JCArticles

In today's era of Professional and IT Services competition and consolidation, some small to medium-sized companies are proudly delivering 20%-50% annual growth.

Unfortunately, the vast majority of firms have experienced two consecutive years of fee erosion, commoditization, client defection, and company identity crises. We set out to discover where the growth opportunities exist in today's economy, and to share our findings.

The Study

Our ten-month study uncovered the major gaps between the top performing and bottom performing companies. Our interviews with 53 CEOs across North America were designed to help leaders in this industry achieve three goals:

1. Identify the most common barriers to company expansion;

2. Learn what investments will positively affect their 2004-2005 growth;

3. Compare their operating model and areas of focus against their peers.

We spoke with companies across six major sectors of the IT and Services market, including hardware and software support, business and process consultants, IT outsourcing firms, integrators, and BPO's (business process outsourcing). BPOs had, by far, the most rapid growth rates of any other sector.

More than three-fourths of our interviews focused on understanding the dynamics within the small to medium sized organizations (50-500 employees).

We compared and integrated our findings with IT research firms and trade groups. These included ITSMA, AFSMI, Gartner Group, Culpepper and Associates, and the New Client Marketing Institute.

The Top Frustrations-and Hype

When we spoke with CEO's, three common frustrations surfaced: