Opinion | An orthogonal move into the market for IT services

Let me say at the outset that I expect that many readers of this column are not going to agree with its premise. I say this because I tested this premise last week during meetings in Mumbai with institutional investors in Indian information technology (IT) services. While these investors were kind enough to give me a hearing, not all agreed with the conclusion. That said, I am going to soldier on gamely.

I believe that IT services firms might soon see a move coming at them from an orthogonal direction. Firms such as Microsoft, Oracle and SAP have long been at “right angles” to IT service providers. They provide software for enterprises while making way for their IT services partners such as Accenture, IBM and Indian-heritage IT service providers to help integrate their software. Over the years, this symbiotic relationship helped these firms conquer the enterprise space with the licence-based software they were selling.