For Infrastructure & Operations Professionals
The Forrester Wave™: Next-Generation Infrastructure Outsourcing, Q4 2017 The Modern Services Of Infrastructure Outsourcing by Bill Martorelli October 31, 2017
Why Read This Report Key Takeaways In our 24-criteria evaluation of next-generation HCL, Wipro, Atos, IBM, Accenture, And TCS infrastructure outsourcing providers, we identified Lead The Pack the 15 most significant ones — including Forrester’s research uncovered a market in which Accenture, Atos, Capgemini, CGI, Cognizant, HCL, Wipro, Atos, IBM, Accenture, and TCS lead DXC Technology, Fujitsu, HCL, IBM, Infosys, NTT the pack. Capgemini, Cognizant, Infosys, Fujitsu, DATA, Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), Tech DXC Technology, NTT DATA, and Tech Mahindra Mahindra, Unisys, and Wipro — and researched, offer competitive options. CGI and Unisys are analyzed, and scored them. This report shows Contenders. how each provider measures up and helps I&O I&O Pros Are Looking For Help In professionals make the right choice. Infrastructure Transformation Next-generation infrastructure outsourcing remains of interest because more I&O professionals see it as a way to address their top challenges, which include being able to thrive in a hybrid world. I&O pros require next-generation infrastructure outsourcing providers to act as strategic partners and to advise them on key infrastructure-related decisions.
Emphasis On Customer Experience And Satisfaction Emerge As Key Differentiators As the traditional approach to infrastructure outsourcing becomes outdated and less effective, improved customer experience will dictate which providers will lead the pack. Furthermore, vendors that can successfully blend data center and workplace services with broad geographic reach and a differentiating value proposition will position themselves to successfully deliver next- generation infrastructure outsourcing services. forrester.com For Infrastructure & Operations Professionals
The Forrester Wave™: Next-Generation Infrastructure Outsourcing, Q4 2017 The Modern Services Of Infrastructure Outsourcing
by Bill Martorelli with Eveline Oehrlich, Aaron Kinch, Peter Harrison, and Peggy Dostie October 31, 2017
Table Of Contents Related Research Documents
2 Infrastructure Outsourcing Customers Be Aware Of These Sourcing Trends For Managed Need A New Experience Services And Cloud
Legacy Outsourcers Struggle With Comprehensive Services Integration Needs More Emerging Requirements Than Just Conventional SIAM
3 Next-Generation Infrastructure The Forrester Wave™: Global Infrastructure Outsourcing Evaluation Overview Outsourcing, Q1 2015
Evaluated Vendors And Inclusion Criteria
6 Vendor Profiles Share reports with colleagues. Leaders Enhance your membership with Research Share. Strong Performers
Contenders
15 Supplemental Material
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Infrastructure Outsourcing Customers Need A New Experience
Despite continuing challenges of cloud migration and adaptation to hybrid cloud structures, infrastructure outsourcing remains a sizable opportunity.1 Suppliers of conventional infrastructure outsourcing services have done a good job of delivering basic infrastructure services at low cost; however, new requirements, including a new customer experience, remain unaddressed. For these reasons, I&O pros need a new vision for infrastructure outsourcing.2
›› Cloud migration and DevOps are morphing the nature of infrastructure outsourcing. Support for the emerging hybrid cloud environment has become one of the central features of the next- generation infrastructure outsourcing market. But just because people don’t want to own their infrastructure does not mean they don’t have to manage it any more. Cloud migration services and services for managing cloud operations are emerging as significant opportunities for next- generation infrastructure outsourcing (NGITO) suppliers. Adaptation of DevOps is contributing to the merger of the I&O and development towers, while some suppliers are now selling solutions in which management of both stacks are combined and sold back to customers as a utility.
›› Workplace services rise in importance as data center exodus continues. Customers like General Electric have made no secret of their ambition to migrate applications wholesale to the cloud, thereby enabling them to close data center facilities.3 As the emphasis on emptying the data center continues, enabling the workforce becomes more important, not only to customers but to suppliers as a means of account control.
