Category: Press Releases

More Than One-Third of Quality Assurance Spending Devoted to ‘Next-Generation Role’ in Digital Transformation—Everest Group | Press Release

No longer tasked with the mundane, innovative Quality Assurance teams are now playing a pivotal role in helping enterprises adopt emerging technologies without impairing existing operations.

In 2019 more than one-third of enterprise spending on quality assurance (QA) was devoted to next-generation technologies rather than traditional QA activities, representing a 23% jump in next-generation QA spending since 2017, according to Everest Group. Everest Group predicts the QA market will witness radical transformation in the next three to five years as enterprises address the challenges brought by the increasing industrialization of next-generation technology applications, such as Internet of Things (IoT), big data, cloud native, augmented reality/virtual reality (AR/VR), artificial intelligence (AI), and distributed ledger.

Recently, QA standards have been strained by enterprises’ adoption of Agile/DevOps methodology. For example, QA too often has been pursued as an afterthought rather than a strategic activity, and a focus on faster time-to-market has pushed QA to the back burner or made it a severely time-constrained activity.

“With next-generation applications becoming the fulcrum of enterprises’ competitive edge, quality assurance needs to take center stage,” said Yugal Joshi, vice president at Everest Group. “In the recent past, we’ve witnessed how even technology leaders like Google, Facebook, Amazon and GitLab have experienced QA shortfalls, underscoring the need for enterprises to transform the QA role and function.

“Gone are the days when QA is relegated to gathering quality metrics at the end of a process; QA must evolve to play a critical role as a process innovation engine. Next-generation QA teams not only need a knowledge of emerging technologies but also the skills and adaptability to contribute and innovate within more agile, inclusive and automation-led delivery models. This means organizations must redefine QA talent requirements, organizational structure, methodology and use of technology.”

Everest Group explores these findings in its recently published Application Services State of the Market Report, “Next-Generation QA Services – From Mundane Existence to Innovation Engine.” The report presents a comprehensive analysis of the next-generation QA services market.

Selected Highlights:

• QA is increasingly getting embedded in development processes, exhibiting convergence of QA spend with development spend.
• Within next-generation QA, cloud native, big data and IoT are the leading investment themes with more than a 60% share.
• End consumer-centric industries—such as banking, financial services and insurance (BFSI) and healthcare—are leading the charge of adopting next-generation QA services to stand differentiated amongst peers and attract users.
• North America and Europe lead in adoption of next generation QA services, largely because these regions also lead in increased next-generation technology adoption and policies geared toward consumer protection.
• Enterprises recognize the evolving talent needs but are still exploring different means to achieve the desired level of talent readiness. Eighty-five percent of QA leaders believe up-skilling the existing talent base is an urgent requirement.
• Service providers are currently not measuring up to emerging enterprise expectations for QA services; only 31% of enterprises are open to working with new QA providers.

***Download a complimentary abstract of the report***

About Everest Group
Everest Group is a consulting and research firm focused on strategic IT, business services, and sourcing. We are trusted advisors to senior executives of leading enterprises, providers, and investors. Our firm helps clients improve operational and financial performance through a hands-on process that supports them in making well-informed decisions that deliver high-impact results and achieve sustained value. Our insight and guidance empowers clients to improve organizational efficiency, effectiveness, agility and responsiveness. What sets Everest Group apart is the integration of deep sourcing knowledge, problem-solving skills and original research. Details and in-depth content are available at http://www.everestgrp.com.

Enterprises Boost Investment in Application Transformation Initiatives by 64% in 2019—Everest Group | Press Release

Only 13% of application transformation initiatives have delivered the intended objectives, which makes the market ripe for service providers to deliver much-needed expertise, talent and technology

Application transformation initiatives by enterprises witnessed a steep growth rate of 64% last year, as enterprises sought to achieve competitive advantage by transforming their core applications, according to new research from Everest Group. Unfortunately, only 13% of all transformation efforts delivered the intended consequences.

Application transformation refers to the migration and/or adaption of an existing application to a modern environment designed to significantly increase the value delivered in terms of functionality or experience, or both.

Business stakeholders led 56% of the transformation initiatives in 2019 as they sought faster time-to-value, new revenue streams, enhanced user experience, faster insights and scalability for growth. This represents a significant shift from 2018, when the majority (62%) of transformation initiatives were driven by CIOs with core IT objectives of technology standardization, process simplification, increase in automation, efficiency, cost optimization and architecture unification. Alignment of business and IT objectives is an essential component of successful application modernization initiatives.

