Services Top 100: The World’s Largest IT Services Companies (2010)

10 November 2010, by Michel van Kooten

Top Companies in the Services Industry (2010)
Rank Company Services
revenues (mln)
1 IBM 37,347
2 HP 34,678
3 Fujitsu 26,935
4 CSC 16,281
5 Accenture 15,555
6 CAP Gemini 11,255
7 Hitachi 11,050
8 Ericsson 11,031
9 NTT Data Corp. 10,425
10 NEC 9,555
The world's leading companies in IT services are IBM, HP and Fujitsu. With services revenues of US$ 37.3 billion, IBM remains the largest IT services company in the world. HP (2) however, almost closed the revenue gap with IBM, after taking over EDS in 2008: HP now posted services revenues of US$ 34.7 billion. Fujitsu and CSC held on to positions 3 and 4 on the list, respectively, followed by consultants Accenture (5) and Capgemini (6). Ericsson (8) boosted services revenues in 2009, entering the top 10 as a result, while Hitachi (7) had a more difficult year (–10%). All of the top 10 companies brought in more than 10 billion USD, and 93 of 100 companies in the Services Top 100 posted revenues above 1 billion in 2009. Together, the Top 100 saw their revenues creep up 1.7% to US$ 453 billion. Protected by long-running outsourcing contracts, most firms did not suffer any material declines during the economic crisis. Probably, the industry will return to double-digit growth rates when the economy gains traction.

Leaders

The large players in the IT industry increasingly offer a full range of hardware, software and IT services. HP, IBM, Ericsson, Fujitsu and Cisco are examples of companies with many billions of revenues in all three fields. Recent acquisitions are clear evidence of the trend towards ever larger companies that offer integrated solutions and services.

Acquisitions

HP has been quite acquisitive recently (3Com, Palm) as have other IT giants like IBM (Sterling Commerce, Unica), SAP (Sybase) and Intel (McAfee). Dell experienced revenue declines, but increased services revenues with 5% by taking over Perot Systems for US$ 3.9 billion. ACS (#19) was acquired by Xerox after closing of 2009, and hence will show as Xerox in next years list.

Many large IT companies sit on large cash reserves and have substantial free cash flows coming in every year, available for acquiring whichever company pleases their eye. Cisco, Microsoft and Oracle are capable of buying many companies, and they do. Big blue powerhouse IBM has a stated strategy of investing billions of dollars in the coming years; most cash will pour into software acquisitions though, not services.

IT Services companies: country segmentation
Country Companies
United States 53
United Kingdom 7
Japan 6
France 5
India 5
China 5
Other 19

Country segmentation

Over half of the companies in the IT Services Top 100 are headquartered in the US. With 4 of the top 5 companies from the US, the country leads the industry. The rest of the companies are spread quite evenly through Europe and the largest Asian economies: Japan, China and India. In general, fastest growth takes place in Asia. Huawei (China), Tata Consultancy Services (India) and Digital China all increased revenues by at least 1 billion compared to last year, and in doing so, they all earned a place among the top 25.

Telecom companies

Leveraging their network expertise, many of the largest telecom companies in the world have built substantial IT services businesses. With varying success: BT Global Services (11) and T-Systems (12) grew their sales while NTT Data (9) and KPN Getronics (44) declined. Telecom suppliers Ericsson (8), Alcatel-Lucent and Huawei (16) all posted higher services revenues, as telecom companies called on them to build a new generation of communication networks, and expand them into new territories. Fujitsu's services department more or less had the same revenue as last year and remained 3rd on the list. Nokia Siemens Networks was less successful and dropped 6 places on the ranking, to number 22.

The IT Services Top 100 is an annual publication of the Top 100 Research Foundation. For a broader understanding of the research methodology that was used in the making of the list, click here.