Kontron acquires Altimate in Romania

The acquisition of Altimate, one of the key Romanian technology integrator companies of UTI Group, by former S&T (now Kontron), strengthens Kontron’s very strong position in the public sector in Romania and makes it a key player in future large EU-funded projects in the central and local administrations.
Hannes Niederhauser, CEO of Kontron AG, stated “This acquisition marks an incredible milestone for us – it’s the fourth in a row as we continue to expand and strengthen our presence in key markets.”, underlying that “Each acquisition brings us closer to realizing our vision of becoming a leader in industrial IoT solutions.”.

With a combined revenue expected to exceed 100 million euros in 2023 in Romania, Kontron will lead a small group of 4-5 companies that will soon manage domestic public projects worth over 500 M euros.

Despite the sanctions recently received (and contested) by Kontron from the Competition Council, and the discussions generated, in the IT market, by the winning of dozens of public contracts by Altimate (as an essential component of the UTI group), the company resulting from the merger of the two players in Romania will create a long-awaited provider that has both the skills and the financial strength to carry out large-scale technology integration projects for the digital infrastructure so needed in Romania and largely financed by EU funds.

Overall, at a regional (Eastern European) level, this move should be understood in a broader context: consolidation, global IT players focusing more on nearshore delivery centers than on the small local markets, the need for strong IT providers to design and implement large domestic digitalization projects in public organizations, higher payroll costs, and the need for high quality and strict deadlines.

In this region, Kontron has previously sold the former S&T subsidiaries in all countries, except Austria, Romania, and Hungary, markets where Kontron targets leading positions in both traditional IT systems integration and innovative IoT solutions.

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Meet us @ CC Summit 24 – E3 Magazine

July 5-6, 2024, Salzburg

Working on the SAP base is crucial for the successful S/4 conversion. This gives the so-called Competence Center strategic importance for SAP existing customers. Regardless of the operating model of an S/4 Hana, topics such as automation, monitoring, security, application lifecycle management and data management are the basis for operational S/4 operation.

For the second time, the E3 magazine is already organizing a summit for the SAP community in Salzburg to provide comprehensive information on all aspects of the S/4-Hana basic work. With exhibition, specialist lectures and a lot of need for discussion, we expect numerous existing customers, partners and experts in Salzburg again.

The SAP Competence Center Summit in Salzburg has clearly shown that the SAP base is still a challenge for existing SAP customers. Hardly any participant in the summit can currently imagine what will happen without SolMan. The Solution Manager has been discontinued by SAP and there should be Cloud ALM for future SAP cloud customers.

What seems logical and consistent on paper turned out to be a less well thought-out way in many discussions in Salzburg. SAP Cloud ALM is focused on the public cloud in many areas, partly takes into account the private cloud and currently seems completely unsuitable for hybrid system landscapes. If you continue to consider SAP’s private cloud offer as an on-prem solution, you will hardly find the end of Cloud ALM.

Who will be there:

Photo of Franck Naujoks, our Senior Analyst — Frank Naujoks

December 8, 2023

Meet us @ Steampunk-Summit – E3 Magazine

February 28-29, 2024, Heidelberg

In the opinion of the SAP community, the SAP programming language Abap on the SAP Business Technology Platform, BTP, will be the determining ERP strategy. Embedded Abap on the BTP is steampunk. The Steampunk and BTP Summit 2024 shows the future of S/4 Hana and beyond.

The E3 magazine cordially invites you to learn and exchange ideas at the Steampunk and BTP Summit 2024. Be there and benefit from knowledge, experience and ideas!

The future of S/4 Hana is still uncertain. SAP guarantees software maintenance until 2040. But until then and after? There are already numerous business and organizational challenges that cannot be solved with the standard processes of the S/4 Private and Public Cloud.

Many existing SAP customers are about to transfer their Abap modifications to a future S/4-Hana system. What happens to the innovations from the Z namespace? Neither the SAP Private nor the public cloud provide satisfactory answers to this. In many SAP business processes, there are still media breaks and there is a lack of verified end-to-end scenarios. In the future, third-party systems will continue to deliver external data to S/4. S/4 Hana will be an integrated part of a Composable ERP in the next few years. Only with Steampunk and the Business Technology Platform can the rescue of the successful Abap modifications, the development of new E2E processes and the orchestration of a Composable ERP succeed.

The Steampunk and BTP Summit 2024 provides the answers regarding an ERP architecture including and beyond S/4 Hana, because after 2040 the ERP world and SAP community will not cease to exist.

