IDC MarketScape
IDC MarketScape: U.S. Systems Integrators Serving the
Federal Government 2016 Vendor Assessment
Adelaide O'Brien
THIS IDC MARKETSCAPE EXCERPT FEATURES: ACCENTURE FEDERAL SERVICES
IDC MARKETSCAPE FIGURE
FIGURE 1
IDC MarketScape U.S. Systems Integrators Serving the Federal Government
Vendor Assessment
Source: IDC, 2016
Please see the Appendix for detailed methodology, market definition, and scoring criteria.
August 2016, IDC #US41687116e
IN THIS EXCERPT
The content for this excerpt was taken directly from IDC MarketScape: U.S. Systems Integrators
Serving the Federal Government 2016 Vendor Assessment (Doc #US41687116). All or parts of the
following sections are included in this excerpt: IDC Opinion, IDC MarketScape Vendor Inclusion
Criteria, Essential Guidance, Vendor Summary Profile, Appendix and Learn More. Also included is
Figure 1.
IDC OPINION
This IDC study represents a vendor assessment through the IDC MarketScape model of systems
integrators (SIs) that serve the U.S. federal government. This research is a quantitative and qualitative
assessment of the characteristics that explain a systems integrator's success in serving U.S. federal
government clients. This evaluation is based on a comprehensive framework and a set of parameters
expected to be most conducive to successfully providing implementation services for information
technologies. A significant component of this evaluation is the inclusion of government reference
clients' perceptions of the key characteristics and capabilities of these SIs. With the advance of the 3rd
Platform and its four pillars — mobility, cloud, Big Data and analytics, and social business —
government organizations are now facing a fundamental shift in IT. Government entities are employing
these technologies coupled with organizational, operational, and business model innovation to create
new ways of operating and delivering services and information. However, government faces
challenges. As infrastructure complexities increase such as transitioning to the cloud and working to
converge disparate systems, agencies will need to do these economically, securely, and within a
technology plan that allows for seamless upgrades, integration of information and services and,
ultimately, transformation of the enterprise. Many agencies perceive that the increasing complexity of
both the technology and mission environments require work with a broad spectrum and growing
number of vendors and external providers to obtain the right solutions and the ability to leverage
commercial best practices to successfully achieve mission outcomes. Government customers now
expect value-added insights, benchmarks, and guidance that go beyond traditional services and
consider the holistic needs of recipients — needs that may involve cross-agency communication and
collaboration. The nature of the changing government workplace, IT and tangential workforce
management, and skills required for successful digital transformation is challenging. Having the right
workforce skills, retaining critical skills, and being able to forecast and recruit future skills are often
mentioned by government executives as their top priorities. How can government transform to become
more agile and responsive in understanding citizen needs and enable decisioning based on
actionable, real-time data? It can do it by employing modern technologies that improve agency
efficiency and effectiveness while transforming the agency. To do this, agencies often need external
support, and SIs often provide that support. To understand the support that the SIs provide, the SIs
were asked about the following areas: the ability to offer software application services not only onpremise but also as cloud-based solutions, outcomes achieved by their federal government clients as
a result of deploying 3rd Platform technologies, plans to provide federal government practices that
support IDC's innovation accelerators — including Internet of Things (IoT), robotics, cognitive/artificial
intelligence (AI), wearables, and digital services/citizen experiences — and strategies to recruit, train,
and retain critically skilled employees to help government digitally transform its business. What the
research found was the following:

Five of the SIs in this study are enabling their government clients to achieve mission outcomes
through deploying cybersecurity and all 3rd Platform technologies.
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
Many SIs are focusing on where government is going and are assisting in making that
transition through applying proven methodology and tools.

Several SIs provide catalogs of techniques, methodologies, and tools designed to be tailored
to agency requirements.

Several of the SIs featured in this study have developed innovation labs employing humancentric service design principles in immersive experiences. Such labs couple group
dynamics/team performance with design thinking to help their government clients discuss the
biggest issues, problems, and challenges and rank them and then visualize outcomes through
prototyping.

All SIs work with and have alliances with an ecosystem of ISVs, hardware OEMs, cloud
providers, and deal-based partnerships with niche solution providers focused on specific
government domains. An example of a niche solution provider is Ideal Innovations focused on
biometrics examination services including fingerprint, face and iris identification, and latent
print comparisons.

