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Hardware-centric Vendors Continue to Make Their Move Into Software
Though revenue mixes are increasingly shifting in favor of software, driven in part by acquisitions (e.g., Cisco’s purchase of Splunk), hardware continues to dominate the market, accounting for 80% of benchmarked vendor revenue in 3Q24. Industry-standard servers being sold to cloud and GPU “as a Service” providers are overwhelmingly fueling market growth, more than offsetting unfavorable cyclical demand weakness in the storage and networking markets.

PwC Middle East Experts Weigh In on Economic Trends and Transaction Activity
PwC Middle East’s webcast provides excellent monthly insights into the region’s economies, but it is not the only active Big Four firm. As TBR reported in our Fall 2024 Management Consulting Benchmark, KPMG “announced the opening of Risk Hub in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) in collaboration with Microsoft and IBM, paving the way for more in-person, tech-enabled GRC [governance, risk and compliance] discussions with regional clients embarking on their digital transformation programs.” TBR also learned in February that KPMG intends to open a new Ignition Center in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, in 2025, building on the firm’s global network of innovation and transformation centers.

Deployment Services in Telecom Face Post-5G Slowdown, Shifting Market Dynamics and Growth in Fiber Expansion
The deployment services market faces growing headwinds, including communication service provider (CSP) consolidation, open vRAN’s lower installation costs, and reduced demand for site location and construction (SL&C), offset somewhat by hyperscaler spend and 5G rollouts in select developing markets. Hyperscaler investments provide incremental volume to the market, and TBR notes these companies are increasing their investments in access technologies (e.g., Google Fiber).

TBR Case Study: Price Benchmarking
Explore this competitive pricing example from TBR's Tailored Services team, which helped this global Top 3 hardware OEM capitalize on their investment in pricing research.

Saudi Arabia’s Message to Global Firms: Deliver Real Value or Step Aside
Bottom line upfront: Understand that this is a Saudi story, not a PwC story, although undoubtedly it doesn’t feel that way in PwC’s corridors right now. Saudi Arabia has an opportunity to send some critical messages to players in the country, in the region and globally, and the kingdom is taking advantage.

SaaS Vendors Bet on AI Agents to Unlock New Revenue Streams
For SaaS vendors, the long-term opportunity lies in the ability to upsell GenAI solutions integrated directly into their existing workflows. While all major SaaS providers have made such solutions generally available, revenue from GenAI tools has not been enough to offset the slowing top-line growth many vendors are experiencing. Issues like cost, reliability, data governance and use-case validation remain obstacles to broader adoption, preventing the technology from becoming the growth driver vendors had hoped. Nevertheless, enterprise SaaS vendors continue to hold an optimistic long-term outlook, with many believing the technology will become a strategic necessary.

Who Is the Market Leader in IT Services?
Increased managed services activities around cost optimization and streamlined business processes and the recovering banking, financial services and insurance segment will help vendors alleviate revenue growth pressures in 2025.

