From the dWb website

Industry Trends revisited

What is happening in the IT services industry sector?

How will Web applications evolve?

How secure is your business if the IT fails?

Is there life in the HR business applications sector?

What is happening to reduce the business impact from Malware ?

 Feature Article

Industry Trends revisited

IT Services

Long-term outsourcing is no longer the fashionable business solution - it is last years colour scheme, often needed but not always wanted. Outsourcing has become just another business option to be used when required but not the penicillin to all business woes.

Outsourcing has commoditised the IT environment, introduced standardisation in solutions, project methodologies and components. The industry is experiencing a journey from product management excellence to excellent service provision. This is a difficult road to travel as cost rules the product world whilst value is king of the services - how else can we have such a range of restaurants.

The outsourcing trend is for the shorter periods, multi-vendor provision and increased emphasis on flexibility, responsiveness and innovation. Apart from the occasional mega-deal, the contract values are generally becoming much smaller.

World-wide IT Services Vendors Revenues (US$M)
	2005
Company	Revenue	Marketshare	Growth
IBM	47357	7.6%	2.5
EDS	19575	3.1%	-0.5
Fujitsu	17770	2.8%	5.9
HP	16104	2.6%	4.1
Accenture	15989	2.6%	13.1
CSC	14757	2.4%	6.1
Rest	492884	78.9%	6.5
Source: Gartner

HR Applications

The need to comply with the ever increasing number of human capital management regulations will drive this industry sector. As the governments become less sympathetic to non-compliance, companies will need to improve their people-related processes in a similar way that SOX impacted the accounting processes.

This growth will also drive standardisation and this will enable better usage of the data and information in measuring the effectiveness, utilisation and efficiency of the human resources.

Business Continuity

As businesses reluctantly acknowledge that IT is an essential part of the company fabric they have understood the need to have robust business continuity.

Many companies have implemented business continuity plans but the impact of a disruption can be disastrous especially as "just in time" techniques have become de rigueur. The problem is the time it takes to become operational again.

The provision of comprehensive business continuity services including IT and business process support will be a growth area in the near future.

Web Applications

A bank without a good ATM service will not survive - a company with a badly performing web experience will have difficulty surviving.

It is all about loyalty. The bad web experience fuels a perception that the product or service is bad so the buyer switches their allegiance and spreads the bad news - a good web experience supports the perception that the product or service is good so the buyer spreads the good news.

Companies will put more emphasis on the quality of the web experience in the near future.

Antivirus Software

Malware is the threat. Exploitation of bad system design and construction allows malware to propagate and the costs to a business are growing. This business risk is addressed by investments in Antivirus software.

If the consumers are prepared to continue to support bad design and sloppy coding this market will continue to grow otherwise it could contract and change to address other security risks.