Competitive Insights & Analysis
Timely analysis to keep you in the know.
Timely analysis to keep you in the know.
TBR Principal Analyst Patrick M. Heffernan chats with fellow Principal Analyst Ezra Gottheil about TBR’s approach to modeling financial performance and other business metrics, including what value comes from modeling and advice on doing modeling correctly.
Ezra says, “Models provide a consistent framework to shape that analysis, and TBR’s data reflects relentless updating and refinement of the inputs and the insights. I say “relentless,” because that’s really key to the value. You can’t model once and be done. You need to update constantly and within the framework you’ve established. TBR helps with quarterly data and analysis, so even if you’re only revisiting your own analysis every six months or just annually, you know the up-to-date inputs from TBR fit your model — your framework — in a consistent manner.”
EY’s robust and expanding Microsoft (Nasdaq: MSFT) practice exemplifies how steadily, quietly and persistently EY has transformed from a legacy audit, tax and consulting firm into a technology-enhanced digital transformation powerhouse. While media and competitor attention focuses on EY’s pending split into a legacy audit firm and an unfettered consulting and IT services vendor, the existing firm continues acquiring assets and talent, growing revenues, and delivering to clients and technology partners.
In October TBR met with leaders from EY’s Microsoft practice, including Jim Little, EY Global Microsoft Alliance leader. We discussed trends across the cloud and IT services ecosystem, EY’s Microsoft-related capabilities and growth, and EY’s expectations for 2023 and beyond. This special report reflects that conversation and TBR’s ongoing research on EY, Microsoft, and both vendors’ ecosystems and competitive landscapes.
After all the emerging tech hype, just bring the best IT services people and consultants, every time, at a fair price. After years of IT services vendors and their technology partners telling clients (and analysts) that “data is the new oil” and that “every company is a technology company,” we are finally reaching a tipping point at which vendors cannot sell the promise of data but need to sell the results. Clients expect returns on their investments in digital transformation, analytics and cloud, pushing IT services vendors to deliver more transparently, with more consistency and at a higher quality.
While transparency, consistency and quality are hardly earthquake-like trends across the IT services and consulting space, they will be the markers of successful vendors and firms through 2023.