Global Solution Providers Have Captured the Early Lead for Mindshare with Enterprise Buyers for Digital Transformation Solutions

ITSMA’s new brand tracking study for providers of digital transformation services and solutions, Positioning for Digital Leadership, finds IBM, Accenture, and Cognizant as the brand equity leaders, with Deloitte, TCS, Capgemini, Wipro, and HPE not far behind.

New research from ITSMA’s Positioning for Digital Leadership: 2018 Digital Transformation Brand Tracking Study shows that nearly all large and 75% of midsized enterprise buyers in North America, Europe, Australia, Brazil, and India have advanced beyond the testing/piloting stage for digital transformation.

As forward-looking organizations accelerate investments in digital transformation, consulting, IT services, and tech solutions, providers are competing for brand awareness and preference. This new report documents what buyers are looking for most, which companies have staked out early leadership positions, and the enormous opportunities that still exist for challengers large and small.

ITSMA has a 20-year history of conducting similar brand tracking studies for technology services and solutions. According to Julie Schwartz, SVP, Research & Thought Leadership, ITSMA, “the goal of this study was to focus on the providers of digital transformation services and solutions to help marketing, sales, and business leaders understand buyer attitudes and beliefs, their company’s brand equity, market positions, and buyers’ perceptions of performance in this very critical market.”

IBM was revealed to be among the leaders in brand equity, along with Accenture and Cognizant. The next tier of ranked companies included Deloitte, TCS, Capgemini, Wipro, and HP/HPE, followed by PwC, EY, Atos, Infosys, and HCL.

ITSMA determines brand leadership by assigning each company a Brand Equity Index (BEI) score, which is calculated by weighting and summing individual firms’ ratings for first firm to call (or “top of mind” awareness), unaided awareness, aided awareness, familiarity, and favorability.

When asked which firms come to mind that provide digital transformation solutions (unaided awareness), executives named IBM and Accenture as top players, with Cognizant as a newcomer to the top rank. A number of firms, including IBM, Accenture, TCS, and Cognizant, are doing well with building brand equity around their digital transformation services while others need to focus and fine tune their marketing activities.

Accenture, HPE, IBM, PwC, and TCS were recognized as the digital transformation brand attribute leaders when rated on such attributes as working collaboratively, being easy to work with, and understanding buyers’ unique business needs.

When it comes to market positioning, only Accenture, Atos, IBM, and Infosys are perceived to be able to provide end-to-end digital transformation services for their clients: provide insight to help transform business models, partner to solve business problems and optimize infrastructure, and provide application development, technical support, and staff augmentation services.

Although seven companies have emerged as leaders for digital workplace/mobility and collaboration solutions, Dave Munn, President & CEO, ITSMA, noted that “no one has established clear leadership position with buyers in artificial intelligence and cognitive computing, cybersecurity, data analytics/big data, and process automation/robotics, so there’s opportunity for those providers that want to build their brand in these areas.”

ITSMA interviewed 451 senior IT and business decision makers based in the US, Canada, UK, France, Germany, Switzerland, Austria, Nordics, Belux (Belgium & Luxembourg), Netherlands, Italy, India, Australia, and Brazil. Study respondents all held director, vice president, or C-level positions and represented organizations with revenue or operating budgets ranging from $300 million to over $1 billion. More than half of the respondents represented enterprises with $1 billion or greater in annual revenue, in seven major industries.

The report contains detailed ratings for 15 professional services and solutions firms, including Accenture, Atos, Capgemini, Cognizant, Deloitte, DXC, EY, Fujitsu, HCL, HP/HPE, IBM, Infosys, PwC, TCS, and Wipro.

For more than 20 years, ITSMA has led the way in defining, building, and inspiring B2B marketing excellence. With a dedicated focus on services and solutions for the connected economy, we provide our member community with insight, advice, and hands-on help to strengthen reputation, increase revenue, and deepen customer relationships.