Phil Fersht
Founder and Chief Executive Officer of HfS Research, the leading global research analyst organization covering global sourcing strategies. Acclaimed Industry Analyst and Consultant who scribes the leading blog for the services industry "Horses for Sources". Previously worked at AMR Research (Gartner Inc), Deloitte Consulting’s BPO Advisory Services, the Everest Group and IDC . In 2010, Phil was named “IIAR Analyst of the Year” by the Institute of Industry Analyst Relations (IIAR). This is the most coveted global award for industry analysts in technology and services.
Are call centers cool again? Teleperformance, Concentrix and SYKES lead the first Top Ten for customer engagement operations
Ever since IBM sold off its Daksh business to Concentrix in 2013, “call center” has been something of a dirty word to traditional service providers and software aficionados alike. Since then, traditional IT services have flatlined as the focus has shifted to digital solutions, where the customer is front and center to emerging interactive (“digital”) technologies. Having that ability to lead […]
No-Deal Brexit isn’t just a British problem: This could wipe $15 trillion off global markets
In 2008 Lehman Brothers nearly took down the global banking system… in 2017 Greece’s debts were poised to destroy the European economy… today, we are staring at a stock market that gyrates up and down double-digit percentages in a single day, based on one awkward tariff tweet-up between Xi and Donald… We’re talking about the […]
Accenture, IBM, Capgemini and Wipro lead the first application services Top 10
So it’s now 2019, and HFS’ Ollie O’Donoghue and Jamie Snowdon waste no time in the world of the new feisty Top 10 methodology, where they take no prisoners in ranking how the leading application development and management service providers performed… The market continues to test and experiment with new frameworks and methodologies. The most notable are […]
Phil’s 2018 Disruptor Awards!
What better than to hand out some awards to people who have absolutely no clue they are going to win one… and for actually doing something in 2018 to impact the world of IT and business services that actually shook up the rules of the game? And what better to offer up zero prizes beyond […]
2019 Prediction: Brexit will be abolished and the UK economy will roar back to life
I am not normally one for big grandiose predictions – I’m actually pretty dull when it comes to big hyperbole (I hope). Honestly, I’d love to declare that AI will destroy a third of the workforce, and then magically perform a 360-degree flip and start creating jobs. I’d also love to declare that RPA vendors will magically […]
RPA will reach $2.3bn next year and $4.3bn by 2022… as we revise upwards our forecasts
Well… it’s been quite a 2018 in the fantasy world of RPA (RPA plus RDA), where some of the fantasy dollars have magically become real, as the market hit $1.7bn – an increase of $250m from our forecast last year. So when the more conservative of forecasters (HFS) undershoots the market by 17%, you know […]
Brexit will will rip out the underbelly of the British economy – and we’ll likely never recover
However which way you analyze all the economic indicators, and whatever your opinion may be regarding Britain’s relationship with the European Union (EU), removing the movement of EU labour into the UK will create a perilous shortage of labour, particularly for low-to-mid skilled professions. If anything, removing worker base at the lower end of […]
RPA is a gateway drug – and magically these guys agree too! Don’t you just love coincidences..
And here we go again… Our now-infamous headline “RPA is the gateway drug. AI is the drug…” has now magically appeared on the Forbes website in an article entitled “Robotic Process Automation: A Gateway Drug to AI and Digital Transformation” authored by Babson Professor Tom Davenport and Carla O’Dell, Chairman at AQPC: (Cross-posted @ […]
IBM / RedHat: A grand play at out-sharing Microsoft’s open source economy
It’s really not about the cloud – not at this massive $34bn price tag. IBM’s ingestion of RedHat, the third largest IT purchase in history, is all about Open Source. Commentators are already pitching this deal as long-awaited reinforcements to the trench-warfare of the cloud wars. But in reality, we need to look much deeper to […]
SYKES acquires Symphony becoming the first call center provider with significant automation capability
Disruption is more ripe in the call center space than any other corner of the services industry, and $1.6bn provider SYKES just upped the ante to feverish levels by becoming only the second-ever service provider to acquire deep RPA and intelligent automation expertise, since Accenture picked up Genfour 18 months ago. And $70m cash is a not insignificant […]
