Elix believes that over the new few years, more consultancies with "roll up their sleeves and get dirty." He says IBM's own appetite for the kind of deal that involves a bunch of suits coming in, then writing a report is gone.
"A lot of the advice-consulting is free, upfront work in order to generate demand for actual operational work," he says.
Elix calls technology services a good business with moderate growth, although, he admits, it hasn't been growing for the past couple of quarters. But he's not worried. The IBM exec believes that companies will soon invest, focusing on initiatives such as refreshing their infrastructure and securing their networks further, and that business will come back.
When asked about the state of the enterprise business, Elix says he believes very strongly that business growth is back on CEOs' agendas as a route to earnings growth. To accomplish that, they'll need to transform their businesses, he adds, citing research that indicates eight out of 10 execs believe they need to optimize their enterprises, both facing the market and through operational efficiency. It is those realizations, he says, that are compelling IBM to push its on-demand strategy.
"The biggest opportunity...at the moment and [the one that is] long-term sustainable [as well as an] opportunity for our clients is around business-process management. [Our customers] want someone who can help [them] transform the business and then run it," he says adamantly. "There is no sign of the systems and applications outsourcing market slowing down. [There are] plenty of opportunities and clients."
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