Global IT Outsourcers And Top-Tier Telcos Partner For Converged Service Delivery

Tightening relationships between über-providers, like AT&T and IBM Global Services or British Telecommunications (BT) and Hewlett Packard (HP), are driven equally by fundamental shifts in the changing nature of both the competitive landscapes in the telecommunications operator and in the IT services marketplaces. The AT&T-IBM deal's primary goal is to allow IBM Global Services to focus on business process transformation outsourcing opportunities and the applications that can enable it while utilizing AT&T's networking capabilities. In contrast, the BT HP Alliance focuses on collaborative opportunities in convergence that require tight linkages between IT and network infrastructure. When we look at these agreements and the wider outsourcer-network operator landscape, there are many other potential synergies in which one partner's capabilities complement weaknesses in the other's portfolio. But unlike these two agreements, Forrester expects future outsourcer-network operator partnerships to typically grow into multivendor ecosystems rather than preferred or exclusive alliances.