London – Accenture, Deloitte, IBM and Logica lead the global market for sustainable technology services, according to a new report from independent analyst firm Verdantix. The in-depth sector benchmark finds that the 17 largest global IT services providers accelerated their investments in energy, environment and sustainability service lines during 2011. The leading firms have superior corporate sustainability strategies and stronger commercial expertise across advisory and systems implementation capabilities for renewable energy, facilities energy management, sustainable data centres, environmental compliance, sustainability performance management, low carbon transport, smart grid, smart meters and climate change IT services.
“Twelve months ago, IT services firms were preparing to launch new advisory and implementation service lines in response to their customers’ energy and environment strategies,” said Phil Sayer, Verdantix Principal Analyst and author of the report. “This innovation agenda has exploded onto the technology services market in 2012 with a whole raft of new offerings such as sustainability performance management from Accenture, smart energy services from Capgemini and climate change IT systems from CSC. Software providers like IHS support growth for IT services firms as they help strategic alliance partners such as Deloitte to implement enterprise-scale EH&S platforms.”
The Verdantix report, Green Quadrant Sustainable Technology Services (Global) 2012, is based on in-depth analysis of 17 global IT services firms across 52 criteria. The study also assessed customer perceptions through interviews with a panel of buyers representing 10 industries and collective spend of $ 331 billion.
Key Findings from the Study
- Accenture, Deloitte, IBM and Logica are the 2012 sustainable technology services market leaders. These four firms achieved leadership in this competitive market through practices dedicated to energy and sustainability services. They each have a broad portfolio of offerings covering most of the 12 market segments, strong sustainability consulting skills to engage clients in new discussions and active marketing of corporate sustainability performance.
- Capgemini, CSC, Fujitsu, Steria and TCS build breadth on depth. Based on success in one or two market segments, these five IT systems integrators are expanding their propositions into contiguous areas. Capgemini has used its smart metering expertise as a launch pad into the less mature smart grid segment. CSC leverages its long track record in environmental compliance systems to innovate in climate change analysis. TCS exploits energy data management software to expand into facilities.
- HP, IBM, Wipro and Orange score highly on corporate sustainability. Reflecting their manufacturing roots, HP and IBM together lead the field in terms of corporate sustainability performance. These firms also achieve the highest brand recognition amongst buyers for their sustainability offerings (see Table 1). Among the pure-play IT services firms, Wipro – including the new Wipro ecoEnergy division – achieves the highest score for its corporate achievements on sustainability metrics.
- Customers prioritize IT for energy management projects. Spending priorities for the next 2 years reflect a strong bias to energy management: 100% of the panel cited facility energy management and enterprise energy and carbon management as investment areas. And 87% listed smart meters and energy efficient sustainable data centres as budgeted initiatives in 2012 and 2013.
“Global technology services firms are doing a great job in bringing new innovations to market across the full spectrum of energy efficiency, environmental management, renewable energy and sustainability performance,” commented David Metcalfe, Verdantix CEO. “In 2012 and 2013, the big question they need to answer is where the funding will come from for enterprise-scale projects. For IT services firms, success in this market will require unrelenting commitment, entrepreneurial flexibility and a friendly CFO with a bag of cash to keep funding innovation. We don’t expect deal volume to reach significant scale until 2014. Until then, IT services firms will be crossing the chasm.”
Table 1. Top 10 Global Brand Awareness of Sustainable Technology Services Offerings
Note:
The Verdantix Green Quadrant on Sustainable Technology Services assesses 17 global suppliers of technology services across 52 weighted and quantified criteria in an expert model. Verdantix analysts interviewed and collected data from 15 of the suppliers and undertook desk research on 2 of the suppliers. The study also includes insights on customer requirements from in-depth interviews with 15 budget holders.
Source: Verdantix.
