TBR’s Business Insights

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

03.27.25

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

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.

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

03.21.25

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.

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

03.21.25

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

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.

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

03.05.25

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

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.

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Who Is the Market Leader in IT Services?

03.03.25

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.

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

02.25.25

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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Product Innovation – How IT Service Vendors are Leveraging Competitive Intelligence

12.08.23/by Kelly Lesiczka, Senior Analyst

IT services vendors are ramping up innovation efforts and bringing in new expertise and resources experience to address emerging needs as client demand reflects a stronger emphasis on software and efficiency solutions.

Strategic Synergy: Maximizing Technology Alliances in the Ever-Changing IT Landscape

11.06.23/by Patrick Heffernan, Practice Manager and Principal Analyst

As everyone expands their offerings and capabilities, knowing the full scope of what your partners do matters now more than ever for success in alliances.

Innovative Ecosystem Expansion: Leveraging Tech Startups for Sustainable Growth in IT Services

10.31.23/by Kelly Lesiczka, Senior Analyst

Expanding ecosystems to include tech startups and research academia will be key to vendors successfully collaborating with partners and clients, remaining ahead of trends and evolving portfolio offerings

IT Infrastructure Vendors Leverage Analytics and AI to Enhance Sustainability Services

10.13.23/by TBR

IT infrastructure consumption analytics underpinning ‘as a Service’ offerings will enable a new level of sustainability-oriented workload management

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Infosys and TCS: Forecasting to 2027 and Anticipating Upcoming Earnings

10.09.23/by Patrick Heffernan, Practice Manager and Principal Analyst

Ahead of quarterly earnings releases, we look at best-case scenarios for CAGR for India-centric vendors Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) and Infosys.

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No Matter Your Strengths or Strategy, You Must Partner to Deliver on GenAI Opportunities

10.06.23/by Patrick Heffernan, Practice Manager and Principal Analyst

IT services firms possess not only the trust of buyers but also the knowledge of buyers’ businesses to educate clients, and then help tailor GenAI tools to their business needs. In this blog, we look at the strategies and activities of three key players: Accenture, IBM Consulting and Dell Technologies.

The Evolution of Acquisitions, GenAI and Digital Transformation in IT Services and Consulting in 2023

09.20.23/by Patrick Heffernan, Practice Manager and Principal Analyst

Near-term, expect GenAI opportunities around consulting and limited case uses around productivity

Enterprise Storage Remains a Highly Competitive Space in 2023

09.08.23/by Angela Lambert, Principal Analyst and Practice Manager

Disruptive vendors are adding pressure to incumbents with targeted strategies to push into enterprise storage accounts

Telecom Industry Navigated Weakening Macro Backdrop Well in 1H23, but 2H23 and 2024 Will Likely be a More Challenging Situation

09.07.23/by Chris Antlitz, Principal Analyst

Despite holding up relatively well thus far in 2023, CSPs face significant challenges in managing their debt — the pressure is on to grow revenue and monetize their 5G investments

Human at the Center: EY Combines Data and Corporate Social Responsibility to Solve World Hunger

07.14.23/by Bozhidar Hristov, Principal Analyst

In June TBR attended an awards ceremony for the EY Open Science Data Challenge, which gave a glimpse into how well the firm mixes data and corporate social responsibility programs to solve society’s biggest problems, including world hunger.

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