Enterprises leverage disruptive emerging technologies within their operations to improve processes and accelerate digital transformation

Extension remains the most natural jumping-off point for digital transformation (DT) initiatives, as enterprises can experiment with disruptive technologies within familiar business operations, see their value in generating new business insights, and then use those insights to re-imagine processes. TBR’s Digital Transformation Insights Report: Voice of the Customer shows that vendors need to orient toward development of pointed, industry-centric solutions to retain mindshare. This report, authored by Senior Analyst Boz Hristov, shares survey results across a spectrum of DT issues as well as excerpts from extensive, in-depth discussions with clients currently purchasing DT services.

Additional assessments publishing this week from our analyst teams

While trailing 12-month IT services revenue growth decelerated from 4Q18 to 1Q19, according to TBR’s IT Services Vendor Benchmark, year-to-year growth in 1Q19 of 2.6% surpassed that of 1Q18, which was 2.2%. Vendors are investing in niche digital design areas and industry expertise to drive advisory services activities with C-Suite executives. They are also leveraging established footholds and trust with new buyers to pursue managed services around clients’ application and infrastructure estates. Improving profitability provides vendors with flexibility to invest gains in high-growth and high-value technology-enabled solutions. — Elitsa Bakalova, Senior Analyst

In TBR’s 2Q19 Accenture Initial Response we continue to assess if scale and appetite for innovation still define and shape Accenture’s success as it becomes a solutions broker. We will also look into how platforms supporting omnichannel architecture will underpin Accenture’s efforts to capture custom work and reach $47 billion in sales by 2020. — Boz Hristov

In 1Q19 Dell EMC’s Infrastructure Solutions Group faced year-to-year revenue declines across all segments, including storage, servers and networking, due to a combination of seasonality headwinds and go-to-market challenges. As Dell EMC’s cloud revenue is largely tied to hardware sales, these same challenges compromised its cloud top-line performance. An increasingly strategic partnership with VMware coupled with the new Dell Technologies Cloud portfolio will help boost performance in coming quarters. — Cassandra Mooshian, Senior Analyst

TBR’s Hyperconverged and Converged Market Landscape explores the vendor landscape of these two markets, including leaders and laggards, and the existing and emerging disruptors in the space. This report details recent announcements in the space made by key vendors as well as the disruptive dynamics of emerging hardware trends from nontraditional vendors, such as Amazon Web Services (AWS) with its AWS Outposts.— Stephanie Long, Analyst

TBR’s Hyperconverged Platforms Customer Research surveys hyperconverged customers to analyze purchasing patterns, spending habits, adoption trends and the evolving drivers behind vendor selection. Key highlights of this report include customer desire to leverage hyperconverged infrastructure (HCI) for private cloud environments and the ongoing shift to consumption-based pricing. We also surveyed current HCI customers to determine their likelihood of adopting AWS Outposts, along with where customers will pull funding from to support this new hardware model. — Stephanie Long

SAIC officially began its integration of Engility’s nearly $1.9 billion in revenue and 7,500 employees in 1Q19, aiming to leverage Engility to accelerate its expansion with a more balanced, diversified and lower-risk portfolio and an enhanced competitive stance in markets adjacent to its core Department of Defense and federal civilian sectors, particularly space and intelligence. A new leadership era is also beginning at the top of SAIC’s executive management, as CEO Tony Moraco will retire effective July 31 and will be succeeded by COO Nazzic Keene, who was elected to the CEO post by SAIC’s board of directors in March. Keene has already implemented numerous changes during the CEO transition period as part of the broader initiative she has spearheaded to flatten SAIC’s management pyramid and streamline operations amid the integration of Engility.— John Caucis, John Caucis

TBR’s 1Q19 Booz Allen Hamilton (BAH) report details how the company completed its fiscal 2019 with strong top-line expansion and record revenues, better-than-anticipated earnings, and its largest quarterly dividend increase in years. BAH’s performance throughout its last fiscal year reflects a soundly differentiated market position and multilayered alignment of the company’s technology and advisory portfolio with the primary missions of its federal customers. In May 2015, when BAH launched its Vision 2020 strategy, industry and company observers criticized the plan over concerns BAH would be investing ahead of demand, which had yet to materialize. BAH has sustained a top-line growth CAGR of nearly 6.2% and an average operating margin of 8.5% (both in excess of peer averages for these metrics in TBR’s Public Sector IT Services Benchmark) since Vision 2020 was enacted, affirming the strategic framework was well conceived and has been well executed. — John Caucis

Tune in Wednesday at 1 p.m. EDT to hear Stephanie Long share highlights from TBR’s HCI research including exclusive recent findings from TBR’s Hyperconverged Platforms Customer Research. The webinar will highlight how the HCI market has shifted over the last few years and where TBR sees it headed. Additionally, this will be a great opportunity to ask our analysts your questions about the HCI market. Sign up today!