Many SIs in this study are using predictive analytics on their own recruitment data to aid in
shifting their overall hiring and future key skills strategies. They have the ability to not only
provide highly skilled professionals but also incorporate them into "badgeless" agency teams.

Several SIs also leverage commercial best practices and apply to strategic planning,
organizational restructuring, operational management, collaboration, formal change
management efforts, and training.

Most of the SIs in this study have plans for specific U.S. federal government practices that
provide professional services for one or more of IDC's identified innovation accelerators,
including IoT, robotics, cognitive/artificial intelligence, wearables, and digital services/citizen
experiences. SIs are assisting agencies in developing strategies that leverage these
technologies and are monitoring their commercial client forays into these technology
deployments for applicability into the U.S. federal market.

Many SIs included in this study are deploying agile processes and helping agencies design
user-friendly offerings for the data-driven customer and drive better mission outcomes.
Government IT project management has been slow to embrace change and acknowledge that
software development projects face unknowns relating to requirements, design, cost, and
schedule. While some government organizations have adopted some degree of Agile software
development, progress for many has been slow. Agility results from replacing predictive, planbased software development approaches with empirical, customer-focused, evidence-based
approaches characterized by transparency, inspection, and adaptation. IDC predicts that by
2018, 90% of all industry projects will be rooted in the concepts of experimentation, speed,
and quality (see IDC FutureScape: Worldwide CIO Agenda 2016 Predictions, IDC #259969,
November 2015). This suggests that, to achieve and excel in mission outcomes, government
organizations must achieve excellence in agility as a regular part of their operating mode.
IDC MARKETSCAPE VENDOR INCLUSION CRITERIA
This is an IDC MarketScape focused on assessing the capabilities of SIs and their ability to serve the
U.S. federal government market. IDC defines systems integration as a process that includes the
planning, design, implementation, and project management of a technical solution that addresses an
organization's specific technical or business needs. When SI deals involve contracting for custom
application development related to the systems integration, those activities are included in the definition
of SI. The Appendix includes IDC's definition of SI projects (consumed on-premise or as a service).
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SIs invited to participate in this IDC MarketScape were asked to complete a detailed survey of their
strategies and capabilities, participate in a briefing with IDC, and provide two federal government
reference clients. This IDC MarketScape includes an analysis of eight SIs that were able to fulfill all or
most of these requirements, including Accenture Federal Services (AFS), CGI, Dell Services Federal
Government (DSFG), Deloitte, Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE), IBM, PwC, and Unisys. Because of
its reorganization, CSRA was not in a position to participate in this study but will be included in future
updates.
ESSENTIAL BUYER GUIDANCE
To succeed in digital transformation, agencies are addressing five key areas or disciplines:

Leadership

Omni-experience (multichannel)

WorkSource (talent)

Operations

Information management
IDC recommends that to succeed in adopting new technologies and transforming the business of
government, decision makers should consider the following:

Seek a SI partner to help you make and facilitate the transition.

Consider SIs that leverage best practices from both government and commercial sectors.

Insist that the SI bring its "A" team to every engagement, regardless of scope or technologies
supported.

Ask prospective SI providers to describe their strategy for recruiting, training, and retaining
critically skilled employees (and describe the critical skills as well) that will assist government
agencies to digitally transform their business.

Design services and solutions around the data-driven government customer. Government
customers now expect value-added insights, benchmarks, and guidance that go beyond
traditional services and consider the holistic needs of recipients. Use data and analytics to
offer needed services, and recommend additional services that customers may qualify for.

