The IT services market is a rather volatile industry, in which major trends such as price pressure, sophistication of clients attitudes and polarization played significant role during the past three years. Our analysis ranges from the mature markets of Western Europe to the unsaturated markets located in developing countries, such as Greece, Romania, & Russia. IBM’s strategic logic is clearly based on differentiation and supported by its top quality, high tech, innovative and extensively diversified portfolio of service offerings. Dell, a challenger of IBM’s and HP’s market leadership positions (especially in the SMB segment), pursues a cost leadership strategic approach, which stems from its cost advantage that derives from its direct model for its products and indirect model (leveraging partnerships) for services. GE IT Solutions, although part of the GE giant, remains a small player in the IT services arena, based on a niche strategic logic, with its services adjusted to the needs of the large vertical markets, such as Healthcare, Energy, and Government. As far as HP is concerned, it bases its strategic logic on its hybrid strategy, pursuing both competitive pricing and superior quality (through differentiation), to achieve the Best Customer Experience (BCE). Finally, HP could exploit the benefits of a potential cooperation (alliance) with GE, through which it will gain access to and knowledge from numerous vertical markets in which GE is active; GE will enrich its service portfolio (e.g. with consulting services), while R&D and operations’ synergies will prove beneficial for both parties.
