VMware is heralding VMware Explore as “the center of the multicloud universe,” aligning its annual conference with the company’s ambitions to become the de facto control plane for hybrid, multicloud environments. During his keynote and subsequent breakout sessions at the newly named VMware Explore global cloud conference, VMware CEO Raghu Raghuram laid out the company’s case for why and how it will succeed in achieving these goals, focusing much of the discussion on product initiatives that add to its end-to-end platform and modernize legacy products.

These products target the growing need for “cloud-smart” infrastructure management, and VMware, with one foot in the cloud and the other on premises, continues to make a compelling case for many enterprise customers. Throughout the event, VMware management highlighted the importance of strong partnerships that support product integration as a key to execution, impacting not only its vSphere business but also multicloud products. The company was joined on stage by hyperscalers, such as Microsoft (Nasdaq: MSFT) and Amazon Web Services (AWS) (Nasdaq: AMZN), to discuss ongoing joint product initiatives that are expanding customers’ ability to preserve past virtualization investments while migrating these environments to the cloud.

Specifically, the new Azure VMware Solution fills a critical gap in the VMware Cloud Universal program, and new flexible consumption options are opening doors for smaller enterprises looking to utilize VMware Cloud on AWS. In multicloud, new integrations with rival IBM (NYSE: IBM) involving both its Red Hat OpenShift and IBM Cloud Satellite were announced, underscoring both vendors’ commitment to openness and flexibility to deliver on the promise of “any cloud, any Kubernetes.” With product launches and partner initiatives indicating an innovative future, VMware Explore 2022 felt entirely like business-as-usual, and one could be forgiven for forgetting the significant transaction that looms in the future.

Innovating to enable modern applications and cloud-smart IT strategies

vSphere 8 brings modern application capability to update the virtualization platform and support modern applications with new DPU functionality

In VMware’s opinion, cloud-smart strategies require enterprises to retain some workloads on premises due to cost considerations and performance requirements, pushing the company to continue to innovate with its popular vSphere platform. With vSphere 8, customers gain access to the long-promised Project Monterey. Originally announced at VMworld 2020, Project Monterey rearchitects vSphere to support data processing units (DPUs), providing far better performance when running data-intensive, modern applications in the cloud, on premises and at the edge.

Specifically, DPUs augment the power of the CPU or graphics processing unit (GPU) by providing a place to offload core infrastructure tasks like networking and data storage. This frees up core capacity up to 20%, allowing the CPU or GPU to focus on the specialized tasks present in modern applications like AI, machine learning (ML) and high-performance computing (HPC). Instrumental to Project Monterey, the company partnered with chipmakers NVIDIA (Nasdaq: NVDA), AMD (Nasdaq: AMD) and Intel (Nasdaq: INTC), and hardware OEMs Dell Technologies (NYSE: DELL), Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) (NYSE: HPE) and Lenovo, relying on this ecosystem to support the hardware integrations necessary to offer DPU architecture support with vSphere 8.

TBR believes that with Broadcom as a major chipmaker itself, vSphere and future innovation around silicon architectures could be an interesting possibility. Regardless, the improvements in compute performance added through vSphere 8 are unlikely to change the long-term trajectory for the virtualization platform. Public cloud providers continue to invest heavily in specialized server chips to come to market with application-optimized instances capable of delivering superior performance in the cloud for many modern applications. Instead of differentiating, these updates prolong vSphere’s relevance by enabling customers to preserve their past virtualization investments.

Introducing hybrid, multicloud management with VMware Aria

At VMware Explore 2022, the most noteworthy announcement was VMware Aria, which, according to VMware, will represent the core of the company’s multicloud management strategy going forward. VMware Aria is a new hybrid, multicloud management portfolio built to alleviate modern IT complexity challenges, which VMware management accurately refers to as “cloud-chaos.” The portfolio includes a set of end-to-end solutions for managing cost-performance optimization and consistent policy implementation across any cloud. The foundation of the portfolio rests on the announced VMware Aria Graph and VMware Aria Hub. Customers will manage and apply policies within the graph via the VMware Aria Hub, the portfolio’s control plane, while the graph data store serves as the engine of the offering, providing a connection to an enterprise’s complete array of IT assets, from multiple public clouds to virtual private clouds and on premises.

