WIT, IWS, SWITCH : It May Well Be OB4( SWIT)

Vinnie points to Jack Sweeney ,editor of consulting magazine writing in his latest editorial "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. Stephanie Moore recently published that it is IWS, when it comes to consulting. Vinnie shares his perspective that it should be better called representing SWITCH.
Very frankly, with so much to conquer in the market, am not too sure if these companies see themselves as kill-each-other type of competitors – this might be probably felt while competing on specific deals/geography. I definitely feel that all these companies are genuinely looking at ways and means of growing bigger by adding /improving capabilities to provide better value - to me, most of their actions only indicate that. I am also not too enthused by all these comparisons – I read an analyst report this morning – which said that one of the WIT company is undervalued compared to a relatively smaller player.I just could not help laughing.Several western analysts/publishers( as against most big enterprises/consumers) repeatedly make the mistake of only looking at players – who had been there in the market for a long time – For instance Jack Sweeney’s list consists of players who are operating in the space for more than two decades – one of them closer to four decades – I have nothing against them – They command well deserved respect ,I have lot of my friends in these organizations – The best approach as I see it would be to look for pace of growth shown by the players,with all others things being equal. Among offshoring vendors – there are differences in emphasis – there are distinct emphasis in terms of technology/sector focus, geographical emphasis besides vertical strategies, service offerings - all may appear the same at the surface level - flesh things layers down and look at which of these take most time in their respective board room meetings / listen to the analyst calls and presentations - talk to their ex-employees, customers, talk to headhunters recruiting for these enterprises - you can spot distinct differences..

Some of the recently released reports/rankings/awards give clear pointers about the emerging dynamics as can be seen in terms of declared leaders/winners in consulting, SAP professional services, recent Gartner sourcing awards and the Gartner’s magic quadrant for ERP Service Providers, 2005 and the like.

Over time, I somehow think that Tier 1 would finally be the OBFOUR (Offshore Big Four) - essentially SWIT –constituting the Tier 1. The list like the Fortune 100 list may see a churn with passing time. I hate to see people call these as Indian offshoring vendors – all of them are becoming aggressively more and more international in their outlook and style. If we continue calling these Indian offshoring vendors- it may not be any different from calling traditional big four as American consulting/service providers.Like the seven wonders of the world slowly giving way to the new seven wonders of the world,there is no doubt that the consulting, systems integration and professional services market is changing . But Vinnie – no – in this case, given the maturity and opportunities that lay ahead, even with this new acronym – the players may not disappear – this also holds true for most of the players outside the top list, so long as they are well managed and are strategic in their growth plans.