As 2002 rushes to its conclusion, few glasses will be raised to celebrate the year — most people will probably say good riddance. The economic rebound never happened, new opportunities were hard to spot, and pink slips were liberally scattered among the smallest and largest players. Perhaps the most notable element of the market’s mood in 2002 was the dawning realization that the slowdown was not just some temporary aberration but was the result of a much more fundamental gestalt in the market’s attitude toward IT. Consequently, simply sitting tight and waiting for the storm to abate was not going to work. Simple cost management, trimming the excesses of the 1990s and watching the bottom line will not lead to growth. More organizations (buyers and sellers) are beginning to look up from the quarter-to-quarter focus of the last 18 months and realize that to produce momentum they must get back to what IT people have always been best at: innovation.   Read more		Ben Pring Chief Analyst, Gartner Dataquest

			Computing Utility to Go Mainstream by 2005 4 November 2002 Ben Pring  The increasing impact of the computing utility permeates the IT services landscape.

	Outsourced IT Infrastructure Disrupts Support World 28 October 2002 Tony Adams  In 2007, up to 50 percent of inbound technical support incidents to IT manufacturers and independent software vendors will come from service intermediaries on behalf of their customers.		Contrary Demands to Polarize Outsourcing Market in 2003-2005 28 October 2002 Allie Young  Ben Pring  Gianluca Tramacere  Rebecca Scholl  Adam Couture  Bruce Caldwell  Debashish Sinha  Ian Marriott  Outsourcers must satisfy client demand for both low-cost and high-business value. These seemingly contradictory demands will polarize service providers along infrastructure and business process lines.
	Telecom Carriers to Dominate Network IT Services Market 29 October 2002 Mike Harris  Norbert Scholz  Eric Goodness  Kelly Kavanagh  Telecommunications carriers propose to unite private and public networks to optimize enterprise communication and business process platforms with IT services.		Utility Computing to Change VAR Opportunities by 2006 29 October 2002 Laura McLellan  Michael Palma  Michael Haines  Christine Adams  Growth in utility computing will change the role of value-added resellers (VARs) and channel players from what it is today. The growth will also lead to a reduction in the number of VARS and players.
	Vertical Market Wins and Failures Predicted for 2006 4 November 2002 Cynthia Moore  Susan Cournoyer  Jeffrey Roster  Rishi Sood  Geraldine Cruz  Venecia Liu  Robert Goodwin  Eight major vertical markets will experience spectacular misfires and key successes by 2006.		Customers Become Competitors in Consulting and SI Market 1 November 2002 Nicole France  Debashish Sinha  Alex Soejarto  Michele Cantara  By 2006, technology-centric consultants and systems integrators will see services cannibalized by enterprises that leverage IT investments through process specific solutions.
	Real-Time Priority Biases Lead to Rigidity, Not Alacrity 30 October 2002 Lewis Clark  Many enterprises will focus early real-time initiatives on cost savings rather than revenue growth. Vendors need to work with leading-edge clients to move from efficiency to metrics about innovation.