›› Growth in NGITO is slow and hard to achieve. Forrester believes core infrastructure markets are still maintaining modest growth. While demand for conventional service delivery shrinks, demand for emerging, cloud-centric delivery expands.4 But for most suppliers, growth in NGITO services is hard to come by. Although Indian suppliers have used infrastructure services as a growth engine, relatively few are growing their NGITO businesses faster than their overall corporate growth. Meanwhile, global system integrators are either merely holding their own or managing through a continuous reduction in revenues.
Legacy Outsourcers Struggle With Emerging Requirements
Suppliers of infrastructure management services will have to up their game to address evolving needs of their customers. Suppliers of NGITO services face substantial headwind in their continuing efforts for growth.
›› Customer experience, particularly initial experience, is a sore spot for customers. Suppliers deliver a mixed bag when it comes to creating a positive experience for outsourcing customers. Customers are generally happy with the providers who are flexible in adjusting work processes or contractual terms for their benefit, but the initial experience of outsourcing lags ongoing experience
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by a substantial margin.5 Moreover, suppliers tend to cling to survey-based measures of customer satisfaction, as opposed to more proactive methods of gauging customer satisfaction like continuous monitoring of the client’s workplace.
›› Automation looms large in outsourcing’s future, but customers have doubts. It’s virtually impossible to discuss infrastructure outsourcing without running headlong into the subject of automation. Virtually every supplier either already has or is about to disclose an automation strategy encompassing new heuristic technologies, which promise, at the very least, to substantially reduce service desk interactions. However, client references as a group also have lingering doubts about the ability of suppliers to introduce automation, as they also doubt suppliers’ ability to introduce innovation more generally.6
›› The names remain largely the same, but the requirements have changed. With the exception of DXC Technology, most of the supplier names in this analysis are well known to Forrester clients. However, requirements for leadership in the NGITO segment are different and ultimately more challenging than for conventional infrastructure outsourcing. That’s not to say that new players aren’t making their presence felt. For example, smaller India-based players like Hexaware and NiiT are striving to become more mainstream players, while a new domestic US player, Ensono, has emerged from the former Axciom. Meanwhile, these mainstream NGITO suppliers are facing a challenge from cloud-oriented specialists like 2nd Watch.
Next-Generation Infrastructure Outsourcing Evaluation Overview
To assess the state of the next-generation infrastructure outsourcing market and see how the vendors stack up against each other, Forrester evaluated the strengths and weaknesses of top infrastructure outsourcing vendors. After examining past research, user need assessments, and vendor and expert interviews, we developed a comprehensive set of evaluation criteria. We evaluated vendors against 24 criteria, which we grouped into three high-level buckets:
›› Current offering. Each vendor’s position on the vertical axis of the Forrester Wave™ graphic indicates the strength of its current product offering. Key current offering criteria include approach to automation, market penetration, cloud capabilities, service desk capabilities, engagement profile, and customer experience.
›› Strategy. A vendor’s position on the horizontal axis indicates the strength of its go-to-market strategy. Forrester evaluates strategy by measuring overall value proposition, vision for the future of data center and workplace services, vision for business outcomes, and the supplier’s potential for innovation and the supplier’s execution road map.
›› Market presence. The size of the vendor’s bubble on the chart indicates its market presence. Forrester evaluates market size using revenue by region and average annual contract value by customer.
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Evaluated Vendors And Inclusion Criteria
Forrester included 15 vendors in the assessment, which are Accenture, Atos, Capgemini, CGI, Cognizant, DXC Technology, Fujitsu, HCL, IBM, Infosys, NTT DATA, TCS, Tech Mahindra, Wipro, and Unisys. Each of these vendors has (see Figure 1):
›› Revenues in infrastructure management services exceeding $750 million.
›› Delivery of infrastructure outsourcing services on a global basis.
