After adopting cloud-based platforms in response to COVID-19, enterprises are working with Microsoft partners to unlock new capabilities, ISG Provider Lens report says
Companies in the U.S. are turning to service providers for help getting more out of Microsoft platforms they quickly adopted during the COVID-19 pandemic, according to a new research report published by Information Services Group, a leading global technology research and advisory firm.
Latest AiThority Interview Insights : AiThority Interview with Brad Anderson, President of Product and Engineering at Qualtrics
“Ease of development is only one part of the puzzle”
The 2023 ISG Provider Lens™ Microsoft Cloud Ecosystem report for the U.S. finds many enterprises invested heavily in platforms such as Microsoft 365, Power Platform and the Azure hyperscale cloud to keep their businesses running during the pandemic, when work and commerce moved largely online. Microsoft platforms garnered especially strong investment in the U.S., the source of half the company’s revenue. Now, enterprises are looking to providers to help them use those tools to generate ongoing business value.
“Microsoft enabled many U.S. companies to meet the pandemic head-on with cloud-based solutions,” said Shriram Natarajan, director, Digital Business Transformation, for ISG. “Now it is playing a pivotal role in longer-term digital transformation.”
Fully implementing and integrating the Microsoft suite of platforms into an organization’s business processes is often difficult due to high costs, lack of familiarity with the technology and a shortage of skills, ISG says. System integrators, IT providers, software vendors and advisory firms in the Microsoft cloud ecosystem address these challenges by providing strategies and solutions on top of several central Microsoft platforms.
Microsoft 365, which solved many companies’ immediate remote-work issues with a focus on employee communications and messaging, has taken on a larger role around employee experience and learning, the report says. As the evolving hybrid work environment and continuing tight labor market force companies to continuously transform their workplaces, providers are creating value-added solutions to meet these new expectations.
Likewise, enterprises are engaging with providers to glean maximum value from Azure. Particularly in the U.S., with its strong cloud developer community, companies are moving to modern microservices architectures using containers and Kubernetes orchestration, ISG says. Companies are also migrating to Dynamics 365 from on-premises Microsoft Dynamics installations or other business platforms, such as SAP and Salesforce. Competitive providers address the potential of these migrations for both technology and business purposes.
Microsoft Power Platform, which empowers employees to develop line-of-business applications with low-code/no-code tools, also benefits from third-party assistance, the report says. Providers address security and policy compliance issues and the need for access to data.
“Ease of development is only one part of the puzzle,” said Jan Erik Aase, partner and global leader, ISG Provider Lens Research. “Powerful analytics capabilities require the right data, which providers can help to make available from anywhere in an organization.”
The report also explores other trends in the U.S. Microsoft cloud ecosystem, including the maturing market for SAP on Azure and the importance of supporting multi-cloud environments.
Read More about AiThority Interview: AiThority Interview with Ahmad Al Khatib, CEO and Founder at Qudo
For more insights into the challenges faced by enterprises adopting Microsoft platforms, plus advice on the key capabilities to seek in a provider, see the ISG Provider Lens™ Focal Points briefing here.
The 2023 ISG Provider Lens™ Microsoft Cloud Ecosystem report for the U.S. evaluates the capabilities of 37 providers across five quadrants: Managed Services for Azure, Microsoft 365 Services, SAP on Azure Services, Dynamics 365 Services and Power Platform Services.
The report names Accenture & Avenade, Cognizant, DXC Technology, HCLTech, TCS and Wipro as Leaders in all five quadrants. It names Hexaware, Infosys and Kyndryl as Leaders in four quadrants each. Capgemini, LTIMindtree and NTT DATA are named as Leaders in three quadrants each.
In addition, LTIMindtree is named as a Rising Star — a company with a “promising portfolio” and “high future potential” by ISG’s definition — in one quadrant.
AiThority Interview Insights: AiThority Interview with Luke Damian, Chief Growth Officer for Applause
[To share your insights with us, please write to sghosh@martechseries.com]
Comments are closed.