In a highly undifferentiated market, professional services providers invest in their brands and craft marketing campaigns to stake out areas of uniqueness. Leaders find ways to break through the noise of sound-alike value propositions. Other firms, recognizing some of these same opportunities, follow and thereby add even more competitive pressure to differentiate. All firms’ innovators and adapters require detailed knowledge of buyer needs, decision influencers, and purchase criteria as well as an understanding of how buyers perceive their companies in relation to key competitors.

This report provides critical insight into the prevailing buying reality for IT professional services and solutions providers, analyzed by respondent perspective, vertical industry, and size of organization. By breaking new ground, pushing the envelope, or exceeding expectations, IT professional services leaders stake their ground in ways that are reinforced by perceptions of their brands and market positioning. Challengers are ever present.

Study Scope

ITSMA’s Leaders and Contenders: 2006 Professional Services and Solutions Brand Tracking Study focuses on providers of IT professional services and solutions. This study delivers the data study sponsors need to validate internal assumptions, improve marketing strategies and tactics, and hone their brand communication. Included are new data and analyses on key market indicators and topics, such as:

• Market knowledge. Who are the leaders and followers? Are providers recognized for their services capabilities? Are they making credible claims?
• Brand equity. How familiar are buyers with each firms’ brand? Who would they call first? Are their impressions favorable?
• Provider preference. To which firms do clients turn first? Are they familiar with others? Can firms leverage positive brand equity, or do they carry baggage?
• Services decision influences. When there are a number of qualified providers, what breaks the deadlock?
• Competitive differentiation. Is what’s different really different? Does it really matter?
• Alternative service delivery models. Does offshore services provision matter in a global economy? Are attitudes changing?
• Report card. Are professional services firms meeting expectations? Which ones are hitting home runs?

Study Methodology

ITSMA recruited sponsors for its Leaders and Contenders: 2006 Professional Services and Solutions Brand Tracking Study in early 2006. Primary sponsors of the study included BearingPoint and SAP. Cognizant, EDS, and Hitachi Consulting joined as secondary sponsors.

ITSMA interviewed, by telephone, 400 U.S.-based senior IT and business decision makers (CXOs, vice presidents, and directors). The sample includes two types of professional services buyer (information technology executives/CIOs and business executives) and spans eight industry segments (communications, financial services, healthcare payer, life sciences, manufacturing, public sector, retail trade, and transportation). Organizations eligible to participate in the study reported annual revenue or operating budget of $200 million or greater. Participants qualified for inclusion based on their decision-making authority. ITSMA donated money to two charities in return for participants’ contribution to the study.

The 2006 edition of this survey represents the latest in nearly a decade of ITSMA’s multiclient brand tracking research focused on the IT professional services market.

Respondent Characteristics

ITSMA recruited 400 senior-level respondents in midmarket and large organizations and further qualified them based on their roles in selecting IT professional services and solutions firms. We imposed quotas to distribute representation across eight vertical industries and two organizational perspectives.

Figure 2.1 Respondent Title

Source: ITSMA, Leaders and Contenders: 2006 Professional Services and Solutions Brand Tracking Study

Figure 2.2 Respondent Role in Purchasing IT Professional Services

Source: ITSMA, Leaders and Contenders: 2006 Professional Services and Solutions Brand Tracking Study

Figure 2.3 Respondent Perspective

Source: ITSMA, Leaders and Contenders: 2006 Professional Services and Solutions Brand Tracking Study

Figure 2.4 Respondent Industry Group

Source: ITSMA, Leaders and Contenders: 2006 Professional Services and Solutions Brand Tracking Study

Figure 2.6 Organization Size by Annual Revenue or Operating Budget

Source: ITSMA, Leaders and Contenders: 2006 Professional Services and Solutions Brand Tracking Study

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