Index Insider: The network is the factory floor of digital transformation

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Hello. This is Stanton Jones with your weekly briefing on what’s important in IT and business services.
 
Normally we kick off with the week’s headlines – but first want to make sure you’re aware that the 2Q 2021 Global ISG Index™ is on Wednesday July 7th at 9:00 AM EST, 2:00 PM BST. I hope you can join us for our 75th consecutive quarterly call! Register here.
 
If someone forwarded you this briefing, sign up here to get the Index Insider every Friday.


HEADLINES

Contact center and customer experience BPO firm Sitel is acquiring SYKES for $2.2 billion; the combination is expected to generate more than $4 billion in revenues in 2021. Link
 
Banking cloud provider Temenos has had a busy June. Societe Generale selected it for payment and cash management in Europe and Asia (link), Standard Chartered will extend the SaaS platform into its financing and securities offering (link), and Italian bank Credem and Australian challenger bank Virgin Money both went live this month (linklink).
 
The enterprise network has never been more fundamental to digital transformation, even though network managed services annual contract value has been declining since 2017.


NETWORK

 

The network is the factory floor of digital transformation. Enterprises are working to retool this factory to quickly and securely deliver services to customers and employees – wherever they are. The pandemic has only accelerated this trend, which is having a significant impact on network managed services providers – both MSPs and telcos.
 
As a result of this shift, network managed services annual contract value has been declining since 2017 (see Data Watch) due to productivity increases from software-defined network transformations and the move away from on-premises voice and collaboration systems to cloud-based ones.
 
This does not mean enterprises are not focused on the network. They are – and in a big way. What it means is that spending in this category is increasingly happening outside traditional managed services. Instead, it’s being spread across multiple systems integrators, MSPs, telcos and as-a-service providers – similar to what’s happening with infrastructure managed services as workloads migrate to and are built on the public cloud.


DATA WATCH

Network Managed Services Annual Contract Value 2015-2020 ACV $B


DEAL ACTIVITY

  • Virginia Information Technologies Agency awards five-year messaging and collaboration contract to NTT DataLink
  • Vodafone selects six firms, including Dell and Capgemini Engineering, to deploy Europe’s first open radio access network. Link
  • UAE telecom giant du renews ADM relationship with Atos (link); Dutch insurance cooperative Univé extends infrastructure agreement (link).
  • Apparel brand Levi Strauss extends customer and user experience relationship with WiproLink
  • Shell extends its relationship with CGI with a five-year fleet management modernization agreement. Link
  • Norwegian energy firm Equinor signs multi-year ADM extension with CapgeminiLink
  • British optical retail chain Specsavers modernizing its infrastructure with AccentureLink

IMPLEMENTATIONS

  • $2.1 billion asset-strong Tennessee Valley Federal Credit Union moves its core banking to the cloud with Jack HenryLink
  • Italian motor insurer ConTe.it extends its Guidewire deployment to claims management. Link
  • UAE’s Mashreq Bank implements wealth management platform from Polish software house ComarchLink

M&A, ALLIANCES

  • IBM closes acquisition of European pure-play cloud implementation and managed services firm TurbonomicLink
  • Accenture Ventures invests in cloud data security provider Symmetry Systems (link) and payments-as-a-service platform Imburse (link).
  • Wipro and German engineering firm FEV creating innovation lab for “software-defined vehicles.” Link
  • Zensar and Invoice Cloud creating joint solutions for insurance carriers using cloud-based electronic bill presentment and payment services. Link
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About the author

Stanton Jones

Stanton Jones

Stanton leads ISG's Index research, helping providers, investors and ISG clients make sense of the global IT services sector. Stanton’s weekly newsletter, the Index Insider, is read by thousands of market stakeholders each week. An ISG Digital Fellow, Stanton has been quoted in Fast Company, Forbes and CIO.com, and has appeared on national cable news.