2009 VAR 500: The Top 25 Solution Providers
The VAR500 is the list of the top revenue-producing solution providers with a headquarters in North America. They serve a diverse customer population: commercial, government, small, midsize and enterprise markets. And, despite the economic slowdown, they have managed to prosper.
The top 25 solution providers earned a total of about $350 billion. This list includes vendors' services arms, in recognition of their value as solution providers.
Here now are the 25 companies, along with CEOs or top executives, that earned the highest revenue in 2008 compared with the year before.
#25: Tata Consulting Services (TCS)
Chairman: Ratan Tata
Revenue: $5.7 billion (up 32.6 percent)
Tata Consultancy Services, part of Tata Group, is an IT services, business solutions and outsourcing organization, offering a consulting-led, integrated portfolio of IT and IT-enabled services delivered through its Global Network Delivery Model. Recently, the company won a 2009 SAP Pinnacle Award in the area of Collaborative Revenue Growth. The awards are given to leading SAP partners that have excelled in enhancing the customer experience, addressing critical issues such as accelerating co-innovation and improving ROI.
#24: Dell
CEO: Michael Dell
Lead Services Exec: Tim Griffin, VP Global SMB Services
Revenue: $5.7 billion (up 7.4 percent)
Dell Services helps customers address IT complexity, and creates practical, executable plans. Dell's services arm uses innovative tools, automated analysis and its own intellectual property.
"Services that can simplify IT operations and maximize return on investment are increasingly important during these economic times," Griffin told Everything Channel. "Dell is working with partners to build flexible services that enable our partners to enhance or complement their own support offerings, easily expand their portfolio by selling Dell delivered services or participate in one of our Certified programs to build their own managed services practice."
#23: ACS
CEO: Lynn Blodgett (also president and director)
Revenue: $6.16 billion (up 6.7 percent)
ACS employs roughly 74,000 people supporting client operations reaching more than 100 countries. It provides business process and information technology solutions to world-class commercial and government clients. Blodgett was recently honored by the International Association of Outsourcing Professionals, which named him to the Outsourcing Hall of Fame for his lifelong contributions to the industry of outsourcing.
#22: ITT Defense Electronics and Services
President: Henry Driesse
Revenue: $6.28 billion (up 50.5 percent)
Driesse has been the interim president of ITT's Defense Electronics and Services segment since April 2008. Driesse is a veteran ITT executive, with 27 years of experience at the company, the bulk of which was spent in the defense industry, including five years at the helm of ITT's defense business from 2000 to 2005.
#21: Cisco Services
CEO: John Chambers
Lead Services Exec: Parvesh Sethi, VP, Advanced Services
Revenue: $6.44 billion (up 18 percent)
At the recent Communications Developer Conference in Santa Clara, Calif., Sethi said that in the future, travel will be more closely connected with wireless networks. Sethi said, for example, that the road warrior's phone would automatically notify the hotel upon arrival, eliminating the need to stand in line to check in. The hotel customer's assigned room number will appear on the phone's screen, and then the phone would act as a wireless key for the room.
#20: BAE Systems Technology Solutions
CEO: Walt Havenstein (pictured)
Lead Services Exec: Gene Glazar, president of BAE Systems' Information Solutions
Revenue: $6.46 billion (up 11.2 percent)
Havenstein was appointed CEO in January 2007. Previously, he served as president of the Electronics and Integrated Solutions Operating Group within BAE Systems. The company recently contracted for U.S. federal information technology work including infrastructure, applications and IT management services under the government's new Alliant program.
"Our focus will be on supporting the government's growing need for innovative solutions that reduce cost and increase the mission effectiveness of GSA's client agencies," Glazar said in a statement.
#19: T-Systems
CEO: Reinhard Clemens
Revenue: $7.4 billion (down 6.4 percent)
With a global infrastructure of computer centers and networks, T-Systems operates information and communications technology for multinational corporations and public institutions. "For me, customer orientation is key," Clemens says on the company's Web site. "In the end, every innovation, indeed our entire structure, must benefit the customer."
#18: Atos Origin
CEO: Thierry Breton
Revenue: $7.75 billion (down 9.9 percent)
Breton was France's minister of Economy, Finance and Industry from February 2005 to May 2007. Thierry Breton was elected chairman and CEO of Atos Origin and a member of the board of directors in February 2009. Recently, Breton announced, Herve Payan would become executive vice president of global consulting. Payan's focus will be to consolidate all consulting activities, and the 2,500 consulting staff, into a global services line.
