According to a new study of the competitive landscape in the Western European financial services sector by market intelligence experts IDC, IT providers are increasingly “verticalizing their go-to-market strategies to better position their offerings in the attractive financial market.”
As the financial sector continues to be one of the most attractive and dynamic markets for the IT industry, the creation of a specific approach for banking, insurance, and other financial institutions is key for IT vendors to successfully operate in this industry, says IDC.
“The adoption of new standards, the rationalization of internal processes, the integration of back-end to front-end activities, and the coordination of widespread activities over multiple channels are strong drivers for the implementation of modern IT solutions in the Western European financial sector,” says Raffaella Molignani, financial services research analyst with IDC’s European Vertical Markets group.
IDC’s study highlights how the financial services sector requires high levels of specialization. Selling to financial institutions in general and banks in particular is complex and requires the implementation of a real vertical-specific strategy. IT vendors must develop into well-known brands and improve their visibility as well as build up proactive, specialized marketing and selling teams that enable the establishment of a strong presence in the industry.
In order to develop vertical-specific solutions, partnerships are usually set up to quicken this process and focus on core competencies. Top vendors are at various stages of this process. However, IDC believes that in the medium to long term most of them will create go-to-market approaches specific to banking, insurance, and other financial institutions.
IDC’s Western European Financial Services, IT Vendors Competitive Assessment, 2003 (IDC #PF12K, December 2003) examines the competitive landscape in the Western European financial sector. The analysis aims to describe the strategic approaches that top IT vendors are following to compete in the market to satisfy the needs of financial institutions.
The study provides a brief introduction to the overall business, a description of offerings, and the go-to-market strategy of several IT vendors, namely Accenture, Cap Gemini Ernst & Young, Cisco, CSC, Dell, EDS, HP, IBM, Microsoft, Oracle, SAP, Siemens Business Services, Sun Microsystems, T-Systems, and Unisys.