Now the dust has settled, we are starting to get a closer look at the impact of Orbys Consulting’s purchase by Ovum. Some key details are:
- In the short term, it’s business as usual. Orbys will remain a separate brand and a separate practice. Ovum wants to internationalise Orbys and create more Orbys services for large user organisations.
- All the Orbys consultants are joining the team: Angela Wyatt (MD), Mark Sukiennik and Andrew Burgess (consulting managers) and Iain Allan, Jane Clifford, John Gorrell, Simon Lindley, John Roguszczak, and Chris Thornton. Their three Associates are also joining the Ovum roster: Peter Nowottny and David Keighley (vendors) and Bob Aylott.
- Ovum is also acquiring Orbys’ interim management business that places outsourcing professionals to manage outsourcing contracts. Chris Fry and Dana Luxton will joins Ovum.
- As we mentioned yesterday, Orbys will keep the office it has in Witney (there is absolutely no intention of changing the Witney office location). Anita Caddy, Dawn Embra and Olivia Stanton will stay in the team supporting the Orbys consultants.
Ovum feels that the purchase gives Ovum more ‘hands-on’ expertise with end-users, and that this will feed back into services to guide vendors into what users really want. It also thinks that there’s space to develop new services that leverage Ovum’s work with IT services and enterprises. Ovum will link Orbys to the EVUA.
Immediately, customers will be concerned about the flow of information between Ovum and Orbys. In the short term, it seems as if there is little to worry about.
However, as the firm explores more synergies it seems probable that services companies’ fears will grow: how open can outsourcing providers be with Ovum’s services analysts if they might end up helping Orbys to drive them even further down on prices?
P.S. Check out ARmadgeddon’s post, and the exchange of comments between me and an informed observer.
