Sourcing of Application Services Management Grows Steeply Among Smaller Enterprises —Everest Group

Optimizing applications is a mandate for enterprises of all sizes, but enterprises seek more business value from sourcing engagements.

Enterprises with revenue less than US$5 billion have witnessed a steep increase in adoption of application services (AS), increasing from 55% to 79% in the last two years, according to Everest Group. The growing share of smaller enterprises in AS engagements reinforces the fact that optimizing the application estate has become a universal mandate. The COVID-19 pandemic has also forced many smaller enterprises to undertake modernization initiatives to remain resilient in the wake of another black swan event.

Although AS engagements take the top spot (more than 70%) in an IT services market expected to grow by 5-7%, most enterprises consider application management to be a necessary evil and the sourcing of application management to be solely a cost take-out function. According to Everest Group’s most recent poll of enterprise buyers of application services, enterprises believe service providers have not been able to add value to application management initiatives beyond cost-take out; value addition received the lowest score among assessment criteria. The key value-add benefits enterprises desire from their AS engagements include the following:

  1. Enable better experience for customers
  2. Increase scalabilty and resiliency of existing applications
  3. Facilitate advanced analytics and forecasting capabilities
  4. Increase security, reduce risk and adhere to compliance

To help organizations derive more business value from application services, Everest Group proposes a model that enterprises can use to drive transformation in their AS function. The “Business Value Orchestrator Platform” views application management as one part of a broader initiative comprising other technology towers, operating models, service management solutions, delivery enablement, and next-generation sourcing.

The model is described in detail in Everest Group’s newly published State of the Market Report, “Application Services – Transform Application Management to Drive Digital Success.” In this report, Everest Group also examines the market trends in the AS market, including IT services market size; AS buyer adoption trends across geographies, industry verticals and revenue sizes; and key trends shaping the AS market.

Selected Report Highlights:

 Though enterprises plan to adopt cognitive capabilities in application management functions, only 16% have adopted it thus far. The key challenge is the unavailability of suitable mature AI solutions.

  • Sixty percent of enterprises are integrating site reliability engineering (SRE) with application management.
  • With incumbent application management service (AMS) providers unable to drive more value, enterprises are willing to work with challengers. Everest Group sees nearly 20% of AMS engagements now being signed with challenger service providers rather than incumbents.
  • Discrete application services engagements continue to form 71% of the IT services market.
  • Enterprises continue to prefer short-term AS engagements (less than three years). The proportion of short-term engagements has risen over the last two years from 23% to 36% of all engagements.
  • AS engagements in the North American market continued to decline in comparison to other geographies, but Everest Group expects the North American market to grow faster than other regions as the market recovers from pandemic influences.

***Download a complimentary abstract of the report here.***Application Services

About Everest Group
Everest Group is a research firm focused on strategic IT, business services, engineering services, and sourcing. Our clients include leading global companies, service providers, and investors. Clients use our services to guide their journeys to achieve heightened operational and financial performance, accelerated value delivery, and high-impact business outcomes. Details and in-depth content are available at http://www.everestgrp.com

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