›› Demonstrated capability across both data center services and workplace services.
›› Interest from Forrester clients.
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FIGURE 1 Evaluated Vendors: Selection Criteria
Vendor
Accenture
Atos
Capgemini
CGI
Cognizant
DXC Technology
Fujitsu
HCL Technologies
IBM
Infosys
NTT DATA
Tata Consultancy Services
Tech Mahindra
Unisys
Wipro
Vendor inclusion criteria
Each vendor that we included has:
Revenues in infrastructure management services exceeding $750 million.
Delivery of infrastructure outsourcing services on a global basis.
Demonstrated capability across both data center services and workplace services.
Interest from Forrester clients.
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Vendor Profiles
This evaluation of the next-generation infrastructure outsourcing market is intended to be a starting point only. We encourage clients to view detailed product evaluations and adapt criteria weightings to fit their individual needs through the Forrester Wave Excel-based vendor comparison tool (see Figure 2).
FIGURE 2 Forrester Wave™: Next-Generation Infrastructure Outsourcing, Q4 ’17
Strong Challengers Contenders Performers Leaders Strong IBM TCS Wipro Go to Forrester.com to download the Capgemini HCL Forrester Wave tool for Fujitsu Accenture more detailed product evaluations, feature DXC Technology Atos comparisons, and Infosys Cognizant customizable rankings.
Unisys Current NTT DATA offering CGI Tech Mahindra
Market presence
Weak
Weak Strategy Strong
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FIGURE 2 Forrester Wave™: Next-Generation Infrastructure Outsourcing, Q4 ’17 (Cont.)
s e echnology ester’ Forr weighting AccenturAtos CapgeminiCGI CognizantDXC T Fujitsu Current Offering 50% 3.67 3.48 3.89 2.44 3.18 3.40 3.40
Service pro le 20% 3.60 3.00 3.80 3.20 3.00 3.00 3.00
Market penetration 20% 2.00 5.00 4.00 3.00 2.00 5.00 5.00
Cloud capabilities 15% 4.50 2.50 4.00 2.00 4.00 3.00 3.00
Service desk capabilities 15% 4.50 4.00 3.50 3.00 3.50 4.00 4.00
Engagement pro le 15% 4.00 2.00 3.00 2.00 3.00 3.00 3.00
Customer experience 15% 4.00 4.00 5.00 1.00 4.00 2.00 2.00
Strategy 50% 3.70 3.95 2.90 2.65 3.55 2.75 2.90
Value proposition and industry momentum 25% 3.00 4.00 3.00 2.00 4.00 2.00 3.00
Vision for the future of workplace services 10% 3.00 5.00 5.00 3.00 3.00 3.00 5.00
Vision for the future of infrastructure management 10% 5.00 3.00 3.00 5.00 3.00 3.00 3.00
Vision for business outcomes and value 15% 3.00 3.00 1.00 1.00 3.00 3.00 1.00
Innovation 15% 3.00 3.00 3.00 3.00 5.00 3.00 3.00
Execution road map 25% 5.00 5.00 3.00 3.00 3.00 3.00 3.00
Market Presence 0% 4.00 2.00 2.00 3.00 3.00 4.00 3.00
Revenue by region 50% 5.00 3.00 3.00 3.00 3.00 5.00 3.00
High-ACV customers 50% 3.00 1.00 1.00 3.00 3.00 3.00 3.00
All scores are based on a scale of 0 (weak) to 5 (strong).