Who will be there:

December 7, 2023

Webinar – How to improve your customers’ operational efficiency with Unified Observability

As the PAC survey concludes: “There can be no successful digital transformation without Unified Observability“! But how can you develop an innovative unified observability strategy that creates value for your businesses and their customers?

We would like to invite you to discover the results of the C-Level survey carried out by PAC and to capitalise on the feedback from our experts, who will be delighted to share their knowledge, experience and perspectives on unified observability and the factors for success.

We are convinced that our strategy can complement and strengthen the services you offer and bring tangible value to your customers.

Who will be there:

November 30, 2023

Meet us @ IIAR Awards 2023

December 5, 2023, London

The best gathering of industry analysts and analyst relations professionals is back! The famous IIAR London Xmas Party will be held on Tuesday, 5th December 2023, at 1800 GMT in Central London. We are excited for you to join us for the announcement of the IIAR Awards, drinks, canapés, and networking at our famous Winter Party.

It will also be an opportunity to celebrate the outstanding results that analysts and analyst firms have delivered when collaborating with AR professionals throughout the year: At the party, the IIAR Awards committee will announce the IIAR Analyst, Analyst Firm, New Analyst and Client Partner of 2023, as well as the AR Professional, AR Team and AR Agency of the Year.

Who will be there:

November 29, 2023

Meet us @ SPS 2023

November 14 – 15, 2023, Nuremberg

– From November 14 – 16,2023, the leading trade fair for smart and digital automation, the SPS, will open its doors. We are very pleased to meet you live on-site at the exhibition center in Nuremberg!

With its unique concept, the PLC represents the entire spectrum of smart and digital automation. The focus is on practical solutions for all specific work areas. At the SPS you will find the answers to your current questions as well as solutions for the challenges of tomorrow.

After two years of pandemic-related forced break, the restart of SPS 2022 was a complete success. Around 1,000 exhibitors informed about the latest trends and developments in the automation industry on 112,000 square meters of exhibition space.

Regardless of whether the SPS has been a set date in your calendar for years or you will visit the meeting point of the automation industry in Nuremberg for the first time this year. On this page you will find all the information for your trade fair visit. In this way, you can get a comprehensive overview of what awaits you at this year’s event in advance.

Who will be there:

November 9, 2023

MARKET & RESEARCH UPDATE WEBINAR BY PAC ANALYSTS

Join our highly regarded PAC Analysts for a free webinar exploring the latest market and research insights. Here is what you will learn:

Deal Dynamics in European Software & IT Services

In this session, Nick Mayes, our Principal Analyst, will present our latest analysis on the changing shape of software and IT services contracts, as end-user organizations adapt to changing and volatile market conditions. How are businesses harnessing AI services from external partners, and are we seeing a return to the days of the mega-deal?

2024 Predictions: PAC’s Vision of the Digital Future

PAC’s Chief Analyst, Christophe Châlons, reveals our top 10 predictions for the Software & IT Services market in 2024. Gain insights into the future of the industry, minimize risks, and be prepared for next year’s challenges.

PAC Research Agenda 2024

Stephan Kaiser, Senior Vice President & Head of Advisory, will present PAC’s Research Agenda for 2024. Discover our redesigned SITSI platform, the selection of RADARs (vendor benchmarks), and CxO Surveys, and learn more about our “7 Levers-to-Growth” consulting approach to boost your growth plans for next year.

October 20, 2023

Daniella Campbell Takes Over as Group CEO of PAC Group and Introduces New Web Presence www.pacanalyst.com

Daniella Campbell Takes Over as Group CEO of PAC Group and Introduces New Web Presence www.pacanalyst.com

Munich, October 2023 – Daniella Campbell, who earlier this year took on the role of Group CEO of PAC, a leading analyst and consulting firm, now officially presents her vision and innovations for the company. This follows a successful fiscal year for PAC, which plans to expand further with new offerings.

Since its establishment in 1976 by Pierre Audoin, PAC has been a stalwart in the IT industry for market research and strategic consulting. With regular reports and analyses, PAC has contributed to transparency and knowledge growth in the dynamically expanding tech sector. Daniella Campbell, who has been active within the group since 2017 and previously led the business in Germany, has significantly contributed to a 12% increase in sales in the previous fiscal year.