“The good news is that enterprises are increasingly viewing digital transformation as table stakes, and they are investing in application modernization, specifically, to deliver competitive differentiation and other key business outcomes,” said Yugal Joshi, vice president at Everest Group. “In fact, more than 80% of the application transformation initiatives are directed to transform core applications supporting the business. Unfortunately, too few of these initiatives are achieving the desired outcome. Enterprises particularly struggle with understanding their legacy systems, aligning business and IT objectives, and transforming their human resources to derive full benefits from the modernization effort.”

Everest Group explores the findings and the implications for service providers in the application transformation market in its recently published report, “Application Transformation – Business Pioneering the Agenda.” The report examines enterprise demand themes and consumption patterns and provides an easy-to-follow playbook to help enterprises begin their transformation journeys.

“Another important shift we’re seeing in the application transformation market is that the majority (55%) of enterprises are budgeting for transformation projects in their annual spends,” added Nitish Mittal, vice president at Everest Group. “The corresponding shift to long-term deals rather than small pilot projects is a move in the right direction, because enterprises need a longer-term, well-planned approach to application transformation in order to realize their desired business objectives.”

In the report, Everest Group identifies eight crucial steps in a well-planned approach to application transformation:

1.    Need identification – Clearly identify the business requirement and objectives.
2.    Landscape assessment – Undergo a value-chain assessment to identify processes and applications that require transformation.
3.    Transformational roadmap – Develop a strategic roadmap identifying key steps, stepwise goals, and the investment required.
4.    Measurable outcome – Develop a set of metrics across the funnel to improve the accountability of business outcomes.
5.    Self-funding model – Invest the benefits realized at each step to fund the successive transformation stages.
6.    Team structure – Promote a culture of innovation and shared responsibility through integrated teams.
7.    Talent – Build a learning ecosystem, enabling the workforce to evolve with technology and industry.
8.    Change management – Ensure enterprise-wide mandate of technology adoption with collaboration of the IT team.

***Download a complimentary abstract of the report***

About Everest Group
Everest Group is a consulting and research firm focused on strategic IT, business services, and sourcing. We are trusted advisors to senior executives of leading enterprises, providers, and investors. Our firm helps clients improve operational and financial performance through a hands-on process that supports them in making well-informed decisions that deliver high-impact results and achieve sustained value. Our insight and guidance empowers clients to improve organizational efficiency, effectiveness, agility and responsiveness. What sets Everest Group apart is the integration of deep sourcing knowledge, problem-solving skills and original research. Details and in-depth content are available at https://www.everestgrp.com/.

BigTech Enters Healthcare Payer Space Poised to Disrupt Care Management and Every Other Aspect of the Value Chain—Everest Group

Healthcare payer investments in digital solutions expected to increase 13.8% by 2020

BigTech is stepping into the healthcare arena armed with a technological advantage and an ability to help healthcare payers improve their meager margins, which traditionally hover around 2 to 4%. According to Everest Group, payers are primarily utilizing the solutions and products of BigTechs to improve their member experience and operational processes, with care management being the primary area of focus.

BigTechs are helping payers to improve their customer-facing platforms, leverage chatbots to handle customer traffic, and have better access to members’ health data – leading to better customer experience and business growth. Payers are also using automation solutions (such as automated claims management services) from these firms to enhance their operational efficiencies and reduce cost.

Payers are currently investing $22.8 billion in the IT services (ITS) market, with 21% devoted to digital platforms and technologies. Everest Group predicts $32.2 billion in ITS spending by healthcare payers (a 5.9% increase) by 2025, with a 13.8% increase in spending on digital as compared to a 3.2% increase in traditional IT services.

“BigTechs such as Amazon, Apple, Facebook, and Google already have a track record of disrupting major industries such as retail and telecommunications,” said Nitish Mittal, vice president, Technology, at Everest Group. “These technology giants are now invading the healthcare payer industry – with many already making/announcing significant investments for transforming the industry.

“The healthcare industry makes an attractive target for BigTech,” continued Mittal. “Healthcare is one of the biggest industries in the U.S., expected to account for 19.4% of the GDP by 2022, and it is notorious for its rampantly rising costs and poor performance on quality indicators. The BigTech companies bring their data analytics expertise, customer-centric digital solutions, agility and consumer-trusted brands—all of which can be leveraged to improve care management and every other stage of the payer value chain, from product development to policy servicing and from IT infrastructure to claims management and business processes.”

