The Forrester Wave™: Integrated Desktop And Service Desk Outsourcing, Q1 2006

The market for desktop and service desk outsourcing will continue to follow an integrated model that drives accountability for service-level agreement (SLA) improvement and cost reduction to the outsourcer. As IT organizations become more sophisticated at sourcing, integrated desktop and help desk management will be viewed as mission critical, yet largely a commodity service. But vendor selection will remain difficult for organizations as: 1) vendors introduce tools like configuration management technologies to reduce the cost of delivery; 2) global resources become part of the standard support mix; and 3) IT struggles to find the right mix of price and service to satisfy the needs of the business. To assess the state of the market and see how providers compare, Forrester evaluated the top North American vendors of fully integrated desktop and service desk outsourcing across 37 criteria. The result: IBM leads the pack. This report includes an interactive vendor comparison tool that provides detailed company evaluations and customizable rankings.