TBR’s Business Insights

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.

Saitharn, Getty Images via Canva Pro

The U.S. doesn’t have a Spectrum Shortage — It has a Utilization Problem

01.13.26

The mobile industry continues to beat the drum for more spectrum, but it should instead focus on fully utilizing the spectrum already allocated. TBR notes there are vast tranches of spectrum in the U.S. market that are broadly underutilized, either for technical or economic reasons. And challenges will only worsen as the industry aims to bring upper midband frequencies into the fray, which have greater propagation challenges and are less suited for macro coverage.

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.

Getty Images via Canva Pro

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.

Getty Images via Canva Pro

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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Iowa caucuses: Digital transformation run amok

02.04.20/by admin

Iowa’s first-in-the-nation, high-value, high-visibility caucus misfired last night, potentially costing the state its special status in coming years, which could trigger a massive economic impact due to the loss of revenue associated with early campaign activities (e.g., hotel stays, dining, gas, ads). The strategic value of rapid visibility bouncing into New Hampshire, first capitalized on […]

Big changes for Big Blue

02.04.20/by admin

Lots of news coming from IBM these past few weeks, and we have plenty of analysis on it from Geoff Woollacott, Stephanie Long, Elitsa Bakalova, Catie Merrill and Nicole Catchpole. IBM unveiled a new Power System and announced Ginni Rometty will be stepping down, making way for cloud champion Arvind Krishna to emerge as the […]

Big Blue turns purple

01.31.20/by Catie Merrill, Senior Analyst

Rometty steps down, making way for cloud champion Krishna as IBM’s new CEO At close of business on Jan. 30, IBM unveiled Virginia Rometty was stepping down as CEO. Arvind Krishna, current SVP of Cloud and Cognitive Software at IBM, will take over effective April 6. It was also announced that James Whitehurst, IBM senior […]

Quick Quantum Quips: Talent acquisition becomes a larger challenge as vendors achieve additional proof points

01.30.20/by admin

Welcome to TBR’s monthly newsletter on the quantum computing market: Quick Quantum Quips (Q3). This market changes rapidly, and the hype can often distract from the realities of the actual technological developments. This newsletter will keep the community up to date on recent announcements, while stripping away the hype around developments. For more details, reach […]

Analytics within digital transformation engagements depend on high-quality people and data

01.29.20/by admin

This week, TBR publishes the first Digital Transformation Insights report for 2020, building on the 2019 series, which included analysis around blockchain, digital marketing, IoT and quantum. The first report centers on IT services vendors’ strategies and performances within their analytics practices. Senior Analyst Boz Hristov notes that, “The maturing A&I services market continues to […]

Fear of the death of ‘digital’

01.24.20/by Patrick Heffernan, Practice Manager and Principal Analyst

When we published our professional and IT services predictions for 2020, we anticipated feedback would center on the seemingly most controversial forecast: the end of “digital” as an industry catch-all term, nearly always followed by “transformation.” Initial comments from clients suggested we touched a bit of a nerve. We do not believe a possible economic […]

Economic advantage: Preparing for lift off

01.23.20/by admin

Talent poaching within industry first warning of things to come JPMorgan Chase announced on Jan. 22, 2020, the hiring of Marco Pistoia from IBM. A 24-year IBM employee with numerous patents to his credit, Pistoia most recently led an IBM team responsible for quantum computing algorithms. Algorithm development will be key to developing soundly engineered […]

Can IBM pivot fast enough?

01.22.20/by admin

This week, TBR publishes its initial thoughts on IBM’s 4Q19 performance, featuring insights from our data center and professional services analysts. “Another quarter, another IBM Initial Response from TBR. And while our initial report on IBM’s earnings release remains constant, IBM’s strategy and investment focuses continue to pivot,” says Analyst Stephanie Long. “This quarter we’re […]

HP Inc. reaffirms its rejection of Xerox offer

01.15.20/by TBR

As of this writing, Xerox is attempting a hostile takeover of HP Inc., after HP Inc.’s board reiterated its rejection of Xerox’s offer on Jan. 9, 2020, and has obtained a commitment for the necessary $24 million loan to complete the deal should HP Inc. accept a Xerox offer. HP Inc. continues to contend Xerox’s […]

Sustained growth provides Accenture with the flexibility to enact internal and operational changes

01.14.20/by admin

In this week’s Accenture report, Senior Analyst Boz Hristov notes, “Accenture’s robust account management capabilities and diversified footprint supported continued profitable growth in FY1Q20 (CY4Q19), leading to increased market share. TBR does not expect major changes to the course of the company’s go-to-market strategy following the announced changes on Jan. 13 to its growth model, […]

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