TBR’s Business Insights

New Growth in Consulting Is Emerging from an Unexpected Place: Managed Services

03.18.26

A scaled managed services practice trained in spotting consulting opportunities and armed with AI-enabled solutions will unquestionably win some management consulting market share. More significantly, from TBR’s objective view, is whether the Big Four firms can manage their staffing, brand promise and technology alliances to take advantage of the managed services practices they’ve already built and use those opportunities to return to robust management consulting growth. Maybe, but probably not all four. The next two years will be telling, and TBR expects the existing differences between the Big Four will become even more pronounced.

Skills Shortage Will Challenge the Scaling of Sovereign AI in 2026

02.20.26

AI-related skills will remain scarce across both buyers and ecosystem partners as the rapid pace of innovation and the technical complexity required to enable sovereign AI continue to hinder adoption. These challenges, combined with a lack of clearly defined and compliant use cases among sovereign customers, gaps in sovereign cloud infrastructure availability and steep AI learning curve faced by ecosystem partners, will constrain meaningful investment and implementation of sovereign AI throughout 2026.

PaaS Revenue Will Outpace SaaS Revenue for Cloud Software Vendors

02.17.26

Enterprise customers are prioritizing the modernization of their existing SaaS estates rather than adding new applications, driven by market saturation, accumulated technical debt, and a growing imperative to become AI-ready. As IT buyers shift their focus toward modern platforms, traditional SaaS leaders should expect their PaaS segments to continue significantly outperforming their core SaaS businesses in revenue growth.

Dee Angela, Canva Pro

Alliances Will Extend Beyond Core Offerings as AI-driven Sales and Marketing Reshape Ecosystems

02.12.26

IT services companies have their limits, and clients have preferred technology vendors, leading IT services companies to look to alliances to drive new growth. We have seen this pattern before, but in 2026 we will see IT services companies extend those alliances into devices, connectivity and even silicon, requiring a multiparty alliance approach that will strain commercial models, sales strategies and alliance leaders across the ecosystem.

Consulting Will Rebound in 2026

02.10.26

After a period of relative softness, consulting revenues are expected to rebound to high-single- or low-double-digit growth as pervasive uncertainty pushes enterprises to seek external guidance. Demand will be particularly strong around risk mitigation, strategic planning and AI adoption, positioning forward-deployed engineers, supply chain management and people advisory services as leading revenue drivers in 2026.

Bad Debt Expenses Will Rise for CSPs in 2026

02.06.26

In a K-shaped economy that increasingly separates financial winners from losers, the majority of households and businesses on the lower arm of the “K” are under mounting financial strain and are finding it more difficult to pay their bills. As these economic pressures persist, communications service providers (CSPs) should expect bad debt expenses to continue rising, with the potential to meet, or even exceed, levels experienced during the Great Recession.

How Will Advanced AI Impact Pricing, Labor Practices and Client Expectations?

02.05.26

Advanced AI may be front and center in IT services strategy, but execution challenges remain a familiar story. Despite ongoing hype around unlocking new efficiencies and nonlinear growth, IT services firms continue to grapple with the reality of needing labor arbitrage in the short term and meeting client expectations.

Gustavo Quiroga Gaitan, Canva Pro

AI Alliances Will Increasingly Target OT

02.03.26

New and expanding partnerships are increasingly targeting the convergence of IT and OT, as system integrators (SIs) align with OEMs, manufacturing ISVs and silicon providers. This momentum is driven by the strong growth potential in high-tech manufacturing, where solutions that improve accuracy, efficiency and safety can be deployed on-site without reliance on rack-scale compute systems in neoclouds or Tier 1 clouds. As a result, while AI has long operated at the edge, these partnerships will accelerate both the sophistication of AI-driven use cases and the pace of solution framework development.

Agentic AI Adoption Is Pressuring Security Architectures to Converge

01.29.26

The emerging pattern of multicloud security consolidation has direct implications for both Amazon Web Services (AWS) and Microsoft, as enterprises reassess detection pipelines, governance models and operating frameworks heading into 2026. Although AWS remains well positioned in analytics-heavy workloads, the company needs to reevaluate its long-established “building block” approach, especially as peers deliver more integrated platforms. For Microsoft, its strengths will continue to be with organizations where Microsoft 365 already anchors their identity and collaboration strategies.

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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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