Everest Group explores the potential implications of BigTech’s investments in the healthcare industry in its recently published report, Healthcare Payer State of the Market – Trends, Service Provider Performance in 2019, and Outlook for 2020. The report examines the global 2019 healthcare Information Technology Services (ITS) service provider landscape and covers themes expected to garner greater interest in 2020, including the following:

• Shift to value-based care (rather than fee-for-service): Employers, health plans, and government purchasers of healthcare are pushing for a transition to value- based payment models. The premise of this shift is to align physician, hospital, lab, doctor, and nurse incentives with health outcomes of their patients and the quality of services rendered.
• Broadening role of healthcare payers: The healthcare landscape in the US is witnessing a convergence between payers and providers, with multiple collaborations in the form of mergers and acquisitions, joint ventures, strategic alliances, etc. This convergence is critical to succeed in the value-based care model as collaboration between health plans and providers leads to efficient data sharing, higher accountability and transparency, better outcomes, lower costs, and improved patient experience.
• Data monetization: The healthcare industry’s ever-growing repository of untapped data both from clinical and non-clinical sources may finally be a part of monetization use cases in the near future. The emergence of a data exchange platform is likely to spur revenue generation for companies holding data assets. At the same time, healthcare companies, researchers, and innovators may begin to realize improved innovation with requisite data up for purchase through data exchange platforms.
• Cloud adoption: A sharp increase in affinity for cloud platforms is evident in the payer IT spectrum. Cloud platforms with built-in next generation tools enable payers to efficiently manage data and run analytics on claims and care data. Keeping the converging healthcare landscape in mind, the use of cloud-based platforms for management of disparate data sources allows for seamless collaboration across multiple stakeholders.
• Rising consumerism: Regulatory policies are pushing for increased price transparency (such as the “transparency in coverage” rule that requires payers to disclose cost and price sharing information to participants). These policies and evolving customer expectations have put out a message for the payers to adopt technological solutions in order to improve customer experience at every touchpoint starting from the enrollment of a member. Payers will seek to adopt artificial intelligence (AI) based chatbots, voice assistants, and other customer experience enhancement technologies in order to fulfill expectations while keeping costs in check.
• Evolution of payer core administration platform: A modular approach for core administration platforms is taking the front seat due to lack of success of completely integrated end-to-end solutions. Enterprises are leaning toward a modular approach rather than rip-and-replace solutions in order to improve time-to-market and to preserve the ability to tweak as per their own requirements.

***Download a complimentary abstract of the report***

About Everest Group
Everest Group is a consulting and research firm focused on strategic IT, business services, and sourcing. We are trusted advisors to senior executives of leading enterprises, providers, and investors. Our firm helps clients improve operational and financial performance through a hands-on process that supports them in making well-informed decisions that deliver high-impact results and achieve sustained value. Our insight and guidance empowers clients to improve organizational efficiency, effectiveness, agility and responsiveness. What sets Everest Group apart is the integration of deep sourcing knowledge, problem-solving skills and original research. Details and in-depth content are available at http://www.everestgrp.com.

Outsourcing Activity Fell Slightly in 2019, According to Everest Group Report on Top Trends in Global Sourcing | Press Release

Bright spots in global sourcing for Q4 include GIC setups, Middle East and Africa locations, digital services, and service provider revenues

Everest Group reports that the global sourcing industry posted a 5% decline in outsourcing transaction activity for Q4 2019, culminating a year of steadily declining quarterly transactions that resulted in a year-on-year drop of 3% between 2018 and 2019. However, Q4 2019 did have some bright spots: global in-house center (GIC) setups increased in Q4, as did acquisition and alliance activity, and both global service providers and offshore-heritage service providers experienced a bump in revenue for the quarter. Digital services continued to dominate outsourcing activity, driven by cloud-based deals.

“We continue to see that the majority of outsourcing deals include digital services, as opposed to traditional services only,” said H. Karthik, partner at Everest Group. “Seventy percent of outsourcing transactions conducted in fourth quarter 2019 included digital services. Of these, 50% included cloud services. Robotic process automation, artificial intelligence, analytics, mobility and cybersecurity were also prominent features of these deals. Less commonly included but certainly worth noting were other digital services such as IoT, social media, blockchain and digital interactive components.”

Everest Group also identified these Q4 2019 global sourcing trends:

• Cloud demand in the retail and consumer product goods (CPG) sector increased as enterprises looked to enhance omnichannel customer experiences by leveraging cloud technologies.
• GIC setup activity increased across both offshore/nearshore and onshore locations, largely driven by the manufacturing sector.
• The Middle East and Africa (MEA) region witnessed a jump in activity, primarily driven by growth in engineering-focused GIC setups.
• Center setups activity rose in tier-2/3 locations as both GICs and service providers are increasingly exploring smaller cities, especially in mature markets such as India, Ireland and Poland.
• Service providers announced numerous acquisitions and partnerships to enhance their IoT offerings and partnered with third parties to strengthen their mobility capabilities.
• These developments in the fast-evolving outsourcing market are detailed in Everest Group’s recently released Market Vista™: Q1 2020 report. The report includes an analysis of outsourcing transaction trends, health of
• GICs, location risks and opportunities, and service provider developments. A special section is devoted to outsourcing activity in the engineering/R&D space, with a focus on Verification & Validation (V&V) activities.