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FIGURE 2 Forrester Wave™: Next-Generation Infrastructure Outsourcing, Q4 ’17 (Cont.)
echnologies o
HCL T IBM Infosys NTT DATATata ConsultancyTech MahindraUnisys ServicesWipr Current Offering 3.90 4.21 3.23 2.65 4.04 2.88 2.73 3.98
Service pro le 3.60 4.40 3.00 3.00 4.20 3.00 3.00 5.00
Market penetration 5.00 5.00 3.00 2.00 4.00 2.00 2.00 4.00
Cloud capabilities 3.50 3.50 4.00 3.00 3.50 2.00 4.00 4.00
Service desk capabilities 5.00 4.00 3.50 3.00 3.50 2.50 2.50 4.50
Engagement pro le 3.00 5.00 4.00 3.00 4.00 4.00 4.00 4.00
Customer experience 3.00 3.00 2.00 2.00 5.00 4.00 1.00 2.00
Strategy 4.00 3.20 3.20 3.40 3.25 3.00 1.90 3.75
Value proposition and industry momentum 5.00 3.00 3.00 3.00 4.00 3.00 1.00 4.00
Vision for the future of workplace services 5.00 3.00 5.00 3.00 3.00 3.00 3.00 5.00
Vision for the future of infrastructure management 3.00 5.00 3.00 5.00 3.00 3.00 3.00 3.00
Vision for business outcomes and value 5.00 3.00 3.00 1.00 3.00 3.00 1.00 5.00
Innovation 3.00 3.00 3.00 3.00 3.00 3.00 1.00 3.00
Execution road map 3.00 3.00 3.00 5.00 3.00 3.00 3.00 3.00
Market Presence 3.00 5.00 3.00 3.00 4.00 3.00 3.00 5.00
Revenue by region 3.00 5.00 3.00 3.00 5.00 3.00 3.00 5.00
High-ACV customers 3.00 5.00 3.00 3.00 3.00 3.00 3.00 5.00
All scores are based on a scale of 0 (weak) to 5 (strong).
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Leaders
›› HCL. HCL has emerged as the single Indian pure-play company most associated with the infrastructure management opportunity, even though its total infrastructure management revenues lag that of rival TCS. HCL offers a strong balance across data center and workplace opportunities. Although relatively late to the automation party in terms of marketing, its story has evolved significantly in a short time. HCL’s infrastructure services revenues as a percentage of overall company revenues is nearly 40%, highest among the Indian pure plays included in this analysis, as well as a driver for growth.
HCL has relatively few weaknesses in infrastructure management, although its customer reference scores in this analysis were only moderately strong, with customers casting doubt on its capacity for innovation. However, its focus on monitoring customer experience is exemplary. HCL remains a very good fit for medium to large-scale infrastructure outsourcing opportunities.
›› Wipro. Wipro has long been associated with the infrastructure outsourcing landscape and has represented a big part of the success of the Indian supplier segment. At roughly 30% of overall revenues, Wipro has a high percentage of revenues associated with infrastructure management relative to most competing Indian suppliers. Wipro has been hampered by low growth relative to competitors; its infrastructure management revenues have held steady with its overall growth rate during recent quarters. The transportation segment, including automation opportunities at airports including Indian airports, has emerged as a big focus for Wipro.
Wipro’s position in workplace services is very strong, as indicated by the results of “The Forrester Wave™: North American Workplace Services, Q4 2015.” Surprisingly, Wipro continues to struggle with delivering client references, although overall client ratings were competitive. WiproVentures is a fine example of the kind of venture capital-like strategies suppliers use in an attempt to encourage innovation in startup companies.
›› Atos. Atos is an obvious consideration for European customers seeking a credible partner with growing global reach as well as transformational capability. Atos as a company is growing less than 2% in organic terms for its last fiscal year; its transformational services have grown 60% during the same period. Automation is a growing focal point of Atos’ strategy, which has been well received by clients, according to overall client reference scores.
Atos’ Canopy is no longer a joint venture involving partners EMC and VMware, but a brand free to make use of any hardware as it sees fit. The company has sought to extend its capabilities in North America with acquisition of first Siemens’ ITO business, and then Xerox in 2015, but its business is still highly concentrated in EMEA. Atos has become a significant player in the workplace services business. With strength in IoT by virtue of its collaboration with Siemens in building the latter’s MindSphere IoT platform, Atos has already registered more than $500 million in revenues in IoT. The acquisition of Unify in 2016 attests to Atos’ commitment in this space, and its performance in this analysis makes it a clear choice both for data center and workplace-centric engagements.