VMware Aria Graph’s application mapping serves as the basis for newly announced end-to-end management services: VMware Aria Guardrails, VMware Aria Migration and VMware Aria Business Insights. Aria Guardrails helps enterprises automate policy implementation at scale to support multicloud networking, security and configuration through an everything-as-code approach. Meanwhile, VMware Aria Migration promises to accelerate multicloud migrations with automated assessment, planning and execution, and Aria Business Insights provides full-stack process analytics by leveraging machine learning and AI to support infrastructure optimization and security.

TBR believes VMware’s position as a virtualization provider could provide the company with an advantage in attracting enterprise customers. With many enterprises preserving their virtualization investments in the near term, tight integrations with vSphere could create meaningful value for complexity-conscious customers. Further, as VMware management claims, the expertise in infrastructure management VMware has accumulated over the years through the development of the company’s virtualization platform will serve it well as it builds products that reduce complexity in multicloud management.

However, VMware must execute on this promise by maintaining its investments in R&D, as well as its go-to market effort. As the fight for the multicloud control plane grows, any deviation from the company’s current investment path would likely be detrimental to adoption as others maintain their pace of innovation. Further, with headwinds to virtualization unlikely to abate, failure to remain competitive would have significant ramifications in VMware’s ability to generate sustainable long-term growth.

Partnering to deliver on ‘any cloud, any Kubernetes’

VMware Explore 2022 follows a year of transformation regarding the company’s relationship with its partner ecosystem, and commentary during the conference suggested this change of heart is here to stay. As VMware pivots toward the cloud, it will need to engage with not only hyperscalers but also professional service providers as the company looks to accelerate vSphere migrations and drive adoption of its cloud-native portfolio.

Over the past year, VMware has seen significant success in bolstering its relationships with services partners, a reflection of recent ecosystem investments that are adding technical resources to joint customer engagements. While management highlighted these recent successes, conference announcements focused on collaborative product initiatives and integrations, aligning with the conference theme of “any cloud, any Kubernetes.” Considering Broadcom management shares similar views on shifting the business toward the cloud, TBR believes that the momentum in partner engagement is unlikely to change following the acquisition, at least as it pertains to significant revenue generators like vSphere.

‘Any cloud’ achieved with the addition of Azure to VMware Cloud Universal

While multicloud offerings like VMware Aria and Tanzu represent a long-term growth opportunity for VMware, shifting vSphere customers to subscription-based consumption methods is a more near-term strategic objective for the company, requiring it to work with hyperscalers to provide the necessary infrastructure component. So far, the company has been successful in this pursuit, with subscription revenues growing over 20% year-to-year in recent quarters.

On track to its FY2023 subscription revenue goals, subscription growth is driven by vSphere migrations, which are supported by joint product initiatives between VMware and its hyperscaler partners. Adding to the VMware Cloud Universal program, the company announced the general availability of the new Azure VMware Solution, improving vSphere migrations to Azure’s public cloud. Over the past year, VMware’s partner initiatives with Microsoft have largely mirrored its efforts across the public cloud landscape, with its cloud-native applications recently becoming available on the Azure marketplace.

However, VMware continues to view AWS as its preferred cloud provider, emphasizing the partnership at VMware Explore with the launch of new consumption options for the VMware Cloud on AWS. VMware’s favoritism toward the company threatens its multicloud reputation, especially given AWS’ restrictive stance on multicloud environments. Going forward, this perception can be combated by accelerating development programs with its other hyperscaler partners, such as Microsoft Azure, to bring the same level of capability and the same breadth of consumption methods to all cloud environments.

Integrating with rivals to deliver on ‘any Kubernetes’ promise

As VMware positions VMware Aria at the core of its multicloud strategy, the underlying Kubernetes deployment platform is becoming less of a differentiator, with “any Kubernetes” integration taking precedence. Announced at VMware Explore, VMware will enable cross-platform container deployment with rival Red Hat OpenShift, a move that recognizes the likelihood enterprise customers will consume multiple Kubernetes platforms.