***Download a complimentary abstract of the report***

Complimentary Webinar: The 5 Most Important Global Services Trends in 2020
Everest Group is delivering a complimentary webinar on what lies ahead for the global services industry. The webinar, “The 5 Most Important Global Services Trends in 2020,” will be delivered on Thursday, March 5, at 9 am CST (10 am EST; 3 pm GMT; 8:30 pm IST). Everest Group hosts Michel Janssen, chief research guru, and H. Karthik, partner, will preview the firm’s upcoming Market Vista™ Annual Report 2020, sharing likely trends for 2020 and the keys to success in the context of rising uncertainty.

***Register for complimentary webinar***

About Everest Group
Everest Group is a consulting and research firm focused on strategic IT, business services, engineering services, and sourcing. We are trusted advisors to senior executives of leading enterprises, providers, and investors. Our firm helps clients improve operational and financial performance through a hands-on process that supports them in making well-informed decisions that deliver high-impact results and achieve sustained value. Our insight and guidance empowers clients to improve organizational efficiency, effectiveness, agility and responsiveness. What sets Everest Group apart is the integration of deep sourcing knowledge, problem-solving skills and original research. Details and in-depth content are available at http://www.everestgrp.com.

The Best Enterprises Are Averaging 200% ROI on Intelligent Automation, but Not by Reducing Headcount—Everest Group | Press Release

Everest Group identifies Pinnacle Enterprises™ in Intelligent Automation (IA) adoption maturity, industry leaders set apart by advanced capabilities, superior outcomes.

Enterprises that are truly capitalizing on intelligent automation (IA) solutions are—in some cases—achieving ROI of 200% or more, and the impact of IA on reducing jobs is highly exaggerated, so enterprises should not view IA’s primary benefit as being headcount reduction. These and other insights in research from Everest Group indicate that enterprises have generated the most cost benefits from IA via additional capacity created by productivity improvements and with minimal layoffs. Everest Group reports that the key drivers for IA adoption continue to be operational effectiveness and enhanced employee and customer satisfaction.

IA refers to solutions that combine robotic process automation (RPA) and artificial intelligence (AI) to automate processes.

“Enterprises that are leading the way in adopting intelligent automation have important lessons to share with those that aspire to capitalize on IA solutions,” said Michel Janssen, chief research guru for Everest Group. “These companies are achieving operational improvements and significant costs savings, with ROIs of about 200%. But, more than that, they are delivering strategic business impact over time, particularly in terms of top-line growth, creation of new business models, and decreasing time-to-market. We’ve explored in great detail not only how these companies are leveraging IA technology but also what implementation strategies are helping them achieve success far beyond their peers.”

These lessons are shared in a new Everest Group report—Enterprise Intelligent Automation Adoption Maturity–Pinnacle Model Analysis—which explores the journeys of companies achieving exceptional results through IA adoption. The report provides insights into the key enablers needed to achieve desired outcomes and points to the investments required for the greatest speed to impact.

“This is the second time we have done this study, and it is amazing how far organizations have come in the past 18 months in terms of building out capability and achieving outcomes,” said Amar Modi, practice director for Service Optimization Technologies at Everest Group. “The average scale of IA deployments has increased threefold over those past 18 months.”

After surveying enterprises about their adoption of intelligent automation, Everest Group identified eight Pinnacle Enterprises™—organizations distinguished by their advanced intelligent automation capabilities and their superior outcomes. Pinnacle Enterprises significantly exceed other enterprises across three key impact areas:

• Cost impact: On average, Pinnacle Enterprises generated approximately 1.4X return on investment (ROI) and cost savings and broke even faster than other enterprises. The Pinnacle Enterprises have reported over 60% cost savings through IA initiatives with about 50% saving more than US $50 million.
• Operational impact: On average, Pinnacle Enterprises reported 67% improvement in operational metrics, compared to 48% improvement reported by other enterprises.
• Business impact: Pinnacle Enterprises experienced 1.7x impact in strategic areas—such as top line, time-to-market, customer and employee experience, and new business models—compared to other enterprises.