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›› IBM. Long-standing industry leader IBM has evolved with the industry from traditional focus on classic infrastructure management toward a new age value proposition featuring a highly automated approach to infrastructure management highlighted by its new IBM Services platform with Watson, in use at Danske Bank as part of the company’s new 10-year outsourcing contract. IBM’s focus on composable services, which forms the foundation of its IT as a service vision, and is fueled by analytics and cognitive capabilities of Watson, is differentiating, as is its focus on service brokering using its IBM Cloud Brokerage Managed Services, powered by its 2015 acquisition of Gravitant. Although IBM favors its own Bluemix cloud, IBM now provides managed services for major hypercloud alternatives, including Amazon AWS and Microsoft.
However, IBM has lagged in term of industry momentum for several years, during which the company’s service revenues have decreased quarter after quarter. That IBM can nevertheless pull off a deal like Danske Bank underscores that it must not be underestimated. Indeed, there remains a small subset of deals for which virtually all other suppliers are unqualified. IBM’s vision is differentiating; whether Watson can fulfill IBM’s vast ambitions for it remain the primary question.
›› Accenture. Accenture was one of the pioneers of the asset-light model for infrastructure outsourcing. With its cloud-first philosophy, Accenture has made the public cloud the focus for its entire approach to next-generation infrastructure management, in which migration to the cloud is imbued with infrastructure operations. Accenture Cloud Platform (ACP), a hybrid cloud management and brokering capability, is one of the primary investments employed both to deliver on Accenture’s own projects as well as its customers’ strategic investments. Accenture’s relationship with Amazon, in which the two companies joined to create a new business unit focused on moving workloads to the cloud, is still without peer.
Accenture is a significant partner for Amazon Web Services, in which the two companies have formed a business unit, but it also partners with Microsoft Azure and Google Cloud Platform.
Accenture is often underestimated as an infrastructure services provider, but it has many strengths, including its transformational capability. Over time, the market is moving more and more toward Accenture’s vision of cloud-first, transformation-led and asset-light approach. Yet, Accenture received only modest customer reference scores. With its strength across applications, infrastructure and business process, however, Accenture is well placed to participate in combination deals as well as in transformational engagements where an Amazon-centric future is contemplated. Its strengths do not shine as brightly in run-of-the-mill infrastructure operations engagements.
›› TCS. TCS is the largest of the India-centric suppliers, with the largest revenues associated with infrastructure management. While recently the most rapidly growing segment of TCS’s business, revenues for infrastructure management are now keeping pace with overall corporate growth rates. TCS has been a pioneer in pursuing automation in the context of infrastructure management with its Ignio solution, now sold under the auspices of its Digitate business unit. The number of
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successful case histories for Ignio is growing. TCS has also embraced a more cloud-centric vision during the last few years, in which it envisions the public cloud as its preferred destination for cloud-destined workloads.
Not surprisingly, TCS’s response featured a relatively strong position in automation, despite doubts held by client references about the company’s ability to wield automation effectively. TCS is a fine candidate for companies already making use of TCS’s applications services, as well as those customers seeking an effective and highly reliable offshore partner.
Strong Performers
›› Capgemini. With Cloud Choice, Capgemini’s portfolio of cloud services, encompassing cloud strategy, applications, and infrastructure advisory services, the company emphasizes a cloud-first strategy for enterprise customers to manage their hybrid cloud environments. Capgemini remains more well known for its infrastructure management services in Europe than in North America, where it has been seeking additional growth. However, overall infrastructure management revenues have shrunk while the focus on cloud and infrastructure transformation has grown. Capgemini has focused primarily on the data center side, where it possesses the majority of its larger contracts, but it is also increasingly pursuing large transactions in workplace. Capgemini is a transformational player, focusing on digital enablement and high customer satisfaction and security. Capgemini has also been on the forefront of service integration and management for several years.
