Innovative IT trio leave their rivals ‘far behind’

Deloitte, IBM and Logica lead the global market in providing sustainable technology services, according to a new analysis.

A study by the analyst firm Verdantix has found that the three leave their competitors ‘trailing far behind’ when it comes to offering IT services that take account of the environment.

The report compared the 15 largest global IT services firms on 49 criteria. Stuart Neumann, Verdantix industry analyst and author of the study, said that only ‘a handful’ of companies have taken a leadership position  – and that most technology services firms are ‘rooted in outmoded green IT thinking’. As a result, he argues, such laggards are already losing out on multi-million dollar contracts.

He added: ‘Our research found that large multinationals… want IT support for new sustainability initiatives such as electric vehicle infrastructure, offshore wind farms and global carbon management systems. Technology investment in these new areas is much larger than spend on green IT projects like data centre energy efficiency and PC power management.’

The study concludes that Deloitte leads the market in energy and carbon management software, environmental product life cycle assessment, and sustainability reporting services. IBM’s water management and data centre energy efficiency offerings ‘stand out from the crowd’ as a result of several years of heavy research and development investment, and Logica has won a number of valuable sustainable technology projects including electric vehicle infrastructure in the Netherlands, building energy efficiency for the UK Ministry of Defence, and renewable energy management systems in Portugal.

At the next level down, Verdantix found that BT Global Services, HP and Orange Business Services ‘embed sustainability into their firm’s culture’ and have ‘market leading corporate sustainability performance’. While not up to the same level as the three leaders, these firms also had high quality sustainable technology service offerings in specific markets: in particular, Orange is good on fleet management and telemetry services, while HP has launched an innovative flight planning service with environmental benefits.

Capgemini, CSC and Hitachi Consulting showed promise in specific service lines, with Capgemini putting in strong showings on data centre energy efficiency and utility smart grid and water management. CSC has built up a broad and strong portfolio centred on five service lines: intelligent transport, climate change risk assessment, utility smart grid, data centres and water management. And Hitachi Consulting targets a broader range of service lines with an ‘impressive level of innovation and customer success’ achieved on climate change risk assessment.

Verdantix says these latter companies ‘have the core expertise to expand into other areas with nascent capabilities’ during 2011.

David Metcalfe, Verdantix director, said: ‘The big money today is in contracts that support sustainability initiatives. To win these deals, IT services firms must show entrepreneurial flair and strategic intent.’