This document was revised on 1 April 2011. For more information, see the Corrections page on gartner.com.

The Gartner Magic Quadrant for North American help desk outsourcing services is designed to help organizations identify and evaluate help desk outsourcing external service providers. The external service providers in this Magic Quadrant can provide help desk services, but their competencies and offerings vary. Clients must base their selections on detailed evaluations of their outsourcing scope, objectives and evaluation criteria (including functional and technical requirements), as well as providers' ability to fulfill the scope within the key evaluation criteria parameters.

The market for help desk outsourcing services remains mature. However, Gartner has added two external service providers to this year's Magic Quadrant and excluded three previous participants. The main reasons for this shift in the service provider landscape are acquisitions, mergers and expanded offerings from service providers in other complementary infrastructure offerings, such as data center services and network services. In addition, vendors have added new tools that have changed and improved their end-to-end delivery capabilities, as well as several alternative call request channels, such as e-mail, instant messaging and Web access, which are now typically included in today's help desk service offerings. Moreover, external service providers that have participated in the help desk Magic Quadrant for many years recognize the capabilities of other providers. More specifically, providers that have never operated in the help desk outsourcing space offer tools, such as remote infrastructure management, that are gaining more of a presence in this space. Providers already in the help desk market have access to and are using these new tools and technologies, which is leading to associated process changes. This is leading to inevitable changes in the competitive positioning of providers in the North American help desk market.

All service providers in the current help desk vendor landscape are using standardized tools and methodologies, such as ITIL, Six Sigma/Lean Six Sigma and ISO 20000, to help standardize practices and reduce costs. This has now become a primary requirement to be competitive rather than a differentiator. This year, most service providers are using these and other common processes and procedures to improve their delivery standards.

The competitive landscape, extensive client choices, continuing economic challenges and zeal for cost cutting are keeping the price of help desk outsourcing low. This has driven many service providers to include alternative geographic locations as part of their offerings for hosting their help desk agents. These locations may be onshore, nearshore or offshore.

We continue to see mixed results with offshore alternatives. Clients need low priced help desk services, but also recognize the need to balance price and value. As such, service providers are working hard to improve their help desk solutions and the quality of offshore and nearshore delivery centers. They are striving to ensure consistent and transparent delivery regardless of the help desk delivery location. However, clients must still review service providers' offshore delivery skills, paying particular attention to incident resolution and customer satisfaction, before deciding on help desk service delivery locations. This will help to avoid common problems.

As in the past, the help desk outsourcing capabilities vary among external service providers. Some concentrate on specific vertical markets or end-user roles. We have noted these vertical markets for the service providers, when appropriate.

Overall, clients are generally very satisfied with the services of their help desk outsourcing providers in North America. On a scale of one to five, the average customer satisfaction is about four, mostly thanks to service providers' adoption of methodologies, processes and services that enable them to deliver better service. As in the previous year, a high proportion of service providers fall into the Challengers and Leaders quadrants (see Figure 1).

The North American help desk outsourcing market will grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 2.9%, from $9,996 million in 2010 to $11,197 million in 2014. In 2010, the worldwide market for help desk outsourcing was worth $16,113 million.

Gartner defines "help desk services" as the provision of end-user support for all IT services. Help desk services include:

• First-level support (see Note 1).

• Second-level support (see Note 1).

• Custom software support.

• Problem management.

• Problem categorization and logging.

• Problem tracking and escalation.

• Problem resolution.

We included external service providers that generated a minimum of $15 million in annual help desk service revenue from North American clients. If service providers that qualified for inclusion chose not to actively participate in the study, we elected to include/exclude these service providers based on Gartner's experience and knowledge of the market. If we found that many client organizations had chosen to contract or shortlist these vendors, then we included them.

For this Magic Quadrant, we required a formal presentation from each participating service provider and asked each one to provide a list of five North American references. We used the presentations and references, inquiry interactions with clients during the past 12 months, one-on-ones at Gartner events such as Symposium and the Sourcing and Vendor Management Summits, along with other Gartner analysts' industry knowledge to determine the final assessments of each provider.

Our evaluation of each provider comprises the following components:

• Gartner analyst interactions with the client references that the service providers provided.

• Gartner analyst discussions with clients during normal day-to-day interactions, at various Gartner events, such as the U.S. Symposium in 2010 as well as the Gartner Outsourcing and Vendor Management Summit and the Asset Management Conference in 2010.

• Gartner's assessment of each provider's 60 to 90 minute presentation delivered to the four Gartner analysts who have authored this note. The presentations described the providers' delivery capabilities and strategic direction for their help desk service business.

• Input from additional Gartner analysts who are not the authors of this Magic Quadrant.

