TBR’s Business Insights

Should Accenture Enter Assurance?

10.16.26

The opportunity is not for Accenture to become the fifth member of the Big Four but rather to challenge their position as trusted enterprise advisers by making independent AI assurance a critical component of enterprise transformation. The strategic risk is that, without credible independence, Accenture Assurance would become another consulting offering wrapped in the language of trust.

Technology Business Research, Inc.

5G’s Next Act Is About Monetization, While 6G Builds on the 5G Foundation

10.09.26

TBR believes the path to 6G runs directly through unfinished 5G work. Operators that expand 5G SA, improve spectrum efficiency, commercialize differentiated connectivity and build programmable, AI-ready networks will be better positioned for an economical 6G migration. FWA will remain the near-term revenue anchor, but longer-term value will increasingly depend on whether CSPs can turn AI, sensing and network capabilities into standardized services that enterprises and governments can easily buy. The transition to 6G is about proving that operators can finally monetize the capabilities 5G was designed to enable.

Technology Business Research, Inc.

Exploring KPMG’s Role in Quantum

10.08.26

KPMG has positioned itself as ready to help clients prepare for when quantum shifts from an expensive idea to an immediate opportunity and threat. Can the firm create near-term revenue as PQC meets its Y2K moment, provide reliable and useful services through hybrid computing, and manage the ecosystem and orchestration layer in quantum? Maybe. At scale with clients? Likely. Are KPMG’s clients really ready for that? Are all of KPMG’s partners, principals and directors?

Technology Business Research, Inc.

Holiday Shopping Is Becoming an AI Story: How Value-conscious Consumers, Rising Memory Costs and Connectivity Are Reshaping Retail

10.07.26

As retailers invest more heavily in AI to capture increasingly value-conscious holiday shoppers, the effectiveness of those investments will depend on the infrastructure supporting them. AI recommendations, computer vision, mobile point-of-sale, real-time inventory and in-store personalization only create value when data can move reliably between devices, stores, edge systems and cloud platforms.

Technology Business Research, Inc.

AI Is Changing Enterprise Networking, but Not All Disruption Looks the Same

10.06.26

Our initial results show an industry in transition. HIRI and operating margins are improving across the peer group, but AI is only one part of the story. Restructuring efforts, revenue growth, subscription adoption and portfolio consolidation continue to strongly influence workforce productivity. Additionally, customer demand for AI-based solutions to support their own AI transformations boosts financial performance independent of the vendors’ internal AI investments.

Technology Business Research, Inc.

Exploring KPMG’s Role in AI

10.03.26

What struck TBR most about KPMG’s frequent evocations of trust was the humility that went with it. Knowing trust has to be earned, maintained and renewed seemed to inform how KPMG leaders spoke about the firm’s capabilities and relationships. And in casual discussions with KPMG clients at the Utah event, trust came up repeatedly as a key reason they were there.

The Midmarket Opportunity: Which GSIs Can — and Should — Pursue It?

09.25.26

Expanding into the midmarket has been a recurring theme for GSIs for many years, and some are dusting off that strategy yet again. This time, platform-led operating models that are less linked to FTE-based pricing may change the game. When looking at Accenture, Atos Group, Capgemini and Deloitte, which company could reasonably enter or expand into the midmarket? More importantly, which should?

The Time to Start Building Your Multiparty Alliance is Now

09.11.26

Every software and technology company should be building multiparty alliances through codeveloped solutions supported by joined-at-the-hip sales teams. Additionally, executives should be thinking about, planning for, acting on and beginning to deliver around outcome-based pricing.

Convergence Takes Center Stage as U.S. Telecom Operators Pursue the Next Phase of Growth

08.24.26

The U.S. telecom market is entering a new phase in which convergence, broadband scale, and higher-value connectivity services such as AI infrastructure connectivity are becoming increasingly important competitive differentiators.

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Technology Business Research, Inc.

DOGE Federal IT Vendor Impact Series: SAIC

03.31.25/by John Caucis, Senior Analyst

TBR was surprised by SAIC’s FY26 (CY25) outlook, which was consistent with CEO Toni Townes-Whitley’s comment during the company’s 4Q24 earnings call that SAIC’s “current revenue with agencies under particular scrutiny by DOGE is immaterial.” In fact, SAIC elevated several elements of its FY26 guidance in 4Q24.

Anyaberkut, Getty Images Pro

Google Recognizes Critical Role of Security, and Its Standing in the Cloud Market, in Acquisition of Wiz

03.27.25/by Catie Merrill, Senior Analyst

With the business environment changing and cybersecurity perhaps more relevant than ever, Google saw an opportunity to repursue the Wiz acquisition, and a $32 billion offer, marking a major uptick in valuation, was simply too good for Wiz to ignore. Should the deal close in 2026 as expected, Wiz — with roughly 1,800 employees and ties to half the Fortune 500 — will join the Google Cloud division, offering synergies with Mandiant, an added layer of protection for the Google Security Operations platform, and the potential to help Google Cloud formalize cybersecurity as an agentic AI use case.

Husein Signart

Hardware-centric Vendors Continue to Make Their Move Into Software

03.25.25/by Catie Merrill, Senior Analyst

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.

Mozcann, Getty Images Signature

PwC Middle East Experts Weigh In on Economic Trends and Transaction Activity

03.21.25/by Patrick Heffernan, Practice Manager and Principal Analyst

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.

Numforest, Getty Images

Deployment Services in Telecom Face Post-5G Slowdown, Shifting Market Dynamics and Growth in Fiber Expansion

03.21.25/by Michael Soper, Senior Analyst

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

03.12.25/by TBR

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.

Bagi1998, Getty Images Signature

Saudi Arabia’s Message to Global Firms: Deliver Real Value or Step Aside

03.05.25/by Patrick Heffernan, Practice Manager and Principal Analyst

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.

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SaaS Vendors Bet on AI Agents to Unlock New Revenue Streams

03.04.25/by Alex Demeule, Senior Analyst

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.

Kentoh, Getty Images Signature

Who Is the Market Leader in IT Services?

03.03.25/by Elitsa Bakalova, Senior Analyst

Eight of the top 10 IT services revenue leaders in TBR’s IT Services Vendor Benchmark reported accelerated positive trailing 12-month (TTM) revenue growth year-to-year in U.S. dollars (USD) during 3Q25, indicating vendors are capturing pockets of growth opportunities despite lingering growth challenges caused by macroeconomic uncertainty, tight discretionary spending, and constrained spending in the U.S. federal sector.

Vertigo3D, Getty Images

The Middle East’s Economic Transformation: A Real Decoupling or Persistent Uncertainty?

02.25.25/by Patrick Heffernan, Practice Manager and Principal Analyst

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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