While “vendor-neutral” has been a common marketing phrase used to describe the lack of direct affiliation with a public cloud provider, this integration pushes platform openness further. Given VMware’s and Red Hat’s market share, TBR expects other vendors will be pressured to follow their lead, initiating an “any Kubernetes” approach across the industry. Outside of product integrations, IBM Consulting was named a global systems integrator (GSI) for VMware, adding to an expanding list of GSIs building their VMware-related business. IBM’s focus on executing on its hybrid cloud strategy makes its partnership with VMware more of a necessity based on the company’s enduring presence in the cloud.

Conclusion

With the conference emphasizing a multicloud future, VMware Explore 2022 felt like business as usual, an indication for TBR that strategy will remain unaltered post-acquisition. Led by its product-focused CEO, VMware’s ability to innovate was on display as the company pivots toward cloud-smart strategies. VMware’s updates for core products, like vSphere 8 and vSAN 8, are creating enduring value for enterprise customers, prolonging their secular decline. Meanwhile, VMware Aria takes the company into its next chapter of multicloud management. Now, VMware must execute on this pivot by maintaining its pace of innovation and the growth of its partner ecosystem.

With Broadcom (Nasdaq: AVGO) CEO Hock Tan watching from the front row, Raghu Raghuram and the rest of VMware management hosted the newly named VMware Explore global cloud conference, a change from its namesake VMworld. The rebranding, which is significant based on the prior event’s reputation as a go-to event, appears to be driven not by the pending change in VMware’s ownership but by the company’s efforts to position itself as a provider of more than its virtualization platform.

Major announcements emphasized VMware’s ongoing evolution from an on premises virtualization provider to a leading enabler of “cloud-smart” IT strategies, with launches for VMware Aria, vSphere 8 and vSAN 8 exemplifying the company’s ability to innovate. However, while an innovative spirit remains at VMware today, a feeling of uncertainty around future innovation existed among conference attendees this year as stakeholders grapple with the impending change in ownership. While much is to be determined, prior public statements by both companies describe the transaction as transformational to Broadcom Software Group, and TBR walked away with our prior stance unchanged, believing in incremental benefits for VMware if investments in strategic areas remain consistent.

Overview

EY has evolved with the management consulting market, growing a sizable technology consulting practice and increasingly partnering with tech giants and niche software vendors to respond to client demand for advice and assistance infused with technology. The regulatory constraints around EY and the rest of the Big Four, however, have not evolved. As EY’s audit client base has increasingly included technology giants, limiting the firm’s consulting opportunities, internal pressures and external forces have reached a point where EY has had to consider a split. After evaluating client demand, its portfolio and market dynamics, EY announced plans at the beginning of September to move forward with a split — coined Project Everest — of the firm’s consulting and audit businesses. EY’s consulting business will go public and provide tax, business advisory, and technology adoption services while the remaining legacy EY will continue to deliver audit services.

To support the firm’s goal of driving business outcomes, EY will leverage four new areas following the separation. First, independence from audit constraints will allow EY to broaden engagements with new clients around technology, data, and environmental, social and governance (ESG) needs, on which the firm could not previously advise. Second, partnerships with technology vendors that were previously restrained because of audit engagements, such as those with Amazon Web Services (AWS) (Nasdaq: AMZN), Salesforce (NYSE: CRM) and Google (Nasdaq: GOOGL), can be deepened. EY has indicated it audits 25% of the Fortune 500 firms, which means the firm will have ample opportunities to deepen its technology-centric partnerships, such as developing scale through partner-oriented practices including both talent and platform-based services. Third, EY will leverage partnerships to create future-proof solutions on the cloud and deliver on a wider range of client needs. Lastly, to provide higher-value business advisory, EY will grow its tax and legal engagements to support clients’ additional needs that cross business segments and operations.

Talent landscape

As with any major organizational transformation, EY risks losing talent through the shift, but efforts to include share compensation and allow individual countries to decide whether to take part in the split will help the firm retain and recruit staff to support the transition. Additionally, the opportunity to pursue new advisory and technology transformation engagements will serve as a retention point, enabling staff to expand their skills and move into newer areas. Growing technology platforms and solution development skills will remain a key part of EY’s business proposition, but the firm recognizes it will not become a technology hub and looks to strengthen its existing 80,000 technology-oriented staff to facilitate portfolio and client relationships expansion instead of greatly accelerating hiring to reach the scale of competitors such as Accenture (NYSE: ACN), which manages around 700,000 employees.