Siemens is one of the companies profiled as an Intelligent Automation Pinnacle Enterprise. Through the systematic exploitation of technologies such as RPA, AI, business process management (BPM), advanced data analytics and IoT, Siemens has achieved superior business results, including the following:

• More than 450 IA use cases successfully deployed, resulting in 650,000 automated hours per annum.
• Up to 40% cycle time reduction by implementing BPM use cases along end-to-end business processes.
• IoT, data analytics and RPA combined to lift Industry 4.0 automation to the next level (for example, predictive machine maintenance).
• Digital Companions successfully introduced across multiple functions, handling up to 30% of customer queries fully automatically while improving the customer experience measurably.

“Siemens is honored to be named by Everest Group as a Pinnacle Enterprise in Intelligent Automation,” said Hannes Apitzsch, CEO of Global Business Services, Siemens AG. “This recognition acknowledges the success of our systematic approach at Siemens Global Business Services to leveraging digitalization forces across the globe. We not only have built a mature, solid architecture and ecosystem for advanced technologies, but also have established a strong, inclusive innovation culture. All of those elements are required to succeed with IA, and Siemens is certainly reaping the tangible rewards of the collaborative digital transformation efforts of our global team.”

Based on the best practices of Pinnacle Enterprises including Siemens, Everest Group shares in its report more than a dozen ways enterprises can accelerate their intelligent automation adoption journey and also provides assessments organizations can use to compare their capabilities and investment priorities with those of Pinnacle Enterprises.

***Download a complimentary abstract of the report here.***

About the Pinnacle Model®
Everest Group’s Pinnacle Model® approach explores what the very best organizations are doing in terms of optimizing costs, improving operations, and delivering strategic impact. The journeys of these best-of-the-best companies provide insights into the key enablers needed to achieve desired outcomes and point to the investments required for the greatest speed to impact. By examining what Pinnacle Enterprises™ have in common, others can learn how to succeed, whether they desire to make incremental changes or achieve major transformations.

About Everest Group
Everest Group is a consulting and research firm focused on strategic IT, business services, engineering services, and sourcing. We are trusted advisors to senior executives of leading enterprises, providers, and investors. Our firm helps clients improve operational and financial performance through a hands-on process that supports them in making well-informed decisions that deliver high-impact results and achieve sustained value. Our insight and guidance empower clients to improve organizational efficiency, effectiveness, agility and responsiveness. What sets Everest Group apart is the integration of deep sourcing knowledge, problem-solving skills and original research. Details and in-depth content are available at http://www.everestgrp.com./

Life & Pensions Insurers Mired in Legacy IT Must Put Customer Experience First, Break Free by Leveraging BPaaS | Press Release

Although 60% of insurers believe customer experience delivery would have the highest impact on competitive positioning, many don’t pursue progressive CX or other digital strategies because they are shackled by legacy IT infrastructure

Although 60% of insurers believe improving customer experience (CX) would have the highest impact on their competitive positioning, many don’t pursue progressive CX strategies because they are shackled by legacy IT infrastructure. According to Everest Group, the solution to this dilemma is clear: To enable core modernization and subsequent digital transformation, life and pensions (L&P) insurers should establish strategic business process as a service (BPaaS) partnerships with third-party IT and business process service providers.

“L&P insurers know that to remain competitive they need to evolve to customer demands, especially to the demands of the millennial segment, but they are stymied by legacy infrastructure that restricts their ability to innovate and modernize,” said Skand Bhargava, practice director, Business Process Services, at Everest Group.

“It’s no wonder insurers are slow to modernize: revamping infrastructure is expensive, time consuming for overstretched internal resources, disruptive to business continuity, and sometimes a stretch for in-house talent. Plus, unfortunately, many decision makers place undo consideration on sunk costs,” explained Bhargava. “An insurer’s best path forward is to partner with BPaaS providers to free themselves from the burden of legacy without capital-intensive investments. Service providers can fill the gap and help establish the business case for adopting modernization efforts.”

Many leading insurers are beginning to see the advantages of the BPaaS approach. The L&P insurance sourcing market in 2018 reached US$2.6 billion, with 44% represented by BPaaS engagements. The compound annual growth rate of the L&P insurance BPaaS market from 2015 to 2018 was 12-14%.

These findings are discussed in more detail in “Life and Pensions (L&P) Insurance BPO Annual Report 2020: Escape Legacy and Embrace Digital through BPaaS.” This report deep dives into the looming need for modernizing legacy architectures in the Life and Pensions (L&P) insurance industry and its relevance for the industry’s overall digital transformation. Further, it puts forward the case for BPaaS in L&P insurance and how digitalization can make a significant impact through platform modernization efforts.

