Evolution of IT Services Landscape

Over the last decade, the IT services landscape has evolved from an application and infrastructure services mindset—for example helpdesk, IT management and staff augmentation–to services that follow the technology wave, including big data, analytic, mobility and cloud. Companies are trying to find efficiencies and differentiation in what they do and have been investing in IT services as an extension to their teams. In the last two years, big data, analytics, mobility and cloud have been some of the most influential and growing areas in IT services. There's a lot of dialogue about big data and the cloud, and we expect these two themes will continue to be prevalent over the next five years.

Align IT Services with Business Strategy

From a software technology perspective, the skills and applicability of technology to a problem statement pose persistent challenges. As companies ride the technology wave, some technologies are sticky, while others are not. Hadoop, an open-source framework for distributed processing of data on clusters of commodity hardware, was hot around 2013 and interest jumped in Asia. Companies wanted to find ways to integrate it into their stack and started experimenting with the technology. They hired IT services companies to fill the skill void. However, the missing piece was connecting technology to a business goal that drives value. Without this connection, a lot of Hadoop implementations became technology experiments.
Companies have to connect their IT strategy to their business strategy. And IT services companies have to help companies connect technology and business objectives.

Companies will be more successful if they transform from an IT service management (cost-based) model to IT solutions model where the game is different and the outcomes are more valuable and ROI-focused.