Capgemini remains primarily focused in Europe but has sought to increase its profile in the Americas through its acquisitions of I-Gate in 2015 and CPM Braxis. The company supports an extensive array of languages. Capgemini is also a relative latecomer to advanced heuristic automation. However, the company remains a solid alternative for infrastructure engagements in which multisourcing is the model and transformation is a goal.
›› Cognizant. Cognizant is a relative latecomer to automation and is becoming more and more active in workplace services. Infrastructure services represents approximately 10% of overall corporate revenue, but Cognizant does not provide this level of granularity in its quarter results. Moreover, at least some of this growth is due in part to the acquisition of Trizetto in 2014. Historically focused on the data center side, Cognizant is now becoming more active on the workplace services segment. The company leverages Cloud 360, which is Cognizant’s hybrid-cloud management toolkit, and ”Project Harmony,” which is a new automation framework.
Some of Cognizant’s recent initiatives, including Project Harmony, are so new as to resist easy evaluation. Client references, however, are generally solid, something of a Cognizant trademark. Cognizant is strongest in North America, secondarily in EMEA, and is a solid choice for customers seeking a cloud-centric vision focusing on cloud migration and operation.
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›› Infosys. Infosys has pursued infrastructure management as a growth engine but complementary to its core applications-focused strategy, which remains its largest business. Infosys was an early entrant in the automation landscape, with a partnership with IPsoft, later replaced by a series of initiatives in a lengthy automation journey beginning with the Infosys Automation Framework, later the Mana framework, and ultimately the Nia platform. Nia builds upon the foundation of Mana’s knowledge management, machine learning, and analytics capabilities to encompass comprehensive robotic process automation and a host of other features.
Former Infosys CEO Vishal Sikka was the first to emphasize design thinking as a corporatewide philosophy. Infosys executives say that Sikka’s strategic direction for Infosys, including design thinking but also IP-centric automation, will remain intact. For their part, customer references would like to see more focus on the company’s price competitiveness, capacity for innovation, and ability to deliver a positive initial experience.
›› Fujitsu. Fujitsu is active in both workplace and data center segments but is primarily a prominent workplace services supplier. MetaArc represents the focal point of Fujitsu’s hybrid-cloud strategy from the standpoint of orchestration and hybrid-cloud management. Fujitsu’s strategy encompasses not only its set of supported cloud models but private cloud models based on its own PrimeFlex converged infrastructure platform.
Although a global provider, Fujitsu is still relatively weak in North America. However, the firm offers an excellent range of languages supported in its service desk. Fujitsu has the majority of its data center outsourcing customers in Asia Pacific, whereas the preponderance of workplace services clients are in EMEA. The company’s vision for the future of workplace services is compelling. Reference clients were generally positive about the supplier, although some concerns about overall price competitiveness and initial experience were evident.
›› DXC Technology. DXC, formed from the preexisting outsourcing service units of CSC and Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE), has reemerged after several months of internal reorganization. The new entity combines CSC’s historic strength in workplace services with HPE’s historic strength in the data center. It would be unfair to expect a newly combined entity to demonstrate momentum out of the box, but DXC surprised to the upside in its first earnings announcement after the transaction, suggesting that CEO Mike Lawrie’s plan to achieve economies of scale among the two firms is accelerating. The pace of revenue reduction, averaging well over 10% during the last three years, has diminished to 4.2%, but growth is still negative. DXC’s initial focus was necessarily on synergies and opportunities for consolidation.
DXC’s attention has been focused on internal synergies toward good effect. Less obvious at this point is its focus on customer satisfaction and the user experience. Client references have doubts about DXC’s automation strategy and have not had a favorable initial experience. However, there is no question about the company’s heritage or qualifications in outsourcing in general.