In the report, Everest Group cites numerous examples of L&P insurers who successfully tapped third-party partners for core modernization initiatives in the past few years:

• DXC partnered with Metlife to take over the administration of seven million closed block policies onto its platform and streamline customer service (2016).
• TCS partnered with M&G Prudential to migrate 5.8 million policies from insurer’s multiple legacy systems and consolidate those on its BaNCS platform (2018).
• TCS partnered with Transamerica to convert insurer’s policies from legacy platforms to its proprietary platform to help accelerate digitalization of policy administration (2018).
• DXC partnered with Brighthouse Financial to support the transition of the latter’s 1.3 million in-force policies from multiple legacy systems onto a more consolidated IT infrastructure (2018).
• Atos extended its previous partnership with Aegon to migrate and administer the insurer’s 1.4 million closed block policies on a modern platform. While Atos does not own a policy administration platform, it partnered with Sapiens for the latter’s technology (2018).
• Infosys partnered with Pan-American Life Insurance Group to provide administration services for the insurer’s new Indexed Universal Life product on its VPAS platform (2019).
• SE2 partnered with Nassau Financial Group to convert and administer policies on its digital platform (2019).

Everest Group also stresses that BPaaS forms a foundation for future scaling of digital transformation efforts. “The ultimate goal of BPaaS investments should be to create a connected digital ecosystem on top of a modern, unified platform architecture in order to drive stakeholder experience,” said Bhargava. “By leveraging BPaaS to shift away from legacy systems and siloed units of operation, insurers can take build a platform that enables them to implement the digital technologies that are going to be critical to drive the next level of impact.”

***Download the complimentary report abstract.***

About Everest Group
Everest Group is a consulting and research firm focused on strategic IT, business services, engineering services, and sourcing. We are trusted advisors to senior executives of leading enterprises, providers, and investors. Our firm helps clients improve operational and financial performance through a hands-on process that supports them in making well-informed decisions that deliver high-impact results and achieve sustained value. Our insight and guidance empowers clients to improve organizational efficiency, effectiveness, agility and responsiveness. What sets Everest Group apart is the integration of deep sourcing knowledge, problem-solving skills and original research. Details and in-depth content are available at http://www.everestgrp.com.

Everest Group Announces Winners of 2020 PEAK Matrix Service Provider of the Year Awards | Press Release

Accenture takes No. 1 for fourth straight year; TCS, Cognizant, Wipro and Capgemini round out the Top 5 IT service providers based on broad-based capabilities and successful service strategies

Everest Group—a consulting and research firm focused on strategic IT, business services and sourcing—today announced the winners of the 2020 PEAK Matrix® Service Provider of the Year awards for IT services. The awards, now in their fifth year, recognize IT service providers who have demonstrated consistent leadership in the PEAK Matrix reports issued by Everest Group in the previous year.

Topping the Top 20 IT Service Providers list for 2020 are Accenture, TCS, Cognizant, Wipro and Capgemini, in that order. Accenture retains its position at the top of the leaderboard for the fourth straight year. TCS, Cognizant and Wipro also retained their positions from the 2019 list. Capgemini joins the top five in the No. 5 slot, edging out HCL Technologies.

“The Top 20 IT Service Providers list identifies the best of the best – IT service providers with strong broad-based capabilities and successful services strategies that align well with the evolving enterprise IT demand,” said Chirajeet Sengupta, partner at Everest Group. “Throughout the year, Everest Group evaluates service providers’ market success, their business strategies and how they are investing in the future. By taking all of that into account, these PEAK Matrix Service Provider of the Year awards recognize the IT providers that truly set themselves apart.”

Six service providers improved their rankings:

• Capgemini moved from 6 to 5
• Atos moved from 12 to 11
• Tech Mahindra moved from 13 to 12
• Virtusa moved from 14 to 13
• Mphasis moved from 15 to 14
• Deloitte moved from 19 to 15

UST Global entered the Top 20 IT Service Providers list this year at No. 19, and there were no exits from the list (Syntel, now part of Atos, is no longer featured as a separate entity). Overall, six service providers improved their rankings, four service providers slipped, and nine service providers maintained their position.

***All winners are listed in the report, “2020 PEAK Matrix Service Provider of the Year Awards,” available for complimentary download here.***

Everest Group’s 2020 PEAK Matrix Service Provider of the Year Awards
also honor the Top ITS Challengers. This list recognizes the top 10 IT service providers with annual revenue of less than US$2 billion. The Top 3 ITS Challengers 2020 are Virtusa, Mphasis and LTI.

