When IBM Corp. bought the management and technology consulting business of PricewaterhouseCoopers for $3.5 billion last fall, it gained an important asset that it visibly lacked: strategic business consultants with BlackBerries filled not just with the names of CIOs and IT department heads, but the names of CEOs, CFOs and senior vice presidents of sales as well. These relationships drive the strategic IT consulting business, and with project-based IT on the decline, IBM's leadership decided that "strategic" was the place its service business needed to be.
Combining that operation with its existing consulting group enabled Big Blue to create its new Business Consulting Services unit. BCS, as it's called, is intended to complete IBM's lineup and allow it to become an IT mega-vendor akin to those spawned by the consolidation trend in financial services. Now, there is only one problem left: Do clients actually want one-stop shopping?
Racking Up Big Wins
Complete your profile to continue reading and get FREE access to Treasury & Risk, part of your ALM digital membership.
Your access to unlimited Treasury & Risk content isn’t changing.
Once you are an ALM digital member, you’ll receive:
- Thought leadership on regulatory changes, economic trends, corporate success stories, and tactical solutions for treasurers, CFOs, risk managers, controllers, and other finance professionals
- Informative weekly newsletter featuring news, analysis, real-world case studies, and other critical content
- Educational webcasts, white papers, and ebooks from industry thought leaders
- Critical coverage of the employee benefits and financial advisory markets on our other ALM sites, PropertyCasualty360 and ThinkAdvisor
Already have an account? Sign In Now
*May exclude premium content© 2024 ALM Global, LLC, All Rights Reserved. Request academic re-use from www.copyright.com. All other uses, submit a request to [email protected]. For more information visit Asset & Logo Licensing.