“We prioritize accuracy and up-to-date information and provide unparalleled insights and recommendations with our proven bottom-up method, which encompasses thousands of interviews and surveys annually,” emphasizes CEO Daniella Campbell. “Our commitment to innovation and the continuous updating of the PAC reference model has kept us at the forefront of the industry. With these services, we will continue to shape the performance of software and IT service providers in the future”.

Under Campbell’s leadership, PAC will broaden its research topics to cover areas such as artificial intelligence and sustainability. PAC’s regular RADAR reports provide IT and business decision-makers with valuable insights, assisting them in selecting the best IT service partners. Additionally, Campbell plans to expand the community with annual networking events in Paris, Frankfurt, Munich, and London in 2023.

“We are committed to continuous innovation, evident in the latest version of our SITSI^® platform, which boasts a modern and collaborative design,” adds CEO Daniella Campbell. “Furthermore, we are delighted to announce the launch of our new website www.pa canalyst.com. While this innovation brings in a fresh digital presence and new e-mail addresses for our communication with clients and partners, the established PAC brand remains unchanged. It continues to symbolize trust and quality in the IT services industry.”

Interested parties are invited to visit the updated platform and the new website at www.pacanalyst.com.

About PAC:

Pierre Audoin Consultants (PAC) is a content-based company with a consulting DNA. Since 1976, PAC has delivered focused and objective responses to the growth challenges of software & IT service vendors worldwide. We are the preferred partner for European software and IT service companies to define their strategy, strengthen market share, optimize GTM, and help position their thought leadership. PAC is proudly an analyst-led consultancy spread over multiple locations across Europe. We cover market research for over 30 countries worldwide, delivered through our portfolio pillars Guidance, Insights and Visibility and our renowned research platform SITSI ®. For more information, please visit www.pacanalyst.com

For further information or queries, please contact:

Felix Jones – Marketing Manager

October 16, 2023

PAC @ HUBFORUM IN PARIS

PAC analysts actively participated in HUBFORUM 2023 held in Paris, alongside industry leaders such as Microsoft, Amazon, DoubleVerify, Meta, Uber, and numerous other prominent companies.

During this event, which took place on Tuesday and Wednesday (3-4.10.2023), Bertrand Kummel represented our team and engaged in the proceedings organized by HUBFORUM. This year’s event had a strong focus on various topics, including e-commerce, generative AI, and the broader spectrum of how AI can drive enhancements in ROI, customer brand perception, and the realm of Augmented Reality.

We gathered valuable insights from event attendees regarding their performance and how specific vendors aided them in addressing aspects of marketing they had not previously considered due to industry norms. It is intriguing to observe the synergy between our analytical work and the real-world challenges faced by users.

The impact of PAC’s analysis on end users, particularly in the realms of sustainability and AI predictions, as well as the substantial growth potential, was consistently emphasized by all users embarking on such collaborative ventures.

October 5, 2023

NTT DATA Business Solutions Accelerates S/4HANA Transformations via Partnerships and Legacy SAP licenses Buy Back Program

There is a new offering from NDBS “Associated costs are often one of the main reasons businesses delay their S/4HANA migration. Speaking to PAC, Andy Steer (VP & CTO NDBS) said the firm offers to buy back legacy, non S/4 deployed software licenses from customers, i.e., NDBS will calculate the original license value and trade that against the new S/4HANA project. This makes the project less profitable for NDBS but helps the customer to unblock and move forward in their S/4HANA migration and journey. With the buy back offer, NDBS displays strong confidence in its ability to deliver successful S/4HANA projects (600+ to date) while betting on a lasting partnership.”If of any interest, feel free to use this for the news (or other) section of the new website. Could rephrase to something like:

NTT DATA Business Solutions accelerates customers’ SAP S/4HANA adoption through new buy back offering.

Speaking to PAC, Andy Steer (VP & CTO NTT DATA Business Solutions) said the firm offers to buy back legacy, non S/4 deployed software licenses from customers, i.e., NDBS will calculate the original license value and trade that against the new S/4HANA project. An innovative approach to help customers unblock and move forward in their SAP S/4HANA migration and journey.

October 4, 2023

Vlad Dumitrescu joined PAC as a Researcher & Data Analyst

Vlad joined PAC in October 2023 as a Researcher & Data Analyst within Romanian team. His main responsibilities will be focused on supporting PAC in its research mission in order to provide the qualitative and quantitative data as always.

Before being part of our team, he finished a Bachelor’s in English-German Philology and a Master’s in Digitalization.

