In this month’s Gimme 3, Patrick chats with TBR Federal IT Services lead and Senior Analyst John Caucis on the U.S. federal IT operations and alliance activity of market newcomers Accenture, CGI and IBM
Free webinar: Learn about the current dynamics of the data cloud market, including market forces shaping the modern data stack, vendor positioning for both hyperscalers and pure play data cloud platforms, and global systems integrators’ approach to the data cloud opportunity
Free webinar: Learn how the evolving relationships between GSIs and their technology partners are changing the ecosystem, what VARs’ encroachment on SIs and consultancies means the market, and whether telcos’ investments in necessary infrastructure are finally going to pay off in profits
Learn how vendors are handling investments in innovation and transformation centers amid macroeconomic volatility and buyers reassessing their budget priorities
Alliance partner prospecting will start with requests from the stakeholders for more information about a specific vendor — a request, basically to understand, Who are those guys?
TBR has been evaluating the changing nature of technology alliances through its subscription and commissioned research for decades. A series of best practices have emerged, most often developed by young technology companies, while the commercial impediments seem more acute for legacy vendors with their employees’ resistance to change. The balance of this document will discuss the successful approaches vendors have shared with TBR, and what end customers and small technology companies have shared with us as the anachronisms associated with legacy partner program structures.
TBR interviews with leaders of small SaaS vendors have shown a consistent blueprint for successful engagement with big vendors that consists of three major elements: Are you a strategic fit with the large vendor? How do you approach the large vendor for top-down attention within the firm? And how do you initially engage the large organization for positive, bottom-up, word-of-mouth marketing inside the large vendor?
In early March, TBR met with Arnab Basu, PwC India’s Consulting Leader to discuss developments in India and how the firm’s presence and activities have changed in recent years. The following reflects that conversation, as well as TBR’s ongoing research around PwC, the other Big Four firms, and the broader management consulting and IT services market.
Across an afternoon at One World Trade Center, Infosys leaders hosted a steady stream of clients and technology partners discussing how they have worked with Infosys to apply technology to business problems and generate both cost saving and growth opportunities. Notably, every panel included at least one client, coming from a wide range of industries and describing a variety of problems addressed — and solved — by Infosys.
In TBR’s view, EY continues to operate through a global effort, complicated by regulatory and compliance requirements that vary by country as well as member firms’ different partnership structures. However, at multiple times during the discussion, EY leaders said the firm knew that cybersecurity services required being “local to be there with clients.”
