After 2 months of quiet there is a quite a lot of action in the Services Index. Orange Business Services (up 8 places), BT Global Services (+7) and Patni (+6) have entered the top 25. HP Services(-6), Xansa(-7) and TietoEnator (-6) have dropped out of the top 25.
There is even some movement in the stable top echeleons of the Services Index as Yahoo, edging past Capgemini and CSC, gets to the coveted 3rd position.
The greatest increase in analyst focus has been earned by Orange Business Services (previously Equant) as it rose a massive 8 positions to end up at 17th spot. The boost has partly been fuelled by its excellent performance as a Service Provider as recognized by Gartner. The firm has been placed in the Leaders’ quadrant in Gartner’s Asia Pacific Magic Quadrant. More good news was registered for Francophonie when CGI rose six places.
BT Global Services has also enjoyed a sharp increase in analyst focus after its announcement to acquire INS, a Californian provider of IT consulting and software solutions. The acquisition is expected to increase BT’s presence in the North American market and enhance its consulting capabilities. We think they’ll be changing the name though.
Another firm worth mention this month is Patni. With some excellent revenue growth the firm has been ranked as the “strongest global services provider by ARC Advisory Group in strategic consulting for Master Data Management.”(A highly coveted reward, we are sure). A sharp increase in focus lifted Patni 6 positions in the Lighthouse Services Index and into the top 25 for the month of March, at least.
Wat jammer! Getronics had the worst loss in terms of analyst mindshare. The Dutch firm has shown poor financial results which were much lower than analysts’ expectations. This coupled with the fact that other news coming out of Getronics concerned its troubled Italian and Japanese assets (news even to some of its board members) has meant that IT analysts struggled to write about this firm.
If you wish to be sent the top 25 firms in Services Index each month, email us at analysts at lighthousear dot com. You can also read how we do our Analyst Index rankings.