“Although smaller in size, these challengers are credible alternatives to the leading players in the industry in certain niches,” said Abhishek Singh, vice president at Everest Group. “Challengers have successful service strategies that focus on specific solution segments, geographies or industries that align well with enterprise needs.”

Other Award Highlights:

Everest Group publishes the PEAK Matrix Service Provider of the Year Awards to recognize consistent top performers across PEAK Matrix assessments. In 2019, Everest Group published 26 PEAK Matrix reports, evaluating a total of 108 service providers in these eight segments of the IT services market:
1.    Healthcare
2.    Life sciences
3.    Banking and financial services
4.    Insurance services
5.    Application services
6.    Cloud and infrastructure services
7.    Digital services
8.    Enterprise platform services

In addition to recognizing top performers overall, Everest Group acknowledges Leaders and Star Performers in each of the eight industry segments. Leaders are determined by the number of leader positions an organization holds in the PEAK Matrix reports published across each category. Similarly, Star Performers recognize those organizations who achieve the greatest cumulative upward mobility from the previous year in the PEAK Matrix reports for each industry segment. A complete list of segment winners is included in the complimentary report.

About the PEAK Matrix™

The Everest Group PEAK Matrix® is a proprietary framework for assessing the relative market success and overall capability of service providers based on Performance, Experiences, Ability and Knowledge. Each service provider is comparatively assessed on two dimensions: market success and delivery capabilities. Market success is measured by revenue, number of clients and year-over-year growth. Delivery capability is measured by scale of operations, scope, technology and innovation, delivery footprint and buyer satisfaction. The resulting matrix categorizes service providers as Leaders, Major Contenders, and Aspirants. Companies that demonstrate strong upward movement in successive reports are recognized as Star Performers.

About Everest Group

Everest Group is a consulting and research firm focused on strategic IT, business services, and sourcing. We are trusted advisors to senior executives of leading enterprises, providers, and investors. Our firm helps clients improve operational and financial performance through a hands-on process that supports them in making well-informed decisions that deliver high-impact results and achieve sustained value. Our insight and guidance empowers clients to improve organizational efficiency, effectiveness, agility and responsiveness. What sets Everest Group apart is the integration of deep sourcing knowledge, problem-solving skills and original research. Details and in-depth content are available at http://www.everestgrp.com.

HR Execs Rank Analytics and Automation as Top 2 Priorities—Everest Group | Press Release

Data & Analytics (D&A) Market Among Fastest Growing in Services Industry, Clocking Nearly 20% Growth | Press Release

By 2022 more than 70% of enterprises expect to be using AI to automatically generate business recommendations—Everest Group.

The global Data & Analytics (D&A) market is one of the fastest-growing markets in the services industry. Everest Group predicts double-digit growth (17-19%) for the D&A market with annual services revenues expected to cross the US$100 billion mark by 2022. Further, in an Everest Group survey of 200 global enterprises across multiple industries and geographies, more than 70% said they are either currently using AI systems to automatically generate business decision recommendations or expect to be doing so by 2022.

“Enterprises across all industries and geographies are dealing with an explosion of data—data that is made available by digital transformation, cloud and IoT and made useful by analytics, artificial intelligence and machine learning,” said Vishal Gupta, practice director at Everest Group. “One of the most exciting shifts we are seeing among leading enterprises today is recognition of the need to democratize all of this data to build a data-driven, decision-making culture.”

More specifically, key drivers for growth of the D&A market include the following trends:

• Enterprises are exhibiting a strong demand for migration from legacy systems and increased adoption of cloud-based services.
• Data has become the central theme in CXO-level discussions across enterprises in all verticals.
• New regulations such as GDPR and the California Act are driving demand for data security, privacy and governance.
• Next-generation technologies are transforming the asset-heavy industries by showcasing the value of data captured by Internet of Things (IoT) sensors across devices.
• Enterprises are expressing increasing need for data orchestration, data democratization, and quick insight generation to make real-time impactful business decisions.

These findings and more are discussed in Everest Group’s new report, “Data & Analytics (D&A) – State of the Market Report 2020.” This research provides comprehensive coverage of the D&A market, including a market overview and an in-depth look at adoption trends across industries and geographies, key factors driving adoption, the deal landscape, the service provider landscape, and key emerging themes in D&A services.

