Consider the Source

HP’s Acquisition of EDS:Who Benefits From Consolidation?

Today's blog comes from Mark Mayo, Partner, TPI.

We all knew consolidation would happen. Who would be next, when it would happen and the real impact it would have on the industry were the unknowns. Well, now we know: HP has acquired EDS; and, now everyone is asking, “So what? What does it really mean?”

Mark Hurd, CEO and Chairman of the Board, HP, is a man on a mission to diversify HP’s business portfolio and find better ways to provide value to enterprise customers. Clients want solutions – not just products – which make them more competitive, more cost effective. HP’s acquisition of EDS is recognition of this fact.

High Oil Prices, Rising Competitive Pressure and Increasing Globalisation Bring New Challenges to the Automotive Industry

Today’s guest commentary is by Klaus Felser, Senior Advisor TPI Germany.

The prospects for the automotive industry are many and varied – and in Germany, in particular, a vital economic factor. No other country has such a density of established automotive companies. Despite this, BMW, Volkswagen, Porsche, Audi and Daimler all have to hold their own on today’s world market. At stake is the development of markets with high growth potential, such as China (car production rose by 38% there in 2006 while the United States registered a decline of 6%) and India. At the same time, in more established markets it is necessary to contend with rising crude oil prices and deploy mitigating strategies to remain competitive.

Picking the Sourcing Flavors

Today's blog comes from Peter Allen, Partner and Managing Director, TPI.

Across professions and industries, those of us who provide services to paying customers strive to obtain a position of recognition best evidenced by the difference made to those who hire us for our expertise.  It’s human nature. 

Unless we’re truly in the business of providing non-differentiated (aka commodity) services to our customers, we want to be recognized and compensated for being better at what we do than others in our field of work.  We also want to recover our investments and the risks we take in building an offering to serve a market need.

In the field of outsourced services, many outsourcing buyers and their service providers are asking whether there’s an opportunity to achieve partnership-oriented relationships.  Conversely, has the industry moved to a position analogous to that of gasoline stations where providers on virtually every corner compete on the basis of unit prices?

Peeling the IT Layers

Today’s guest blog on what a recession could mean for the IT sector comes from Dinesh Goel, Project Director, TPI.

The era of abnormal growth for India-based IT service providers is nearly over. They’ve reported lower growth rates on both top-line and bottom-line performance in their latest quarterly results.

So what does this mean? Is the IT sector heading for a downturn in the wake of a tough U.S. and global economic environment?

Most equity analysts are already moving India-based providers down to “underperform” or “sell” ratings. Newsprint is consumed with stories and interviews on how the tough business conditions will promote cost-cutting outsourcing and off-shoring. Bottom line is: there’s too much confusion in the marketplace regarding the performance of IT sector.