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›› NTT DATA. The former Dell Services was acquired by NTT DATA in a transaction that closed in November 2016. Some changes were in order, such as a transition from Dell’s product line organizational scheme to a more modern vertical orientation. It also joined a Dell Services unit focused on big ticket outsourcing with a more project-focused NTT DATA. But in any case, the move is a positive one for existing customers and creates the potential for new industry momentum.
NTT DATA is making up for lost time in automation where it has lacked a clear brand identity. The company has its work cut out in terms of addressing customer experience, in which both initial experience and ongoing experience were of concern to reference customers. However, NTT DATA’s focus on continuous customer monitoring stands out among competitors usually focused instead on advanced surveying methods, and its approach to managing innovation from a governance standpoint is similarly compelling.
›› Tech Mahindra. Tech Mahindra’s automation, quality, time (AQT) framework remains the focal point of automation for the company. Its initial focus on using purely third-party automation tools has shifted, along with the industry consensus, toward an approach focusing on a combination of capabilities including internally developed IP. Tech Mahindra also remains focused on hybrid cloud management opportunities, where its Managed Platform for Adaptive Cloud (mPAC) is a focal point, and workplace services opportunities, where its workspace-as-a-service offering, called WaaS, is another.
Tech Mahindra remains only partially visible to Forrester customers, due in part to its historic concentration on telecom firms as well as the preference of buyers for dealing with the largest of competing firms. However, it’s also expanding its attentions to the automotive industry, the focus of its acquisition of Italian automotive design firm Pininfarina, which Tech Mahindra purchased in 2016. Armed with strong client references and a sound overall offering, Tech Mahindra’s position as a competitive alternative to the Big Five is solid.
Contenders
›› CGI. CGI takes a largely vendor-agnostic approach to automation but has invested substantial resources into its Unify 360 platform, a hybrid cloud management platform. An additional focus is development of CGI’s intelligent automation platform (IAP) and end-to-end platform, including robotic process automation, virtual agent, and engineering capabilities to automate technical and business processes. CGI has also been very forward and active in pursuing cloud brokerage opportunities in both the public and commercial sectors. CGI’s acquisition of Logica in 2012 provided more global scale, but CGI remains best known in its native Canada where it signed a 12- year outsourcing contract with SNC-Lavalin, an engineering group, worth an estimated $500 million in 2016.
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CGI offers mature multisourcing philosophy with strong SIAM and brokering capabilities. It also has a strong value proposition for governmental customers and Canadian customers generally, where alternatives are few. CGI’s Federal Cloud makes it a solid choice for managing hybrid cloud environments for governmental institutions. CGI did not provide Forrester with any client references.
›› Unisys. In its infrastructure outsourcing activities, Unisys is active primarily in the workplace services-centric segment, where its good relationship with Microsoft underlying its strong market position, as described in “The Forrester Wave™: North American Workplace Services, Q4 2015.” Unisys also competes for data center outsourcing opportunities but on a less frequent basis. Recently, Unisys has embarked on a significant focus on software defined networking and continues to be a specialty provider of cloud products for both the public and private sectors. With Stealth, Unisys seeks to enable secure digital engagement between elements of hybrid cloud environments.
Like other long-standing suppliers of managed services, Unisys’ revenues have declined. However, Unisys’ revenues for cloud, infrastructure services, and managed workplace services represent nearly half of the company’s revenue. Unisys remains a credible partner particularly for workplace services opportunities.
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Supplemental Material
Online Resource
The online version of Figure 2 is an Excel-based vendor comparison tool that provides detailed product evaluations and customizable rankings. Click the link at Forrester.com at the beginning of this report to download.
Data Sources Used In This Forrester Wave
Forrester used a combination of two data sources to assess the strengths and weaknesses of each solution. We evaluated the vendors participating in this Forrester Wave, in part, using materials that they provided to us by July 1, 2017.
