I enjoy sitting down with Jack Sweeney, editor of Consulting Magazine every so often to catch up on what is going on in the services market (particularly over a huge sandwich at the Carnegie Deli next to his Manhattan office). He has a bird's eye view of the market especially since the publisher, Kennedy Information also has some of the best research on the services market.
About 3 years ago, I told him the major US providers were in trouble, with the growing offshore competition and that the market for systems integration would reach equilibrium at around $ 80 an hour. He politely listened - not sure he was convinced.
Well, in his latest editorial he says "Sometime within the past 3 years, the consulting profession entered a new age" . He then coins a new acronym - WIT - for Wipro, Infosys and TCS, the 3 biggest Indian vendors.
I have a better acronym - SWITCH - to include Satyam, Wipro, Infosys, TCS, Cognizant and HCL. The 3 others are extremely strong players in certain vertical sectors and not about to let the top 3 run away with the market. SWITCH, of course, also emphasizes the transition in the market to the $ 80 an hour equilibrium rate.
Of course, every time we come up with an acronym for technology market leaders - JBOPS, Big 5, BUNCH - the players start disappearing. There are a number of other offshore centric players - Patni, Genpact, Covansys, Syntel and others who continue to do pretty well in various IT and BPO markets and would love to displace the leaders.
But may be the luck of the Irishman, Sweeney will make it different this time?