#17: CDW
CEO: John Edwardson
Revenue: $8.1 billion (down 0.6 percent)
The economy has been tough on CDW. If John Edwardson thought his worries would disappear after CDW was bought by private equity firm Madison Dearborn Partners for $7.3 billion, he was wrong. A number of the smaller companies that are CDW customers are cutting back, which is impacting CDW.
However, CDW is spying a light at the end of the tunnel. According to the latest CDW IT Monitor, an increasing number of IT decision makers from small and medium-size business sectors anticipate investment in the next six months. The report said that 29 percent of small business IT decision makers expect budget increases in the next six months, an increase of seven percentage points from February. Additionally, 18 percent of midsize business IT decision makers anticipate hiring in the next six months, an increase of six percentage points since February.
#16: Xerox Services
CEO: Anne Mulcahy (pictured)
Lead Services Exec: John Kelly, COO, Xerox Global Services
Revenue: $8.49 billion (up 3.3 percent)
In 2001, Xerox named Mulcahy the company's first female CEO. On May 21, she announced she would be retiring.
Kelly is an expert in document outsourcing. In a podcast, Kelly said, "Document outsourcing is a way you can partner with a company that has a lot of experience in content management, in document management across both the areas of opportunity and the areas of risk and by partnering with that company you can significantly improve your opportunities for rapid revenue growth, cost productivity, customer differentiation."
#15: ADP
CEO: Gary Butler (also president)
Revenue: $8.78 billion (up 12.5 percent)
ADP helps customers set up and manage networks for automobile dealerships. It is a leading provider of integrated computing solutions to auto, truck, motorcycle, marine and recreational vehicle dealers throughout the world. Recently, VW Credit and VW Credit Canada launched FinanceSource through ADP, which builds applications for faster, more accurate credit application processes for dealers.
#14: SAIC
CEO: Ken Dahlberg (also president)
Revenue: $8.9 billion (up 10.8 percent)
Ken Dahlberg became CEO of SAIC in 2003 and chairman of the board in 2004. Prior to joining SAIC, Dahlberg served as executive vice president of General Dynamics, where he was responsible for the company's Information Systems and Technology Group.
SAIC is a government contractor. Most recently, in May, SAIC was awarded a $20 million contract by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in Savannah, Ga., to design, engineer and construct a cargo aircraft hangar at Robins Air Force Base.
#13: Citigroup Transaction Services (includes Bisys Group)
Head Of Global Transaction Services: Francesco Vanni d'Archirafi
Revenue: $8.6 billion (up 22.3 percent)
Before heading up GTS, Vanni d'Archirafi was global head of Treasury and Trade Solutions and prior to that, head of Global Transaction Services for Europe, Middle East and Africa. He has worked for Citigroup and its predecessor companies for the past 23 years.
Citigroup bought Bisys group two years ago to bolster its business selling IT administration services to hedge funds, mutual funds and private-equity firms.
#12: Motorola Mobile Devices
CEO: Greg Brown (pictured)
Lead Services Exec: James Burke, VP Motorola Devices
Revenue: $10.1 billion (up 0.9 percent)
Mobile Devices is the largest division, based on revenue, of Motorola. It provides an end-to-end infrastructure-based solution and works to continue customer support beyond a single installation.
#11: NTT Data
CEO: Tomokazu Hamaguchi (also president and director)
Revenue: $10.74 billion (up 39.3 percent)
This year marks NTT Data's 20th anniversary. In his president's letter on the company's Web site, Yamashita said that "The NTT Data group will be the customers' innovation partner, supporting them from innovation concept to turning it into a tangible reality. Second, the NTT Data group will innovate itself so that the entire group is able to create new value for customers."
NTT Data and RKK Computer Service announced this spring that they will begin joint study and development of an office process consolidation ASP service. The objective of the service is to reduce IT costs at the processing centers of financial institutions.
#10: Deloitte Consulting
CEO: Barry Salzberg
Revenue: $10.98 billion (up 11.5 percent)
In a recent report from Deloitte Consulting, the company noted how shared services has great potential to generate value in less direct ways, both by enabling cost reductions and by improving cash flow. "An economic downturn is an excellent time to capitalize on opportunities for leveraging data that may have been overlooked, or identified but not acted upon, under more favorable circumstances," wrote Deloitte consultants Peter Miller, Richard Sarkissian and Susan Hogan. "The uncertain environment can make stakeholders more receptive to change. The initial results can help boost short-term performance. The long-term organizational improvements can deliver lasting benefits "- no matter what the economy."
#9: Lockheed Martin - Info Systems And Global Services
CEO: Robert Stevens (also chairman and president)
Revenue: $11.61 billion (up 13.7 percent)
Lockheed Martin Information Systems And Global Services brings together the full range of Lockheed Martin's information competencies. The company was recently selected by the U.S. Army as one of six that will work on migrating the systems linked by the Army Battle Command System into a net-centric, service-oriented architecture that will enable interoperability with other Army systems.
