Worldwide IT services revenue totaled $763bn in 2009, a decrease of 5.3% compared to $805bn in 2008, according to a new report by IT research and advisory firm Gartner.
According to the report, each of the five largest IT services providers in 2009 declined in revenue, with HP and Accenture reporting the largest declines at 10.4% and 11.8%, respectively. Inspite of experiencing a decline of 6.6% year over year, IBM retained top position with revenues totaling at $55bn. HP came in second with revenues of $34.6bn, while Fujitsu gained the third spot with 3.1% market share.
Accenture gained the fourth spot with revenue of $20.94bn, accounting for a market share of 2.7%, and CSC took the fifth place with revenue of $16bn and market share of 2.1%.
Gartner said India-based vendors grew at 3.6%, in terms of US dollars in 2009, down from 15.4% growth in 2008. The economic uncertainties and the crisis in industries have had negative implications on the worldwide consulting market in 2009, and many providers’ revenue growth rates were negatively impacted.
The firm said that some providers were able to capitalise from already recovering economies by selectively co-investing with buyers for innovative and growth-focused projects as a source to increase their consulting services market share.
Kathryn Hale, research vice president for worldwide IT services group at Gartner, said: 2009 was a year like no other before it for IT services providers. Their priorities changed and their business focus rushed from aggressive sales or tactical revenue acquisition to strategies designed to simply maintain revenue levels, keep a handle on costs and manage profitability.
2010 will be a year of focused readjustment for IT services providers. The discipline exercised in 2009 leaves the industry profitable and relatively nimble. But investors will expect to see revenue growth and managing those expectations, while maintaining margins will be more challenging than the comparatively unambiguous goals of 2009, a year in which expectations were modest.
