Alsbridge Identifies Six Key Operational Trends for 2015

Autonomics, Network Globalization, Vendor Specialization, Software Audits, BPO Value and Cloud Expected to Highlight Executive Agendas

The growth of autonomics solutions, service provider industry expertise, network globalization, software audit response strategies, BPO value realization and cloud infrastructure investment will be six key items on executive agendas in 2015, according to Alsbridge Inc., a benchmarking, sourcing and transformation advisory firm. 

Alsbridge senior executives and thought leaders identified the following six key trends and priorities they anticipate for 2015:

Autonomics gains traction: Smart machines and virtual engineer components will increasingly be included in outsourcing deals, driving significant cost reductions and business model disruption.  “At present, we’re seeing some early adopters offering autonomics solutions and clients signing on,” said Howard Davies, Alsbridge Managing Director. “However, we lack detailed data regarding implementation and support costs, as well as a clear understanding of total economic impact.” This will change in 2015, Davies said: “As deals are implemented and data comes on-line, success stories will emerge and build momentum. In addition, we’ll have more robust data to leverage for benchmarks and forecasts, which will further boost confidence.”

Industry expertise becomes paramount: Clients will increasingly demand that service providers demonstrate industry knowledge and specialized expertise to address their unique business problems. “Technology knowledge, price and SLAs are no longer sufficient,” said Jeff Seabloom, Alsbridge Managing Director. “A retail organization, for example, needs its service provider to know logistics, distribution and inventory management issues related to click and brick models, mobile payment apps, point-of-sale alternatives and other industry-specific issues.” In this environment, Seabloom adds, tier two providers will be positioned to leverage their agility and flexibility to gain a competitive edge, at least in the short term.

Networks globalize and migrate to the cloud: Large, multi-national enterprises will continue to move towards developing and implementing truly global communications networks, leveraging enhanced technologies and the increased global reach of the top network providers, as well as the expanded capabilities of viable alternatives.  “One characteristic of this trend will be migration away from regional wireless policy programs and towards global standards, while wireless liability will shift from the company to the individual,” said Phil Hugus, Alsbridge Managing Director. “Additionally, regional and emerging market players will grab market share through strategic acquisitions to expand their footprint and significantly increase local access capabilities.”  Hugus also expects to see continued commoditization of MPLS WAN services and accelerated movement from terrestrial data to cloud-based network services.

Enterprises prepare for software audits: CIOs will step up efforts to ensure that their enterprises are prepared to effectively respond to audits by software providers seeking fees and penalties for violations of licensing terms. “Audits are becoming an increasingly important and lucrative revenue stream for software firms,” said Seabloom. “CIOs are recognizing that they’re at risk of being audited, and that mergers and acquisitions, virtualization and cloud initiatives and other actions often trigger audits. They’re responding by putting better governance and asset management processes in place.”

BPO focuses on value rather than cost takeout.  The impact of autonomics and focus on industry expertise will accelerate the shift to value enhancement in BPO services. “Providers will apply transactional and contextual data, combined with enhanced analytics capabilities, to provide business insights to their clients in areas ranging from product engineering to customer loyalty to upstream and downstream process effectiveness,” said Bill Huber, Alsbridge Managing Director. “New offerings will integrate social media and mobility channels and Cloud/BPaaS capabilities will separate winners from losers.”

Cloud growth requires investment in the basics. As cloud-based delivery models continue to infiltrate every traditional software, infrastructure and networking procurement decision, improvements in basic infrastructure will be needed to keep up with demand.  “To support cloud and unified communications, enterprises will have to upgrade or redesign core outdated or overburdened MPLS networks to meet the demand for bandwidth speed and availability,” said Katharine Rudd, Alsbridge Managing Director. She added that, while SaaS will continue to dominate the market, “buyers will have to understand what they are actually getting as the lines blur further between PaaS and IaaS.”

About Alsbridge Inc.

Alsbridge (www.alsbridge.com) is a management consulting firm that helps companies reduce costs and enable their businesses by optimizing the way they work with their vendors. With over 200 consultants on four continents, Alsbridge has been a trusted advisor to over 40% of the Fortune 500 and currently advises over 200 clients a year on over $11B in spend. This gives us tremendous market insight and deep benchmarking databases that our experienced consultants use to help clients engage the optimal vendors for their situation, negotiate best practice terms at fair market prices and improve the governance of vendor relationships. Alsbridge clients utilize the most cost effective and value added sources globally for IT infrastructure services, network carrier services, hardware and software, application support and development, business processes and cloud services.

Media Contact:

Alex Kozlov, Alsbridge
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