The Bottom-line: \u00a0IBM has\u00a0significant\u00a0potential to dominate the Progressive BPO market, but it needs to reassure industry\u00a0its heart is truly in it<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\nIBM has been a core part of this business since it picked up PwC’s BPO operations in 2002 and has placed itself at the forefront of core business services markets such as F&A, Procurement and Analytics. \u00a0Its technology prowess, massive client base and global scale put the firm in a tremendous position to dominate for years to come, but the recent gray clouds hovering over the firm are raising doubts as to its future direction.<\/p>\n
Simply put, clients\u2019 needs are maturing and they are demanding results faster than ever \u2013 they want providers who understand their business model and are not afraid to roll their sleeves up to progress them to new levels of productivity.\u00a0 If IBM is moving away from delivering lower-margin operations (i.e. the \u201clights-on\u201d services), surely it will be at a major disadvantage when it comes to winning the higher-value (progressive) work.<\/p>\n
Hence, HfS would have major concerns about its positioning for Progressive BPO services, were IBM to seek to sell off the lower-margin elements of its F&A, Procurement or HR businesses, like it has with its customer services BPO business.\u00a0 So far, we have no indication that this is the firm\u2019s intention, but a more concise statement of intent from Rometty and a definitive business services roadmap would be welcome.<\/p>\n
HfS Subscribers can access the full research article authored by Phil Fersht, Charles Sutherland, Jamie Snowdon and Christa Degnan Manning by clicking here<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Since the divestment of its voice business to Concentrix, IBM\u2019s medium-term strategy with its BPO business lines has been squarely…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[48,51,835,61,63,78,79,81,838,91,831,97],"tags":[303],"ppma_author":[19],"yoast_head":"\n
The Progressive BPO Train has left the Station - is IBM on it? - Horses for Sources | No Boundaries<\/title>\n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n\t \n\t \n\t \n