When it comes to professional experience, Vlad moved to us from HPE where he was a Contract Specialist.

October 2, 2023

ZF High-Tech Innovation Summit 2023

PAC analysts participated at the ZF High-Tech Innovation Summit in Bucharest, along with Microsoft, Ericsson, Vodafone, ING, and many others.

Last Friday, September 29, 2023, Iulia Sandut and Eugen Schwab-Chesaru participated in the ZF High-Tech Innovation Summit in Bucharest. The event was focused on the innovation areas of the IT industry in Romania, the impact of the high-speed adoption of AI tools, the increasing added value of the services provided by the IT teams based in Romania, and the overall digital transformation of the Romanian economy and competitive landscape in the context of the major challenges of the labor market and the general literacy of the population of the country.

Together with IT market top executives such as Bogdan Putinica, the Country Manager of Microsoft for Romania, Eugen Schwab-Chesaru was invited to be a speaker at the ZF High-Tech Innovation Summit in Bucharest, participating in the first panel called “Infrastructure for Innovation: From Education to Communication Networks.”.

He has underlined that the digital transformation and the accelerated adoption of innovative solutions strongly depend on three main pillars: the availability of the technology itself, the digital education and openness of the people, and the availability of the capital needed for investing in research and development, but also on transforming the way companies and state bodies work and interact today.

Eugen has also mentioned the positive impact of the delivery centers developed in Romania by large global IT providers, as they offered Romanian IT specialists the opportunity to stay in the country and work on projects for some of the largest and most complex organizations worldwide.

The number of R&D centers based in Romania and the number of software products (with local or international IP) developed in Romania are on a positive trend and influence the overall perception of the local IT industry.

However, local IT spending remains one of the smallest and least mature in the region, with a high growth potential but largely dependent on the trend set by the government and state-controlled institutions and companies, together with the high trust of investors (local and international) in the country’s social, political, and fiscal stability for healthy economic growth.

When discussing the IoT demand in Romania, Eugen also mentioned that the local market needs to catch up to the more mature ones in Eastern Europe, such as Poland or the Czech Republic.

September 29, 2023

PAC assesses a rich ecosystem of IT service providers on their AWS competencies in a series of three PAC RADARs

Paris, September 26, 2023 – PAC, the leading European IT consulting and market research firm, today publishes three PAC RADAR reports presenting a detailed analysis of the IT service provider landscape around AWS in Europe, France, and Germany. The service providers are assessed on over 60 criteria to help companies select the best suppliers for their migration to the cloud and the deployment of AWS services. The 29 IT service providers evaluated range from major international players such as Accenture and Capgemini to large European players such as Orange Business and T-Systems to smaller local companies such as Arvato in Germany and Claranet in France.

Cloud computing is now a key technology allowing companies to successfully carry out their digital transformation with the help of new services and capabilities such as AI. This makes the cloud services market one of the most dynamic in the IT sector.

Today, hybrid and multi-cloud models have become the new norm, enabling companies to access the services best suited to their specific needs. Nevertheless, these increasingly complex-to-manage environments can quickly lead to skyrocketing consumption – and therefore costs – of public cloud services.

It has therefore become essential for companies to assess the capabilities of their cloud providers – both infrastructure providers (IaaS/PaaS) and service providers – to find the best match for specific competencies and target business outcomes. In this context, large IT service providers, major consulting firms, and small innovative players have positioned themselves to form a dynamic, highly diverse ecosystem. In this rapidly growing market, developing clear differentiators is a must, and many of the companies featured in this study are aggressively investing in the talent, assets, and solutions available on the AWS marketplace to differentiate themselves and gain market share.

PAC RADAR AWS Europe 2023 anonymized graphic

AWS has now established itself as the undisputed market leader in public IaaS/PaaS, with a market share of 45% in Europe in 2022, according to PAC’s ranking, far ahead of its main competitors Microsoft Azure and Google Cloud Platform. It has thus become an indispensable partner for IT service providers aiming to fully exploit the enormous growth potential offered by the public cloud model.

In this series of three PAC RADARs, PAC presents a detailed analysis of the IT service provider landscape around AWS in Europe, France, and Germany. The players are evaluated on over 60 criteria to provide a comprehensive and independent benchmark, helping decision-makers in private and public organizations to differentiate between providers according to their investments in talent, training, and the development of dedicated verticalized solutions.

For further information or queries, please contact Eric Beaudet

September 26, 2023