TBR’s Business Insights

Shutdown Ends, but Federal Contractors Face a Slow Return to Normal

12.17.25

The 43-day U.S. federal government shutdown, the longest in history, came to a welcome end on Nov. 13, 2025, but for some federal systems integrators (FSIs), the shutdown’s impact could linger well into federal fiscal year 2026 (FFY26). According to the Professional Services Council, the national trade association for federal technology and professional services contractors, it will take three to five days for agency functions to return to normal for each day of the shutdown, implying that operations at some agencies may not return to normal until March 2026.

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Partnerships, Not Products, Will Define How Consultancies and Native AI Companies Share Value in Agentic AI Era

11.03.25

Just like supporting startup programs, many traditional IT services companies and consultancies have struggled to adequately put themselves in their alliance partners’ shoes. And when those partners are startups or immature native AI companies, that struggle will be harder in the absence of leadership, strategic direction and sustained investment. But that’s the potential downside. The upside is that consultancies are perfectly positioned to be change management specialists, helping their largest clients adopt the best new AI.

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Human Capital Management in the Age of (Agentic) AI

10.07.25

Fundamentally HR management remains a back-office function that IT services companies and consultancies can use to drive managed services engagements. And TBR’s research shows that managed services can lead to additional consulting opportunities, particularly when managed services providers (whether a traditional IT services company or consultancy) partners smartly with technology companies, leveraging the data and insights generated through back-office platforms to uncover issues and opportunities.

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GenAI Outcomes or Autonomous AI Architecture: Where Should CIOs Focus?

10.01.25

What good are AI-enabled solutions if an enterprise’s IT environment and architecture can’t handle the data orchestration demands and IT becomes a roadblock to faster, better, clearer insights from AI, rather than the business accelerator expected of IT departments in the AI era? After more than a decade of consultancies and IT services companies helping IT departments become business drivers, will inadequate architecture slow down AI adoption and AI agents at scale?

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Amdocs Is Well Positioned to Continue Absorbing Market Share in the Telecom Industry; AI Is a Key Growth Vector

09.24.25

Although TBR believes it is very early days for agentic AI branding, Amdocs’ early foray into this emerging area and thought leadership underscore how the company is seeking to move into new and adjacent areas as it expands its offerings, especially around consulting, design and transformation enablement.

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HCLTech’s Expanding KYC Journey: From Technology Provider to Trusted Compliance Partner

09.11.25

By evolving its KYC offerings across platforms and clients, HCLTech has shifted from tech implementer to outcomes-driven partner.

DOGE drives civil sector slowdown; defense contractors gear up as Trump’s budget shifts billions to military priorities

08.04.25

The Trump administration’s recent “skinny” budget proposal for FFY26 suggests that nondefense spending will fall from around $720 billion in FFY25 to approximately $557 billion in FFY26, representing a 23% decline. Contractors with any level of exposure to the civilian sector can expect agency reorganizations, layoffs, budget reductions and in-depth contract reviews within civil agencies for the remainder of FFY25 and likely into at least the first half of FFY26. The pace of new awards has already slowed significantly at some civilian agencies, as has the rate of new bookings on existing civilian engagements.

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Geopolitics with Purpose: EY-Parthenon Drives Strategy, Not Just Awareness

07.17.25

TBR has long maintained that the Big Four firms have an inherent advantage against all competitors when it comes to understanding and advising on geopolitical risk. Perhaps only the U.S. government has the same global spread of talent, with professionals in nearly every country, most intimately aware of local business, economic and even political trends. When EY-Parthenon showed off its Geopolitical Advisory team recently, TBR wanted to know: Is this something special?

Manufacturing Growth Slows, But EMEA IT Services Vendors Find Lifeline in Public Sector Wins

07.16.25

This quarter, we look at Accenture, Atos, Capgemini and IBM Consulting in the Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) market, and compare how their industry diversification, portfolios and localization strategies position them for revenue growth. Atos and Capgemini, the two IT services companies whose EMEA revenue makes up over half of total revenue, experienced a steady decline in trailing 12-month (TTM) year-to-year revenue growth in recent quarters. Yet, Accenture and IBM were better able to maintain growth as macroeconomic conditions deteriorated in recent quarters.

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Special Report: TBR 2023 Professional Services Predictions

Technology Business Research, Inc.

Top 3 Predictions for Professional Services (IT Services Vendors) in 2023

11.21.22/by Patrick Heffernan, Practice Manager and Principal Analyst

Many IT services vendors and consultancies are reconstituting in new forms, bringing some chaos to the digital transformation landscape and upending alliances in 2023. TBR discusses this and more in our Top 3 Predictions for Professional Services in 2023 report.

Special Report: TBR 2023 Telecom Predictions

Technology Business Research, Inc.

Top 3 Predictions for Telecom Going Into 2023 and Beyond

11.21.22/by Chris Antlitz, Principal Analyst

TBR’s top predictions for the upcoming year include the telecom industry facing an unprecedented level of uncertainty and risk in 2023

Special Report: TBR 2023 Cloud & Software Predictions

Technology Business Research, Inc.

Top 5 Predictions for Cloud & Software Vendors in 2023

11.21.22/by Allan Krans, Practice Manager and Principal Analyst

TBR’s 2023 Report featuring Predictions for Cloud and Software vendors is now live. With unprecedented times upon this, we discuss how cloud vendors will use predictable strategies going into 2023 and beyond.

Special Report: TBR 2023 IT Infrastructure Predictions

Technology Business Research, Inc.

IT Infrastructure Predictions and Trends for 2023 and Beyond

11.21.22/by Angela Lambert, Principal Analyst and Practice Manager

Competition among infrastructure vendors will be stiff as ever going into 2023, leaving vendors hungry to increase their relevance and value to customers outside the traditional data center.

Special Report: TBR 2023 Devices Predictions

Technology Business Research, Inc.

Top 3 Predictions for Devices (PCs) in 2023

11.21.22/by TBR

Following the pandemic-related surge in PC sales and AUR, TBR predicts vendor revenue and margins will be lower in 2023.

Special Report: TBR 2023 Federal IT Services Predictions

Technology Business Research, Inc.

Top 3 Predictions for Government IT Services in 2023

11.21.22/by John Caucis, Senior Analyst

TBR predicts federal government IT spend is poised to surge to new highs on the back of digital modernization and cybersecurity investment. Read more about this prediction and others in our 2023 report.

Blog series: Gimme 3 Insight Interviews with TBR's Subject-matter Experts

Technology Business Research, Inc.

How to illuminate operational insights and increase value from your business model and estimates

11.07.22/by Patrick Heffernan, Practice Manager and Principal Analyst

Learn about TBR’s approach to modeling financial performance and other business metrics, including what value comes from modeling and advice on doing modeling correctly

Technology Business Research, Inc.

Digital transformation cannot escape tech despite vendors’ evolving value propositions

10.21.22/by TBR

Complexities in developing and managing digital transformation (DT) have fueled tremendous opportunity for vendors across IT and services over the past five to seven years.

Technology Business Research, Inc.

Changing the norm: Consultancies reimagine portfolios and talent composition

10.20.22/by TBR

Consultancies must balance talent composition around technology and consulting to support the shift in business models to better retain clients and deliver on emerging needs brought out from digital adoption

Technology Business Research, Inc.

IT infrastructure vendors balance demand hurdles and portfolio strategy in 2022

10.19.22/by TBR

Despite demand hurdles, IT infrastructure vendors continue to invest in expanding their portfolios to capture greater wallet share from customers and create more diversified revenue streams

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