Partner ecosystem

As EY’s partner ecosystem evolves to include newer partners such as Salesforce, AWS and Google, the firm will look to combine existing advisory and implementation skills with partner cloud solutions and platforms. The partnerships will serve to build skills, facilitate interactions within centers of excellence, and ensure execution and delivery of technology solutions. For example, growth around industry clouds and capabilities associated with platforms will depend on ecosystem partners to develop solutions and address more specific business needs. Narrowing its capabilities by embedding partner expertise to support supply chain and data needs will allow EY to penetrate its client base and increase the contract value of existing relationships.

EY will not likely face pressures in forging partnerships with technology vendors that were previously off limits. While the partners have pre-existing relationships with other IT services vendors such as Deloitte and Accenture, EY’s reputation and project history with clients will validate the firm’s credibility, helping to provide additional opportunities for the partners as well as the firm.

Impacts for other vendors

As EY progresses through the split, the firm will look to expand its partner ecosystem, growing its breadth of offerings around technology and benefiting from increased scale within the cloud space. The lack of regulatory constraints around partnerships will allow EY to offer a broader set of solutions and services that can be integrated more seamlessly into clients’ existing IT environments. The ability to forge these partnerships will create pressure on peers such as Accenture, which can deliver on a similar set of services and has a similar reputation for quality and industry expertise. EY will retain its client relationships, focusing on deepening engagements around expanded capabilities with partners.

EY made the decision to split the firm in response to client demand for additional services beyond traditional audit or tax. Freeing the consulting business from regulatory requirements will help EY retain clients and potentially recapture clients that can now work with EY across a broader set of services. Emphasizing a focus on business value and outcomes for clients will enable EY to preserve its market reputation as the firm executes on the transition while also maintaining relationships with clients.

While EY will likely benefit from the additional opportunity around talent acquisition as well as an enhanced value proposition to compete for additional advisory and transformation engagements, the firm could also face some pressures within the market. Competitors such as Accenture and IBM (NYSE: IBM) that have pre-established technology backgrounds, paired with advisory talent and complemented by partner ecosystems, could pressure EY’s ability to grow outside of its traditional consulting engagements as it markets with a refreshed image. EY’s existing culture, which is relaxed and focused on entrepreneurial activities, will translate into a transactional sales approach at the new company that puts clients at ease.

3 trends setting the stage for the end of 2022

IT services will continue to grow in a good or bad economy

As we start the final four months of 2022, trying to read the macroeconomic tea leaves for signs of a recession, a recovery, or something in between may be a fool’s errand as most reliable markers currently provide mixed signals. In place of confidence and certainty around broad economic conditions, we are focused on the challenges and opportunities emerging for IT services vendors and management consultancies.

• With technology vendors slowing their hiring cadences or even shedding headcount, IT services vendors may find more talent available, which could ease attrition pressures and allow some vendors to lessen dependencies on subcontractors. If M&A activity remains muted, TBR expects IT services vendors and consultancies will increasingly hire technology-experienced talent to support revenue growth.
• TBR expects IT services revenue to continue growing, even in the event of a global recession. IT systems have become corporate utilities, a necessary cost that must be maintained and even consistently improved to contain costs and support growth. Through surveys and in-depth interviews with IT buyers, TBR sees a recurring sentiment that IT budgets will stay steady or grow through the end of 2022 and well into 2023.

India-centric IT services vendors, such as Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) and Infosys, may be the best positioned to weather substantial economic pressures, in part because of their lower-cost talent base and decades of investments in automation. Building facilities and recruiting in India’s second-tier cities could also provide the India-centric vendors with a cushion in the event of a downturn. In addition, TBR expects IT services vendors will increasingly invest in Latin and South America to hedge against overexposure to India’s risks.

A lull in decarbonization support may provide an opening for less active vendors

In TBR’s first Decarbonization Market Landscape, we noted that, “although some firms have been active over the last few decades around developing and acting on decarbonization strategies, many were induced — be it from competition, stakeholders or regulatory evolution — to improve, update, revisit or outright announce new net-zero targets, which in recent years have become somewhat of a comprehensive measure of a firm’s overall decarbonization efforts. Critics of the net-zero slogan argue that it is yet another disguise for inaction as firms can simply continue business as usual while betting on nascent carbon sequestration techniques or other unproven technologies.”