Additional highlights:

• The D&A market is growing at a healthy rate. The global D&A market witnessed a robust growth of 18-20% in 2018, touching the US$57-US$62 billion mark in annual revenue. The demand for D&A services remained strong from traditionally leading markets of North America and EMEA, as well as from the emerging APAC market.
• Banking, Financial Services and Insurance (BFSI) and retail, distribution, and CPG are the most mature industries from an adoption standpoint and together account for almost 45% of the market. Industries such as healthcare & life sciences and hi-tech & telecom showed high momentum caused by regulatory requirements and service providers’ increased focus on developing verticalized solutions beyond mature industries.
• India continues to be the most preferred location for D&A delivery, given significant talent availability and low-cost advantage. Beyond the tier-1 cities, service providers have started to leverage tier-2/3 cities to further enhance their talent pool and manage costs.

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About Everest Group
Everest Group is a consulting and research firm focused on strategic IT, business services, engineering services, and sourcing. We are trusted advisors to senior executives of leading enterprises, providers, and investors. Our firm helps clients improve operational and financial performance through a hands-on process that supports them in making well-informed decisions that deliver high-impact results and achieve sustained value. Our insight and guidance empowers clients to improve organizational efficiency, effectiveness, agility and responsiveness. What sets Everest Group apart is the integration of deep sourcing knowledge, problem-solving skills and original research. Details and in-depth content are available at http://www.everestgrp.com

Life & Pensions Insurance BPO Will See 9-11% Growth in 2020 as End-to-End Third-Party Administration Grows—Everest Group | Press Release

L&P insurance BPO scope of services will expand beyond traditional policy administration to value-additive services such as product launch and distribution channel expansion.

Everest Group predicts 9 to 11% growth in the Life and Pension (L&P) insurance business process outsourcing (BPO) market in 2020 on the heels of 9% growth in 2019. Everest Group projects the industry’s most prominent trend in 2020 will be a growth in demand for end-to-end third-party administration (TPA) services and Business Process as a Service (BPaaS).

The L&P insurance BPO market has seen a consistent pace of year-on-year growth in the range of 9 to 10% since 2014 as the industry has experienced a modest evolution in buyer-service provider relationships. L&P insurance third-party outsourcing arrangements are moving beyond transactional services to strategic business growth and transformation support. For example, high-growth services include new product launches, expansion of distribution channels, and customer financial advisory services.

Service providers’ expansion of capabilities to more value-additive services is also absolutely necessary for competitive differentiation, since higher straight-through processing, self-service, and automated process will make the traditional policy administration services more standardized across providers.

To differentiate and also accommodate the growth in demand for end-to-end TPA/BPaaS services, almost all the major service providers continue to invest in core policy administration platforms, digital augmentation applications and talent capabilities.

“In 2020, buyers in the L&P insurance BPO market will significantly favor service providers that have shifted their core value propositions to align with buyers’ strategic growth priorities,” said Skand Bhargava, practice director, Business Process Services, at Everest Group. “In the coming year, we will see third-party outsourcing partnerships redefined around customer satisfaction, digital transformation, operational optimization and innovation in product development and distribution. Many of these demands require digital capabilities, including cloud-based platforms, analytics, and robotic process automation. As a result, we inevitably will see those service providers who have invested in these capabilities widen the competitive gap in the service provider landscape.”

These findings are discussed in more detail in “Life and Pensions (L&P) Insurance BPO: Annual Deal Trends Report 2020.” This report provides a detailed analysis of the L&P insurance BPO market size and growth, buyer adoption trends, solution characteristics, and service provider landscape; it also features a focused analysis of the annuities and pensions BPO market.

Other Key Findings:

• While new contract signings are declining, the end-of-life legacy systems and the need to free up capital for new-age investments are collectively contributing to larger deals in the market.
• Apart from the traditional geographies, such as North America and the United Kingdom, the emerging markets are also witnessing decent activity. Asia Pacific and Latin America, with their L&P insurance market growth prospects, would provide greater opportunities in the long term
• There is a general trend toward expansion of onshore delivery as it allows for quality engagements with buyers.
• Output-based pricing continues to dominate the market; new-age models such as gainsharing are also witnessing increased interest.
• The annuities market constitutes more than 35% of the overall L&P insurance BPO market and has been growing at above the market average rate.

***Download the complimentary report abstract.***

About Everest Group
Everest Group is a consulting and research firm focused on strategic IT, business services, engineering services, and sourcing. We are trusted advisors to senior executives of leading enterprises, providers, and investors. Our firm helps clients improve operational and financial performance through a hands-on process that supports them in making well-informed decisions that deliver high-impact results and achieve sustained value. Our insight and guidance empowers clients to improve organizational efficiency, effectiveness, agility and responsiveness. What sets Everest Group apart is the integration of deep sourcing knowledge, problem-solving skills and original research. Details and in-depth content are available at http://www.everestgrp.com.