**NEW RESEARCH** Engineering and R&D Services – the next goldrush?

Capgemini’s announcement of its intention to acquire Engineering and R&D Services (ERDS) market leader Altran (see here) has caused more than a few ripples of surprise amongst its competitors. This €3.6b purchase is undoubtedly a bold move and one that, at first sight, appears to come somewhat out of left field. But how radical a departure is this?

Over the last twenty-five years or so, the ERDS sector has evolved largely in parallel with and in similar ways to the wider SITS market. As industrial enterprises emerge from today’s digital chaos and investment shifts from simple to complex digital transformation, however, so will the focus intensify on the integration of manufacturing, engineering and IT.

For this to happen, barriers to information flows between traditional systems siloes such as ERP, SCM, PLM and CRM must be removed. Vendors will also increasingly need expertise and ecosystems that span both the IT and Operational Technology domains, as well as areas including mechanical engineering, manufacturing engineering, electronics and software engineering. Even for those with an established IT and ERDS pedigrees, this presents a significant challenge to overcome by organic means alone.

Click to download Engineering and R&D Services – the next goldrush? for an analysis of convergent dynamics of SITS and ERDs markets, insights into the broader implications of these trends for the SI community, and perspectives on whether the Altran purchase signals the start of the next acquisition frenzy by suppliers as they race to achieve dominance on the Industry 4.0 battlefield.

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Posted by: Duncan Aitchison at 08:35

Tags: manufacturing   systemsintegration   research  

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