IT services vendors and consultancies that have been slow to invest in and publicly announce aggressive decarbonization initiatives and capabilities may find their approach provides advantages as they can focus their go-to-market messages on low-cost solutions that marry decarbonization with sensitivities to an uncertain macroeconomic picture. Rather than bespoke — and potentially expensive — engagements, buyers may shy away from large investments if net zero fades as a corporate priority.

For those vendors TBR has identified as decarbonization leaders, based on both their own commitments and their services and solutions for clients, maintaining trust and demonstrating transparency around decarbonization efforts will remain the critical success factor. Continuing from the report quoted above, “Overcoming this fate is up to leadership to ensure transparency and organizational commitment by reporting emissions reduction progress, verifying and auditing with independent parties, and embedding the GHG [greenhouse gas] accounting process within financial reporting.”

TBR believes Europe will remain the proving ground, demonstrating to management consultancies, IT services vendors, clients and regulators what can and cannot happen in decarbonization. Vendors most active in Europe will remain at the forefront, even if energy pressures and a continuing war in Ukraine dampen overall enthusiasm for decarbonization.

A new world order, brought on by Kyndryl, Atos, maybe EY, and definitely VARs

Kyndryl’s split from IBM created a new force in the IT services space, a $19 billion vendor with “an established customer base, skilled talent, IP, and expertise around modernizing and managing customers’ mission-critical systems,” as TBR noted in our first report on the company. With Atos expecting to split into two separate companies and rumors that EY may carve out its consulting practice, the entire IT services and management consulting landscape seems ready for a new world order.

• According to TBR’s 2Q22 Atos report, “Atos is accelerating its transformation path, with plans over the next 12 to 18 months to split into two separate entities — Tech Foundations (TFCo or new Atos) and SpinCo (or Evidian) — to unlock value for clients, employees and shareholders. … Evidian, which will see an accelerated investment of €0.4 billion over the next five years, will work in digital transformation, big data and cybersecurity. New Atos, which will be restructured through a €1 billion plan between 2022 and 2026, will work in managed infrastructure services, digital workplace and professional services. The reasoning behind the planned split is that the two segments have different performance, business models, dynamics and strategies; therefore, a one-size-fits-all approach with the two segments staying within one company does not deliver superior performance.” Atos’ decoupling appears to be following Kyndryl’s path, and the two new companies will likely have a solid partnership similar to Kyndryl and IBM’s to deliver holistic solutions that cover the advise-build-run life cycle.
• In contrast, EY slicing off its advisory practice to create a stand-alone management consultancy unencumbered by tax, audit, and risk obligations and restrictions would break ground and compel the remaining Big Four firms to adjust their strategies and investments to meet the new competitive threat. Allied more tightly with Infosys, Microsoft and even Kyndryl, the new EY consultancy could challenge the full spectrum of digital transformation vendors, from McKinsey & Co. through Accenture to Wipro.

Off the radar for many but potentially more disruptive over the long term, TBR has noted that every vendor in the IT space, including cloud and hardware-centric providers and value-added resellers, aspires to orchestrate services and tap into the ever-growing market for managed services. The VARs have established client bases and the ability to see, in real time, shifting IT budgets and demands, which may provide them — if they can shift business models away from a transaction-always mindset — the best opportunity to evolve rapidly in this space.

Unisys hosted its first in-person Analyst Day event in Boston on June 2 to bring together leaders from segment groups and the top leadership team to discuss the company’s strategy pivot and refreshed branding image within the IT services space. CEO Peter Altabef; SVP and CTO Dwayne Allen; SVP and CMO Teresa Poggenpohl; and SVP and Chief Commercial Officer Maureen Sweeny led the presentation, walking through partnerships, modern workplace solutions and cloud strategies that will propel the company through 2022 and into 2023. Leon Gilbert, GM of Digital Workplace Solutions, and Mike McGarvey, senior director of Global Hybrid Cloud, led the discussion on Digital Workplace Solutions, and Manju Naglapur, GM of Cloud and Infrastructure Solutions, and Dan Chalk, senior director of Cloud and Infrastructure Solutions, discussed Cloud, Infrastructure and Application Services.