© 2017 Forrester Research, Inc. Unauthorized copying or distributing is a violation of copyright law. 15 [email protected] or +1 866-367-7378 For Infrastructure & Operations Professionals October 31, 2017 The Forrester Wave™: Next-Generation Infrastructure Outsourcing, Q4 2017 The Modern Services Of Infrastructure Outsourcing
›› Vendor surveys. Forrester surveyed vendors on their capabilities as they relate to the evaluation criteria. Once we analyzed the completed vendor surveys, we conducted vendor calls where necessary to gather details of vendor qualifications.
›› Customer reference surveys. To validate product and vendor qualifications, Forrester also surveyed three of each vendor’s current customers.
The Forrester Wave Methodology
We conduct primary research to develop a list of vendors that meet our criteria for evaluation in this market. From that initial pool of vendors, we narrow our final list. We choose these vendors based on: 1) product fit; 2) customer success; and 3) Forrester client demand. We eliminate vendors that have limited customer references and products that don’t fit the scope of our evaluation.
After examining past research, user need assessments, and vendor and expert interviews, we develop the initial evaluation criteria. To evaluate the vendors and their products against our set of criteria, we gather details of product qualifications through a combination of lab evaluations, questionnaires, demos, and/or discussions with client references. We send evaluations to the vendors for their review, and we adjust the evaluations to provide the most accurate view of vendor offerings and strategies.
We set default weightings to reflect our analysis of the needs of large user companies — and/or other scenarios as outlined in the Forrester Wave evaluation — and then score the vendors based on a clearly defined scale. We intend these default weightings to serve only as a starting point and encourage readers to adapt the weightings to fit their individual needs through the Excel-based tool. The final scores generate the graphical depiction of the market based on current offering, strategy, and market presence. Forrester intends to update vendor evaluations regularly as product capabilities and vendor strategies evolve. For more information on the methodology that every Forrester Wave follows, please visit The Forrester Wave™ Methodology Guide on our website.
Integrity Policy
We conduct all our research, including Forrester Wave evaluations, in accordance with the Integrity Policy posted on our website.
Endnotes
1 the total worldwide marketing for technology outsourcing and hardware maintenance is a business worth nearly half a trillion. But it matters much how it is counted. The infrastructure services market is witnessing a significant revenue shift from traditional approach to a cloud-centric approach. Cloud platform services growth will offset weakness in traditional outsourcing. See the Forrester report “Midyear Global Tech Market Outlook For 2017 To 2018.”
2 By “next-generation infrastructure outsourcing,” Forrester means a cloud-centric, digitally focused approach to outsourcing that improves the customer’s experience as opposed to merely offering “your mess for less.”
© 2017 Forrester Research, Inc. Unauthorized copying or distributing is a violation of copyright law. 16 [email protected] or +1 866-367-7378 For Infrastructure & Operations Professionals October 31, 2017 The Forrester Wave™: Next-Generation Infrastructure Outsourcing, Q4 2017 The Modern Services Of Infrastructure Outsourcing
3 at Amazon’s re:Invent 2015, General Electric CIO Jim Fowler described plans to move thousands of applications to the cloud, reducing GE’s reliance on its own data center facilities. Source: “AWS Case Study: General Electric,” Amazon Web Services (https://aws.amazon.com/solutions/case-studies/general-electric/).
4 the public cloud market has entered what Forrester characterizes as a “hypergrowth” phase. Since publication Forrester has revised growth figures in the following report upwards. See the Forrester report “The Public Cloud Market Is Now In Hypergrowth.”
5 the public cloud market has entered what Forrester characterizes as a “hypergrowth” phase. Since publication Forrester has revised growth figures in the following report upwards. See the Forrester report “The Public Cloud Market Is Now In Hypergrowth.”
6 assertion made from aggregate customer reference responses to surveys.
© 2017 Forrester Research, Inc. Unauthorized copying or distributing is a violation of copyright law. 17 [email protected] or +1 866-367-7378 We work with business and technology leaders to develop customer-obsessed strategies that drive growth.
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