Use this IDC MarketScape for SI selection market research. Because this analysis shows that
the breadth and depth of services offered are strong for the majority of providers, make sure
you understand where these players are truly differentiated and determine if these areas are
important to your selection.
VENDOR SUMMARY PROFILES
This section briefly explains IDC's key observations resulting in a vendor's position in the IDC
MarketScape. While every reviewed SI is evaluated against each of the criteria outlined in the
Appendix, the description here provides a summary of each SI's strengths and challenges.
Accenture Federal Services
Accenture Federal Services is a wholly owned, United States-based subsidiary of Accenture LLP. AFS
provides U.S. federal agencies with consulting, digital, and technology services and solutions, and — in
partnership with its ASM Research subsidiary — outsourcing and IT operation. These solutions include
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capabilities developed independently by AFS as well as global Accenture capabilities "federalized" for
government adoption. According to IDC analysis, Accenture Federal Services is a Leader in the IDC
MarketScape: U.S. Systems Integrators Serving the Federal Government 2016 Vendor Assessment.
Strengths
It is important that SIs have the ability to provide 3rd Platform technologies to their government clients
as deployment can help transform how government organizations operate, the way that they engage
with citizens, and the types and breadth of programs that are provided. AFS has enabled its
government clients to achieve mission outcomes in all the 3rd Platform technologies. AFS' capabilities
include providing software applications both on-premise and as a service (refer to Table 3). AFS also
provides practices that support multiple specific government domains (refer to Table 4).
Innovation accelerators are the next wave of 3rd Platform technologies. It is important that SIs have
plans to provide professional services practices that support the government's adoption as innovation
accelerators will drive transformation by creating information-based organizations and by changing the
way work is performed. AFS has plans to provide specific U.S. federal government practices that
provide professional services for four of the IDC-identified innovation accelerators: IoT, cognitive/AI,
wearables, and digital services/citizen experience. As an example, AFS Phanero was developed
specifically for the federal government and uses Latent Semantic Indexing (LSI) and other discovery
technologies to identify conceptual associations within large repositories of structured and
unstructured data sets for automated relationship discovery and mapping, link analysis, entity
resolution, and intelligence categorization. AFS is focused on wearables as part of its mobility practice
for field-workers, warfighters, and connected health applications and is working to federalize key
Accenture IoT solutions and platforms.
AFS' clients rate the company highly for the ability to integrate project teams with agency personnel,
understand the agency's mission and enable it to achieve its desired business outcomes, provide
innovative solutions including 3rd Platform technologies and innovation accelerators, and apply these
technologies to solving mission-critical functions. Accenture Federal Services is seen by its government
clients as having a high degree of insight and competence in understanding their agency mission.
IDC rates AFS highly for its solutions designed specifically for federal government including the
Accenture Federal Digital Studio and the AFS Responsive Application Portfolio Inventory Diagnostics
(RAPID). RAPID is a good fit for government as it supports agencies' deployment of FITARA and cloud
first with federal-specific algorithms and frameworks to inventory current application portfolios and
determine an optimal go-forward disposition. IDC also rates AFS highly for its agile focus. All new AFS
hires are trained in agile, and continuous training occurs at the AFS Agile Institute.
Challenges
Although Fjord has been an Accenture business for several years, its capabilities need to be better
promoted within the U.S. federal community. The rapid development and prototyping of innovative digital
services offered by the Accenture Federal Digital Studio are becoming more important and sought after
by government decision makers. AFS should also market more broadly its legacy-to-cloud migration
factory for hybrid cloud management. Expanding professional services plans to provide for robotics, an
additional innovation accelerator, would strengthen AFS' ability to assist government's transformation.
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APPENDIX
Reading an IDC MarketScape Graph
For the purposes of this analysis, IDC divided potential key measures for success into two primary
categories: capabilities and strategies.
Positioning on the y-axis reflects the vendor's current capabilities and menu of services and how well
aligned the vendor is to U.S. federal government client needs. The capabilities category focuses on the
capabilities of the SI and current offerings including 3rd Platform technologies. Under this category,
IDC analysts look at how well a SI is building/delivering capabilities that enable it to execute its chosen
strategy in the market and enable agencies to achieve mission outcomes. Government reference client
reviews are weighted heavily in capabilities to determine SI strength in serving this market.
Positioning on the x-axis, or strategies axis, indicates how well the SI's future strategy aligns with what
U.S. federal government clients will require in three to five years. The strategies category focuses on
high-level decisions and underlying assumptions about offerings, including innovation accelerators,
channel partners, and business and go-to-market plans, for the next three to five years.
The size of the individual vendor markers in the IDC MarketScape represents the market share for this
specific market of each individual vendor within the U.S. federal government market.
IDC MarketScape Methodology
IDC MarketScape criteria selection, weightings, and vendor scores represent well-researched IDC
judgment about the market and specific vendors. IDC analysts tailor the range of standard characteristics
by which vendors are measured through structured discussions, surveys, and interviews with market
leaders, participants, and end users. Market weightings are based on user interviews, buyer surveys, and
the input of a review board of IDC experts in each market. IDC analysts base individual vendor scores,
and ultimately vendor positions on the IDC MarketScape, on detailed surveys and interviews with the
vendors, publicly available information, and end-user experiences in an effort to provide an accurate and
consistent assessment of each vendor's characteristics, behavior, and capability.
Market Definition
IDC defines systems integration as a process that includes the planning, design, implementation, and
project management of a technical solution that addresses an organization's specific technical or
business needs. When SI deals involve contracting for custom application development related to the
systems integration, those activities are included in the definition of SI.
SI projects typically involve different platforms and technologies. The solution may include hardware,
software, and services and is consumed on-premise, on demand, or in a cloud-based environment. A
SI project is formalized by a contract that is constructed around solution specifications and often
demands certain levels of performance against technical or business goals. The end result of a SI
project is the delivery of a system that meets a stated objective and fulfils solution specifications. IDC's
definition of SI projects (consumed on-premise or as a service) include:

Enterprise resource management (ERM) applications that include applications for financial
accounting, payroll accounting, procurement order management, financial performance and
strategy management, project and portfolio management (PPM), and enterprise asset
management
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
Human capital management (HCM)

Supply chain management (SCM) applications that include applications for logistics,
production planning, and inventory management

Customer relationship management (CRM) applications that include applications for sales,
marketing, customer service, and contact centers

Other applications that include the following:

Collaborative applications such as email, instant communications, team collaboration,
conferencing, and enterprise social software

Content applications such as content management, authoring and publishing software,
search and discovery, and enterprise portals

Operations and manufacturing applications (OMA) such as service operations and related
back-office functions

Engineering applications such as mechanical computer-aided drawing (CAD) (CAD
services can span the entire application development life cycle, including requirements
gathering and design, solution build, testing and QA, and solution acceptance), computeraided engineering (CAE), computer-aided manufacturing (CAM), collaborative product
data management, and other engineering functions
The scope of this IDC MarketScape focuses primarily on systems integration vendors but will also take
into account the portfolio of related project-oriented professional services that they offer, including the
following:

Business consulting involves advisory and implementation services related to management
issues. It involves defining an organization's strategy and goals and designing and
implementing the structures and processes that help the organization reach its goals.

IT consulting is a professional services activity around information technology. It is the delivery
of advice to customers aimed at managing their IT organization and at improving an
organization's IT performance, infrastructure including IT security, and related processes.

Network consulting and integration services are defined as those activities associated with
planning, designing, and building local and wide area data networks (commonly known as
LANs and WANs), including multiservice, converged wireless, and wireline networks that allow
voice, video, and data applications (such as VoIP and unified messaging) to be propagated
across a single, common infrastructure.
LEARN MORE
Related Research

IDC PlanScape: Building a Digital Citizen Experience Strategy (IDC #US41525916, June
2016)

Business Strategy: U.S. Federal Government — Accelerating the Pace of Change in Deploying
Big Data and Analytics (IDC Government Insights #US41483916, June 2016)

IDC MaturityScape Benchmark: Big Data and Analytics in Defense and Intelligence Agencies
in the United States (IDC #US41042316, March 2016)

IDC TechScape: Worldwide Government Robotics Technologies, 2015 (IDC
#EMEA40990416, February 2016)
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
IDC MaturityScape Benchmark: Big Data and Analytics in Government in the United States
(IDC #US40966416, January 2016)

Perspective: Digital Transformation Enables a New Government Business (IDC Government
Insights #US40944215, January 2016)
Synopsis
This IDC study uses the IDC MarketScape model to provide an assessment of a number of systems
integrators (SIs) that serve the U.S. federal government. This IDC MarketScape is an evaluation based
on a comprehensive framework and a set of parameters that assesses SIs relative to one another and
to those factors expected to be most conducive to digital transformation in the U.S. federal government
market. This research shows that systems integrators play an important role in expanding
government's transformation toolbox.
"Many of the SIs in this study are enabling their government clients to achieve mission outcomes
through deploying cybersecurity and all 3rd Platform technologies," says Adelaide O'Brien, research
director, IDC Government Insights. "SIs are helping in making that transition through applying proven
methodology and tools, commercial best practices, and innovation labs that employ human-centric
service design principles in immersive experiences. In addition, most of the SIs in this study have
plans to provide professional services for one or more of IDC's identified innovation accelerators,
including IoT, robotics, cognitive/artificial intelligence, wearables, and digital services/citizen
experiences."
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About IDC
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