Reference Check/Client Interaction Results

As part of the reference checks, we interviewed end users in more than 150 organizations, which had the following characteristics:

Organizational characteristics:

• The client references ranged from organizations that had slightly more than 100 users to organizations of more than 125,000 users. This gave Gartner the opportunity to analyze all deal sizes, which provided insight into challenges, pricing, service levels and contract constructs for different deal sizes.

• The organizations represented many industry segments, including financial services, retail, utilities, oil and gas, manufacturing, pharmaceuticals, government (including federal, state and local) and educational institutions (both K-12 and higher education).

Help desk and desktop outsourcing purchasing characteristics:

• More than 85% of the organizations used the same provider for desktop and help desk support. Less than 10% used a provider only for help desk services. This differed from the previous years because clients that we interviewed and the market in general now recognize that end-user computing virtualization and cloud computing are driving clients to consider more portions of each IT tower (help desk and desktop as examples) as well as multiple IT towers to be delivered by a single provider. This is due to the interwoven solution delivery capabilities.

• A little over 60% of the clients relied on the same provider for other IT services beyond the desktop and help desk services.

Help desk outsourcing contract characteristics:

• More than 98% of the end users had formal SLAs.

• Slightly more than 97% of the SLAs included penalties for underperformance, and almost 60% of the deals included earn-back opportunities — a significant increase from 40% in the previous Magic Quadrant.

• More than 40% of the SLAs had incentives for over-performance, again an increase over the previous Magic Quadrant, though only slight.

Relevant Data

In addition to the data gathered through reference calls, the providers gave Gartner relevant market information about:

• Revenue: The participating providers reported that they have about 2,300 help desk client organizations in North America, either stand-alone or in conjunction with other services. The vendors also reported that the relevant revenue in North America was slightly more than $3 billion.

• Activity: The 2,300 client organizations with more than 34 million employees placed over 75 million calls in 2010.

• Profit margins: Most provider organizations indicated gross profit margins of about 20% to 25%, with a low end of 15% and a high end of 30%. The analysis could not verify reported profit margins. However, larger deals appeared to have smaller margins while smaller deals had slightly higher margins. One of the key pricing factors was deal scale. This meant that providers priced larger deals lower per call or per user per month, while they priced smaller deals higher per call or per user per month. In addition, offshore-delivered help desk deals continued to achieve lower prices than onshore-delivered deals.

• Pricing data: As with any IT infrastructure tower, the help desk has various pricing mechanisms. Those mechanisms reported by the references who we spoke to included per minute, per call, per hour, per full-time equivalent, and per user per month. The most prevalent pricing mechanism was per user per month. This has consistently been the case for the past seven years.

• Service provider employment: The 21 service providers have an average of 20,400 employees staffing 134 help desks worldwide. Two of the vendors provided their help desk through just two locations, while one had 44 help desks globally. Employee attrition was reported from less than 1% to in excess of 25%. Attrition in offshore delivery locations substantially exceeded that in onshore locations.

• Languages supported: The providers supported a total of more than 40 languages. Some vendors supporting as few as two languages — English and Spanish — while one supported 35 languages.

• Most common service levels: Almost every reference that we spoke to had formal service levels that they used to measure provider performance. The number of service levels per deal ranged from one measure of customer satisfaction to as many as 10 measures. The most common service levels included speed of answer/average speed of answer, call abandonment rate, first call resolution, re-call rate (if the issue isn't resolved in the first call), and customer satisfaction. Other measures seen, though less frequently, included help desk availability, re-call rate, average talk time and number of calls per user per month.

• Penalties/incentives: Well over half of the deals that included penalties for provider non-performance had penalty fee reductions ranging from 10% to 20% of the monthly fee to the provider.

• Benchmarking: Over 60% of the deals included benchmarking clauses that enable the client to engage an external company to perform a formal benchmark. This will determine if the fees the client is paying are within the top 10% to 25% of similar deal sizes and types in the help desk market.

The compilation of the results from the reference checks and presentations led to the final placement of the providers in the Magic Quadrant. The positioning reflects their completeness of vision and ability to execute.

This year we added Fujitsu and Maintech to the Magic Quadrant. Fujitsu recently entered the North American marketplace in the help desk, desktop and other infrastructure service categories, thus qualifying it for inclusion in this Magic Quadrant. Maintech is extending its previous participation in the data center Magic Quadrant into the help desk and desktop managed services Magic Quadrants.

In 2010, Xerox completed its acquisition of ACS. We had included ACS in previous versions of this Magic Quadrant, and the company wanted to continue its participation under the name ACS, A Xerox Company.

We excluded C3i, Northrop Grumman and Tata Consultancy Services from this year's Magic Quadrant. C3i chose not to participate, indicating that it no longer qualified for inclusion. The other two vendors also indicated that they no longer qualify.

In addition, the names of some of the vendors changed. We changed the name of EDS, an HP Company to HP, at HP's request. Dell acquired Perot Systems, and the new entity falls under the umbrella of Dell.

