IT suppliers must evolve to meet enterprise needs

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A looming shift in the delivery of IT services means sector leaders - such as IBM, HP, SAP, Microsoft and Oracle - must change the way they operate, according to a report from Forrester Research.

Over the next five years, buyers will increasingly expect external providers to integrate new technology for them, leading vendors to create more partnerships to deliver such services.

"We'll see stable operations farmed out to third parties, new intellectual property (IP) sourced from open communities and solution brokers, emerging technologies going to market wrapped in process bundles, and new software investments based on subscription rather than ownership," said Andrew Parker, vice president at Forrester and co-author of the report.

As business technology becomes more complex, enterprises are looking to reduce the hassle of dealing with multiple suppliers while keeping future options open. In a previous survey, 43 per cent of chief information officers (CIOs) said they wanted external service providers to put together best-of-breed solutions for them, as keeping up with the pace of change on their own is too much of a challenge.

"The underlying drivers of commoditization, miniaturization, industrialization, and globalization outlined in our report aren't new, but their convergence will accelerate this market shift and make it stick," Parker said.

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