured to emulate the firm.” In advance of the November profile, […]

Agile-ready everything: An India-centric special scenario

In Technology Business Research’s (TBR) April 2018 Global Delivery Benchmark, we noted that reskilling existing resources is taking precedence over aggressive hiring, resulting in decelerating headcount growth for the 14 benchmarked vendors in 4Q17. While vendors claim that digital-related revenues contribute from 25% to over 55% of their total services sales, existing engagements continue to […]

Creating innovation; creating clients

A New Thing: BearingPoint ‘At the Heart of Innovation’ “I came in with absolute clarity about what my challenge was, and now I don’t know.” After two days of large-group discussions on the fundamentals of innovation and small-group challenges putting those fundamentals to the test, one participant at a recent BearingPoint innovation event seemingly lamented […]

BFSI: An India-centric special scenario

Two up, two down Four of the India-centric vendors share similar assessments of IT investments, predicting they will improve behind spend from larger-enterprise banking clients, with growth in digital implementations, mobility, and modernization of legacy IT infrastructures and applications portfolios. The divergence in performance in 2Q18 likely reflects one-time or short-term changes at large clients […]

Robots laundering IT budgets?

Automate a bad process or fix the process first? As consultancies start expanding their robotics process automation offerings (RPA) and the software and related services begin permeating through enterprises’ procurement, human resources, IT, and even internal audit, a curious debate has surfaced between the merits of opting for careful and meticulous process assessment, documentation and […]

Hustlers, hackers and heroes: EY’s technology consultants of a transformative age

Recognizing the value in data nerated by professional cyclists, captured but not monetized, EY worked with a startup consortium and upended the business model for cycling teams, creating a new revenue stream and changing the riders from captive to tour organizers to data and experience providers. This client study echoed throughout EY’s Technology Summit as […]

SAP Digital Business Services enables customers to create their own intelligent enterprise

After SAPPHIRE NOW in June, a burning question remained: How does SAP’s professional services organization fit into the company’s new intelligent enterprise vision? SAP’s Digital Business Services (DBS) Analyst Day provided the answer: DBS is the enabler to the intelligent enterprise, which is a system of SAP and non-SAP applications, underpinned by a digital platform […]