The consolidation in the UK software testing market continues apace with TestPlant’s purchase of Facilita. TestPlant, which is based in London (and recently won the rare accolade for a software company of the Queen’s Award for Enterprise) is emerging as one of Europe’s largest specialist tools vendors, with its test automation tool EggPlant, used by the likes of Ericsson, Google [...]

Clearly one of the best things about having an analyst and advisory company focused on emerging markets is that I have visibility and engagement across some of the most exciting markets in the globe for IT investment and innovation…

This is the latest in a series of blogs in which PAC looks at key end user accounts and analyses the dynamics likely to drive future SITS investment. Overview: The pharmaceutical group GSK is pushing ahead with a major restructuring programme in 2013 in response to some lackluster results last year. The UK’s biggest drug maker plans a £1.5bn overhaul [...]

This is the latest in a series of blogs in which PAC looks at key end user accounts and analyses the dynamics likely to drive future SITS investment. Overview: The Spanish infrastructure giant Ferrovial is back on the front foot with a £385m bid for UK maintenance and engineering services group Enterprise plc. The Enterprise takeover will double the size [...]

The takeover of Heinz by powerhouse financiers Warren Buffet and Jorge Paulo Lemann highlights how private equity (PE) groups continue to play a major role in reshaping some of the world’s largest corporations. The goal of PE firms is generally to take on businesses that have fallen from past glories or are in need of a new direction, to give [...]

This is the latest in a series of blogs in which PAC looks at key end user accounts and analyses the dynamics likely to drive future SITS investment. Overview: Competitive and economic headwinds are starting to bite at Vestas, the Denmark-based wind turbine manufacturer. The company relinquished its place as the sector’s top player to a resurgent GE in 2012, [...]

If ever there was a sector ripe for major standardization of the applications landscape, then general insurance is that market. A stroll around the shop floor at some of the sector’s largest players will reveal the ongoing use of green-screen systems and a reliance on in-house developed systems that continue to support mission-critical functions such as policy and claims administration. [...]

This is the first in a new series of blogs in which PAC looks at key end user accounts and analyses the dynamics likely to drive future SITS expenditure. Overview: Today’s news that Virgin Media is to be acquired by US-based Liberty Global in a $23.3bn cash deal, is one of the biggest events to hit the European telecoms and [...]

The world of independent testing has seen significant change in recent years. As we’ve highlighted in previous blogs, Germany’s SQS emerged as the “last man standing” in terms of independent test service suppliers of any significant scale, as the supplier community polarized into large generalists and small boutiques. But a new kid on the block is staking a claim in [...]

SAP testing will be one of the hottest areas of the €92bn global testing market in 2013, as SAP users look to speed up and improve the quality of upgrade and extension projects. We’ve looked in previous blogs at the growing challenge and cost of effectively testing SAP platforms, but further evidence of the buzz around this market came this [...]