Growth in Consulting and Integration Services for IT Professional Services for 2003

NEWS RELEASE - 18 MAR 2003

Most of the growth will occur in the second half of the year.

BOSTON - A new Yankee Group report, "What Will Happen Next in Consulting and Integration?," sees IT professional services consulting rising 6 percent and integration services up 9 percent in 2003, with most of the growth in the second half. The report finds that the numbers mask fundamental changes in the provisioning of these services, due to vendor consolidation and new services offered by the remaining providers.

"Enterprises seeking to benefit from these changes must focus less on cost and more on building relationships and projects that will deliver long-term strategic value," says Andy Efstathiou, Yankee Group Technology Management Strategies program manager. "Examples include the offerings professional services firms are developing around Web services, application management, and enterprise application integration. The current obsession with cost is shortsighted. Prudent C-level executives will change their focus during 2003 from cost to new functionality."

Recommendations for Vendors

To compete against IBM BCS, professional services firms such as Accenture and BearingPoint should reevaluate their partnering strategy.

Look to applications management for the next 12 months, and Web services beyond that time frame.

Recommendations for Customers

Customers must evaluate new offerings and develop successful relationships with the right players to be successful in the next year.

Look for value, not price, in a professional services engagement.

"Change is on the way. Enterprises have kept their wallets closed for the past 2-and-a-half years waiting for the economy to turn. However, they will soon have to reopen their wallets and install new systems to maintain cost competitiveness," says Efstathiou.

The Yankee Group (www.yankeegroup.com)

The Yankee Group is a global leader in technology research and consulting. Our customers, which include technology vendors and users, benefit from our accurate, reliable, and trusted research, consulting, and personalized one-to-one client interaction covering communications and IT products and services. Now in our fourth decade, the company is headquartered in Boston and maintains offices throughout North America, Europe, Latin America, and the Pacific Rim.