#8: Northrop Grumman
Lead Services Exec: Linda Mills, corporate VP and president, Northrop Grumman IT
Revenue: $12.54 billion (down 1.1 percent)
Northrop Grumman has worked with the New York City Department of Information Technology and Telecommunications and announced on May 19 a milestone in municipal first-responder communications: The New York City Wireless Network (NYCWiN) is operational citywide. NYCWiN is a high-speed, mobile data network that provides a next-generation public safety infrastructure. The network is now operational across New York City's more than 300 square miles and exceeds requirements for coverage and data throughput speed.
#7: Cap Gemini
CEO: Paul Hermelin
Revenue: $12.74 billion (up 6.8 percent)
Cap Gemini delivered a solid performance in 2008. Despite the economic turbulence of the second half, it delivered exactly on its early 2008 guidance: 5 percent growth.
The company's offshore transformation will likely hasten, according to Hermelin in published reports, because of a pressing need to lower costs for customers. Customers are demanding price reductions that lead to an increased leverage of offshore skills.
#6: CSC
President: Michael Laphen
Revenue: $16.5 billion (up 11.1 percent)
Last year, Michael W. Laphen was appointed to the president's National Security Telecommunications Advisory Committee (NSTAC).
"CSC has been a dedicated contributor in the NSTAC since its inception in 1982," Laphen said. "The growing dependence of national and international critical functions and services on cybersystems, the increase in global terrorism and other major shifts, all make the work of the NSTAC even more urgent today."
#5: Verizon Communications (Wireline)
CEO: Ivan Seidenberg (also chairman)
Revenue: $21.12 billion (down .5 percent)
With more than 30,000 employees and a global IP footprint in 150 countries across six continents, Wireline - Verizon Business serves more than 70,000 customers, including 98 percent of the Fortune 500.
"In this challenging economic environment, we remain focused on delivering value to customers and on returning cash to our shareowners, with an attractive dividend," said Seidenberg in a statement regarding first quarter earnings. "Verizon is in a unique position. We are tapping into new market opportunities in wireless, broadband, video and global enterprise, and we already have the assets and capabilities to sustain our cash flows and grow total shareholder returns."
#4: Hewlett-Packard Services
CEO: Mark Hurd
Lead Services Exec: Ann Livermore, EVP HP Services
Revenue: $22.4 billion (up 34.5 percent)
There was a lot of speculation as to what would happen with Ann Livermore once HP's purchase of EDS was complete. With that deal done, Livermore continues to manage her team, and to introduce products and services.
At Interop Las Vegas 2009, Livermore talked about HP's partnership with Microsoft to demonstrate products and services around UC and collaboration. She noted that the focus of the pairing with Microsoft was to connect employees, partners and customers while delivering unified communications solutions that offer a total cost of ownership lower than others in the market.
#3: Accenture
CEO: Bill Green (also chairman)
Revenue: $23.39 billion (up 18.7 percent)
Green attributes Accenture's success and growth to its getting and staying closer to clients, helping them adapt to very challenging circumstances.
During a recent conference call to discuss first quarter results, Green noted that Accenture has "been able to quickly respond to client needs for immediate cost savings through operational improvements and for swift and efficient functional restructuring across the industries we serve."
#2: Sprint Nextel
CEO: Dan Hesse
Revenue: $22.49 billion (down 11.5 percent)
Sprint Nextel has suffered during the economic downturn, and its revenue for the start of 2009 was more of the same. Improving customer service, promoting the brand and strengthening financials are top priorities for 2009. The company hopes to stir up some buzz with the upcoming launch of the Palm Pre.
#1: IBM Global Services
CEO: Sam Palmisano
Lead Services Exec: Mike Daniels, SVP Global Technology Solutions (pictured)
Revenue: $57.3 billion (up 3.6 percent)
Daniels has worldwide responsibility for IBM Global Services business operations in outsourcing services, integrated technology services, small and midsize business services, IBM Global Financing and for IBM's global delivery services. Together, those businesses account for almost half of IBM's revenue.
On IBM's Web site, Daniels notes that globalization is increasingly important for companies to survive and thrive.
"Globalization requires companies be part of a global supply chain, deal with worldwide labor supply and manage talent around the globe," according to Daniels. "Enterprises need the right tools, management processes and governance to explore new marketplaces, support customers, enable new levels of collaboration and expand their business operations. There is a tremendous convergence happening in the areas of voice, video, data and mobility and application resources."