Tag: IT services

COVID-19 will cause long-term pain for IT services sector

Posted on March 24, 2020 by - News

The impact of the coronavirus (COVID-19) on the IT services sector will be deep, immediate, and long-lasting. While there is a potential upside in most sectors, there is little optimism for IT services, according to analyst outfit GlobalData.

GlobalData published a fully revised report, ‘Tech, Media & Telecom Trends 2020’, to reflect the impact of COVID-19 on 17 separate TMT sectors.

Stuart Ravens, Chief Analyst Thematic Research at GlobalData, said: “The coronavirus will put incredible strain on the world economy, which will be effectively halted for three months or more. Many companies will not survive this initial phase. For IT services companies asking where new business will come from in 2020, the answer is painfully bleak: there will be none.”

MSPs need strategic vision and to differentiate

Posted on September 20, 2018 by - News

Wise Guy Reports claims that the the Global managed IT services market will expand at a CAGR of 9.4 percent through to 2024, taking the total market value from $145.3 billion in 2016 to a projected $249.4 billion by the end of 2024.

MSPs globally are facing a multi-faceted struggle to grow their businesses. On the one hand, there is competition from the public cloud players such as AWS, Google and Microsoft who set pricing levels and have reach but are unable to customise or tailor their offerings to specific verticals. The bulk of MSPs are much smaller, and specialist in technologies covered and markets, but need scale to build their profitability and have limited resources.

Other analysts Gartner claim that when compared to 2017, the entry criteria have become much harder and stringent. The focus has squarely shifted to hyperscale infrastructure providers, it says, and this has resulted in it dropping more than 14 vendors from its top players list. According to Gartner, there are no more visionaries and challengers left in the market; only a handful of leaders and niche players driving the momentum.

Among smaller players, the pace of competition has stepped up and they are feeling a major pressure to differentiate, either on skills, markets covered, geographical coverage or in customer relations. According to Gartner’s research director Mark Paine: “The key to a successful and differentiated business is to give customers what they want by helping them (the customer) buy.”

Jim Bowes, CEO and founder of digital agency ManifestoOne said that the way to win more customers is by showing them their place in the future

Bowes, Robert Belgrave, chief executive of digital agency hosting specialist Wirehive along with  Gartner’s Mark Paine will be addressing these and other marketing issues for MSPs at the UK Managed Services & Hosting Summit in London on 19 September.

A key part of the event will also be hearing from the experiences of MSPs themselves and looking at established winning ideas. Now in its eighth year, the UK Managed Services & Hosting Summit event will bring leading hardware and software vendors, hosting providers, telecommunications companies, mobile operators and web services providers involved in managed services and hosting together with Managed Service Providers (MSPs) and resellers, integrators and service providers migrating to, or developing their own managed services portfolio and sales of hosted solutions.

 

 

Outsourcing is a fail

Posted on October 22, 2014 by - News

depressionWhile the services market grew in 2013, revenues failed to shine.

That’s according to a report from market research company IDC, which said the whole service market grew from 12.3 percent in 2012 to 13.4 percent last year.

But, as IBM and SAP results showed earlier this week, the gloss appears to have faded on the services industry.

Vendors, said IDC, attributed the small increase in income to cutting jobs, making people work harder for less money, and finind new places where labour is cheaper.

IT outsourcing appears to be on he wane, said IDC. It was the least profitable service line last year and in 2012.

But support and training services are still profitable, while the second and third most profitable lines were “business consulting” and IT project based services, said IDC.

Chad Huston, a senior analyst at IDC, said the lacklustre revenue growth hasn’t stopped what he described as “an upward trajectory”.

But, he added, that’s because vendors are cutting their costs.

Avnet intros Avnet Services

Posted on May 1, 2013 by - News

avnettsAvnet has announced Avnet Services which rolls existing Avnet operations into a single team with a single strategy, focusing on software, life cycle and education services – because it feels IT services are underrepresented in the channel.

It will continue to work with VARs, ISVs, SIs and OEMs at both point of sale and delivery, while partners are promised benefits such as extended reach and scale as well as variable cost models and extended capabilities.

Avnet Technology Solutions president Phil Gallagher boasted in a statement that IT services is expected to reach $674.9 billion but the channel is not taking advantage. He enthused that Avnet will be well positioned to take advantage of the opportunity by building a single services business with common processes and tools, that will let it deliver multiple lines of services from different business units to channel partners.

Avnet Services will primarily look at software services, such as infrastructure and application management, lifecycle services, like integration and end of life options, and education services, for example, vendor training.

Previously senior veep of Avnet Integrated, Bill Wentworth will head the team as senior veep of Avnet Services. Regional services teams will report to Wentworth, while the EMEA team will be led by Christian Magirus.

“This alignment will enhance project success and return on investment for customer deployments throughout the IT lifecycle, creating more stickiness for our partners and suppliers,” Wentworth said. “It will also extend our partners’ reach and resources with reliable service delivery offerings for their non-core service needs.”

IT services market was poor last year

Posted on March 18, 2013 by - News

rubbish-tip1Beancounters at Ovum have officially ruled 2012 as bad for the IT services market.

Ed Thomas, Senior Analyst in the Ovum IT Services team said that 2012 was the worst for IT services contract activity since 2002.

He wrote that performance in the three months to the end of December 2012 fell well below the levels seen in the same period of 2011. This makes IT services contract activity the lowest than it has been for more than a decade.

In Ovum’s latest analysis, deals in the IT services market was only $20.8 billion, down 34 per cent on the same period of the previous year.

The number of deals fell 17 per cent in the same period and there was a notable lack of big deals. While the fourth quarter was slightly better than the beginning of the year, that really does not make things better across the year.

Thomas blamed the ongoing economic uncertainty afflicting key markets for IT services such as the US and Europe as a major factor behind the weak performance of the industry in 2012.

His research suggests that many enterprises remain wary of committing to major projects, with issues such as the Eurozone crisis having a particularly significant impact.

In addition, public sector activity has reduced as many governments come under pressure to cut public spending in the face of high debt levels, Thomas said.

Enterprises were just as bad, where the number of deals announced fell by 50 per cent. In healthcare contract volumes were down 39 percent and in the financial services market they fell 18 percent. The only industries in which contract activity was up on the previous year were telecommunications and technology sectors.

Europe was the leading market for private sector contract activity in 2012 but the number of contracts generated by European enterprises actually declined sharply during the year, falling 31 percent to $16.7 billion.

Private sector contracts in America slumped dramatically in 2011, rebounded in 2012, finishing the year up 48 percent at $10.5 billion.

This was mostly boosted by a couple of big contracts from Procter & Gamble and it is too early to tell whether or not this represents a significant shift in approach by enterprises in the region, Thomas said.

Kelway buys Dixons’ Equanet

Posted on March 7, 2013 by - News

thenorthUK IT services provider Kelway is picking up the IT business, Equanet, from Dixons Retail.

Equanet, Kelway says, has an established presence in the North of England and the buy will help it expand its customer base. At first, Equanet will operate as its own brand within the larger group, though will trade on integrated systems.

Dixons will carry on operating the PC World Business service for small businesses.

Kelway says that Equanet is noted for its e commerce platform, which will now fit in with Kelway’s ServiceTrack offering for online order management. By combining both, Kelway hopes that it can offer a unique experience towards its customers.

Kelway will also offer its ServiceWorks cloud services to Equanet’s clients.

In a statement, Sebastian James, chief exec of Dixons Retail, said that the two complement each other “extremely well” and he expects the transaction will help “Equanet to flourish in the specialist B2B market”.