TBR Perspective

Over the past year, Unisys has executed on rebranding and marketing efforts to transform its image in the IT services space and offer a refreshed technology portfolio that allows the company to expand revenue and profitability.

Centering its solutions and talent around four key areas — Digital Workplace Solutions, Cloud, Infrastructure and Application Services, Business Process Solutions and Enterprise Computing Solutions — helps Unisys provide clients with the tools and services to uphold their modernized workplaces. To execute on this transformation, Unisys expanded its ecosystem to include the expertise, technology capabilities and scale required to move beyond traditional services needs and highlight its broadened experience and optimized portfolio. By leaning on its expanded ecosystem and undertaking internal innovation projects, Unisys has developed industry-specialized applications that better fit within clients’ environments.

As part of its rebranding, Unisys refined its talent strategy, looking to fill gaps around technology and make cultural improvements to bolster its companywide shift. With increasing competition around talent, Unisys aims to ensure it can recruit and retain resources that support growth opportunities. Unisys is not alone with attrition pressures as peers have also experienced jumps in attrition rates, particularly over the last 18 months, pushing vendors to hire and offset talent shortages.

Changing marketing and portfolio trends

Unisys executed on refreshing its brand and marketing plan to better align its business offerings and market positioning to clients’ needs. A core piece of the company’s marketing transition was building partnerships with clients and instilling trust across its engagements, which will serve as a lead-in for both new and old clients and guide the integration of new technologies and solutions within IT environments. To support this end, Unisys updated its website to leverage a more content-oriented approach, showcasing client testimonials and experiences as well as outcomes. Additionally, increased marketing efforts to grow awareness of its portfolio and wealth of experience transform Unisys’ image and guide business model shifts. Increasing brand trust improves market perception, which will help Unisys grow its client base and existing engagements as well as attract new talent.

Shifting its marketing approach created opportunities for Unisys in the C-Suite. As clients look to establish new security, cloud, digital, and environmental, social and governance (ESG) offerings, Unisys strengthens its ability to engage with different levels within the C-Suite to guide these projects. The content-driven approach is geared toward attracting higher-level stakeholders and generating larger-scale transformation projects.

By deepening its involvement in the ESG market, Unisys is able to better help clients address their sustainability targets and improve their environmental footprints. In 2006 Unisys set internal targets to control and reduce emissions and outputs, which helped it gain experience and outcomes in the area. Unisys has since updated its targets to continue its progress toward the company’s sustainability goals.

Developing the internal skills and resources needed to implement the company’s sustainability goals enables Unisys to execute on similar efforts for clients, particularly in Europe, where it has helped clients adapt to new regulations regarding emissions and energy consumption. Unisys also executes on the social and cultural aspects of ESG to help clients improve internally and externally.

In July TBR published the special report, Atos’ sustainability play relies on ecosystems, science and leading by example, which expands on the customer-zero approach, showcasing the SI vendors that have created more resonant use cases. For example, according to the report, “Atos has rarely presented itself as customer zero, but with sustainability the vendor has been showing its own standards to clients and the internal lessons learned on adoption, measurement and change management.” By expanding its breadth of ESG capabilities and its brand recognition, Unisys has established a foundation it can build upon in its growth areas.

Business models shifts, including support from Unisys’ external branding and marketing efforts to transform market perception, have allowed the company to lead with trust and deliver on clients’ needs to drive outcomes, leaning on its portfolio depth and partner ecosystem. Showcasing the depth of its portfolio and services will allow Unisys to better lead discussions with new stakeholders within emerging areas.

Emphasizing digital workplace and cloud

As clients execute on larger-scale transformation projects, they look for vendors to guide projects from beginning to end and to provide support following completion. Repositioning through marketing plans and a refreshed portfolio image allows Unisys to serve as a go-to partner for its clients.