The Middle East’s Economic Transformation: A Real Decoupling or Persistent Uncertainty?
The long-sought-after growth of strong non-oil economies, the eventual weaning of these pivotal Middle East countries from subservience to the price of oil is happening now and happening quickly. And should a trade war break out between the U.S. and the European Union (EU) or the U.S. and China, Saudi Arabia and the UAE — and the rest of the Middle East economies — will suffer. A production surge by the world’s largest oil producer — the U.S. — would further dampen oil prices, constraining Middle East governments’ budgets. Not everything is perfect, but certainly the big picture looks promising: Non-oil economies in oil-led countries have shown persistent, seemingly lasting growth.
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Peraton Revenue on Track for $8B Despite Shaky Start to 2024
/by James Wichert, AnalystTBR anticipates that Peraton will continue to more efficiently convert its backlog (last reported at $24.4 billion in the middle of 2022) into revenue while the company also keeps capitalizing on federal budget priorities favoring civilian, defense and healthcare agencies. A government shutdown in 4Q24 could still disrupt Peraton’s expansion, but TBR believes Peraton will still reach between $8.0 billion and $8.1 billion in annual revenue during 2024, representing growth of between 2.6% to 5.2% over 2023.
Implementing a Comprehensive Strategy: Infosys Enhances Talent Development, Sales Efficiency and Profitability
/by Bozhidar Hristov, Principal AnalystInfosys Cobalt, Infosys Topaz and now Infosys Aster will continue to act both as the backbone of IT services modernization and as access points to generative AI (GenAI)-related opportunities. With many of its peers are pursuing similar strategies and poaching key Infosys executives to emulate success, the company needs to remain vigilant and maintain transparent communication with stakeholders to avoid client and talent confusion and secure its long-term success.
GenAI Disruption: Rewriting the Business Models of Tech Titans and Consultancies
/by Patrick Heffernan, Practice Manager and Principal AnalystAs the efficiencies of automation, analytics and AI begin benefiting technology companies themselves, not just their enterprise clients, TBR sees the latter half of 2024 as fundamentally business model disruptive for pretty much every technology company we cover, from McKinsey & Co. to Infosys to Dell Technologies to Amazon Web Services to IBM to Ericsson to NVIDIA.
Adapting to Market Needs: How Consultancies are Investing in Talent and Partner Ecosystems
/by Kelly Lesiczka, Senior AnalystWhile macroeconomic uncertainty remains across markets, the consultancies look to develop core services such as around AI, partnerships and networks of physical centers to strengthen client engagements and continue advisory discussions. Increasing technology complexity, operational cost-driven optimizations and data strategies will draw on consultancies’ core experience to successfully drive digital transformation programs.
How AI Is Revolutionizing Cost Efficiency and Customer Experience in Telecom
/by Chris Antlitz, Principal AnalystTBR’s latest telecom research indicates customer care, which includes contact centers, will be profoundly transformed by AI. Though traditional AI has been utilized in customer care for many years (e.g., chatbots and interactive voice response), GenAI will take customer care to an advanced state. TBR estimates that GenAI could reduce the costs of running contact centers by up to 80%, and this is an area telecom operators are keenly interested in as they remain focused on cutting expenses across their businesses.
Competitive Benchmarking: A Strategic Guide
/by Elitsa Bakalova, Senior AnalystDiscover the power of competitive benchmarking in the IT services market. Learn how it can help IT services vendors outperform their peers and drive business growth strategies.
Is India the Right Growth Market for Global Consultancies?
/by Patrick Heffernan, Practice Manager and Principal AnalystTBR looks at the question: If India is on track to become the third largest economy, will it also be the third largest revenue source for the Big Four, Accenture, IBM and Capgemini, or only for the firms that act first and implement the optimal strategies?
GenAI in Telecom: Transforming Operations from Front to Back Office
/by Chris Antlitz, Principal AnalystExplore the wide range of use cases for generative AI (GenAI) in the telecom industry and discover how CSPs can benefit from this emerging technology.
U.S. Telecom Market Outlook: Public Sector Revenue Growth for 2024 [Infographic]
/by Steve Vachon, Senior AnalystTBR estimates public sector revenue from U.S.-based service providers grew 6.1% year-to-year in 4Q23 to $5.4 billion. Total public sector revenue growth was driven by wireless revenue, which increased 9% year-to-year to an estimated $2.8 billion. First responder initiatives such as AT&T FirstNet and Verizon Frontline are the main drivers of public sector wireless revenue growth as these units are attracting public safety agencies seeking enhanced reliability to support mission-critical workloads and use cases.
IT Services Market in 2024: Key Success Factors for Vendors
/by Elitsa Bakalova, Senior AnalystWhile macroeconomic uncertainty challenges year-to-year revenue growth in the IT services sector, the trajectory beyond 2024 appears promising, largely due to the resilience of managed services bookings. Despite macroeconomic uncertainty the revenue growth trajectory beyond 2024 is promising, driven by the resilience of managed services bookings.