The key theme of partnerships and value-driven outcomes for clients was embedded throughout the event, serving as evidence of Unisys’ efforts to improve relationship management and the relevancy of its portfolio. By working closely with clients to update their environments and business strategies, underpinned by emerging technologies, Unisys can enable clients to respond more quickly to market changes and operate more cost effectively. While the majority of Unisys’ revenue is generated through outsourcing and support and maintenance — which represent approximately 65% of total revenue — consulting work is helping to guide the adoption of digital workplace and cloud solutions. Expanding those conversations with clients will expand the breadth of Unisys’ consulting experience and ability to guide transformations.

During the event Unisys also highlighted its partner ecosystem and the roles it plays in accelerating digital transformation and helping the company grow its portfolio around both consulting capabilities and emerging technology. Forging partnerships enhances Unisys’ value proposition around industry solutions, improving its ability to identify and address clients’ transformative needs.

Additionally, Unisys incorporates consulting services derived from partnerships to better guide cloud migrations to Amazon Web Services and other hyperscaler solutions. This aligns with TBR’s findings in its May 2022 Digital Transformation: Voice of the Customer Research, which supports the idea that SIs will be capable of delivering an ecosystem of solutions to enable transformation. According to the report, “While cloud migration and IT modernization continue to provide the bulk of the services opportunities, buyers, especially the ones that have led the way in terms of adopting a business-first, technology-second mindset, are now demonstrating an appetite for experimenting with new technologies in areas such as AI, enabling them to further enhance customer experience.”

TBR’s June 2022 Digital Transformation: Cloud Ecosystems Market Landscape also emphasizes the need of hyperscaler partners is deeply rooted in platforms and scale to transformation projects. The market landscape states, “While hyperscalers’ platform capabilities provide the necessary hooks into IT systems, both new and old, to enable the construction of hybrid IT and cloud environments, the SI community serves as the tip of hyperscalers’ go-to-market spear, capable of establishing the business case for emerging DT [digital transformation] initiatives to gain the trust and buy-in from a diverse array of buyers.”

Working with partners supplements Unisys’ internal innovation efforts to deepen its experience around digital workplace services and cloud solutions. During this event, Unisys walked through its digital solutions, including intelligent workplace services, modern device management and Workplace as a Service as well as its cloud solutions such as cloud data and analytics, management and hybrid infrastructure services. The solutions help clients navigate technology debt — debt incurred from technical assets and/or data centers — while also modernizing traditional elements, bridging the gap between legacy and emerging areas. Addressing the cost impacts in addition to technology needs allows Unisys to serve as a trusted partner for its clients, enabling them to sustain and manage transformations.

Differentiation through trust

While differentiation presents a challenge for all vendors, Unisys leans on its client engagement and relationship management to serve as a go-to partner and deliver across different needs. Instilling trust by testing and working on capabilities internally, such as around ESG with company targets, can help bolster conversations with clients. Strong relationships with clients help increase awareness of Unisys’ portfolio depth and efforts to transform the company’s image in the market. Centering engagements on trust through outcome-driven solutions that bring value to clients leads to higher renewals for Unisys and new logo generation. Showcasing client experiences and business outcomes on the website and through digital marketing efforts will resonate with clients and prospects and guide further discussions.

Unisys’ efforts to grow its cloud portfolio and support its partner solution adoption provide opportunities for the company to drive larger-scale transformations. More specifically, Unisys executes on technology debt reduction, creates interoperability between different environments and devices, and increases internal agility to respond more rapidly to client needs. The portfolio expansion allows Unisys to help clients navigate multicloud complexities as well as guide the use of applications to help modernize business operations and utilize data. Leaning on its client relationships, Unisys proactively helps clients solve current problems while creating more resilient business environments that can be more flexible when confronted with unexpected challenges.

Conclusion

As clients’ and market needs change, Unisys evaluated its portfolio offerings and infused an expanded set of digital workplace and cloud solutions to refresh its business strategy and align with client requirements. Coupled with a more active marketing strategy that centers on content and experience underpinned by client testimonials, Unisys helps progress beyond traditional transformation engagements to deliver on more complex cloud and digital transformations.

Working as a partner to guide clients through challenges and improve their flexibility further strengthens Unisys’ position as a trusted vendor that can drive outcomes and value. A greater emphasis on clients’ needs, with outcomes at the center, will continue to showcase Unisys’ ability to deliver on changing market dynamics and accelerate from a revenue growth and portfolio expansion perspective alongside its clients.