We based the analysis of each vendor's ability to execute on the following criteria:

• Product or service.

  • Effective resourcing.

  • Transition management.

• Sales execution/pricing.

  • Contract/deal structure.

  • Pricing acceptance.

• Marketing execution.

  • Clarity of services, roles and responsibilities.

  • Client delivery model/relationship management.

• Customer experience.

• Operations.

  • SLAs, metrics and measurement programs.

  • Expertise with technical support/operations/tools.

• Market responsiveness and track record.

  • Client innovation.

• Overall viability (business unit, financial, strategy and organizational viability).

The Ability to Execute axis positions each service provider based on its success in delivering results, and on its preparation to deliver results in the future. Gartner verifies a vendor's capability to deliver help desk services through extensive interviews with the provider's clients and references.

We evaluated providers on the quality and efficacy of the processes, systems, methods or procedures that enable them to perform competitively, efficiently and effectively. Our evaluation also included their ability to positively affect revenue, retention and reputation. Ultimately, their capability and success in capitalizing on their vision played a critical role in our evaluation.

Each criterion is ranked high, standard or low and scored accordingly.

Criteria Ranked High

Product or Service: We looked at each service provider's core services that compete in or serve the defined market. The analysis included service capabilities, quality, feature sets and skills, whether the provider offers them natively or through agreements or partnerships with original equipment manufacturers (OEMs), according to the market definition and detailed in the subcriteria. Two considerations are:

• Effective resourcing: We focused on the service provider's ability to provide the relevant resources effectively to the customer. This involved asking:

  • How do you decide on the resources required to support a customer?

  • Do you have tools and procedures to assist with resource allocation?

  • What are your current capabilities in terms of staff availability and facilities?

• Transition management: We evaluated the service provider's investments in its people, focusing on what practices it has put in place to recruit, train and retain qualified staff. We also judged providers on their capability to integrate staff from client organizations by offering competitive job opportunities — for example, addressing salary and benefit packages in different countries, retraining, career progression opportunities, and minimized disruption due to employee job location. This involved asking:

  • What are the key skill sets and competencies of the resources?

  • What changes in the skill set mix do you anticipate during the next two years?

  • Do you have a quality process and project plan for transitions?

  • What are your procedures for transitioning the workload to your facility?

  • How do you handle the hiring of your customers' employees?

Sales Execution/Pricing: We examined each provider's capabilities in all presales activities and the structures that support them. This included deal management, pricing and negotiation. We reviewed the following areas:

• Contract/deal structure: We asked each provider to explain how they manage various contracts and structure the relationship to meet the needs of both parties. This involved asking:

  • How do your deals support the service recipient and service provider's strategic goals?

  • Is there a shared vision?

  • Do you have a process to ensure that the visions remain aligned over the life of the contract? From a contractual point of view, how can you provide flexibility and agility in the provision of help desk services?

• Pricing acceptance: We evaluated each provider's capability to manage price and reduce costs (through new service offerings, improved productivity, management tools, quality, resource allocation or staff reductions). These capabilities are key to outsourcing deals where the primary objective is gaining economies of scale. We also examined each provider's pricing schemes and their clarity. This involved asking:

  • How are the various services priced?

  • Are there add-on costs?

  • Do you provide price justification based on business value to your customers?

Marketing Execution: We explored the clarity, quality, creativity and efficacy of programs designed to deliver each provider's message to influence the market, promote its brand and business, increase awareness of the service solutions, and create a positive association with the service solutions/brand and organization in the mind of buyers. A combination of publicity, promotions, thought leadership, word of mouth and sales activities can drive this "mind share." We evaluated the following two primary areas:

• Clarity of services, roles and responsibilities: We explored each service provider's willingness to establish clear roles and responsibility matrices as part of a comprehensive governance effort. These matrices will avoid confusion among the parties, reduce duplication of roles, eliminate unclear responsibilities, and optimize decision making and project management processes. We also asked each provider to explain its relationship management role and how it supports what needs to be done for various service recipients. This involved asking:

  • What statement of work (SOW) structures describe the services offered?

  • Do you have a standard format?

  • If so, what is included?

  • Is there a formal communication process to interact with the client?

• Client delivery model/relationship management: We examined each provider's delivery capabilities and practices for help desk services, CRM and knowledge transfer, as well as quality control and quality assurance. We evaluated service providers on their overall client delivery model and their ability to apply repeatable practices consistently to successfully manage long-term relationships with customers and support emerging business and IT challenges. We asked each provider to explain the organizational structure and procedures they use to manage their accounts and resolve differences, escalate problems, and generally maintain a successful relationship with their customers. This involved asking:

  • What is your style and approach to working in the client's cultural and political environment?

  • How would you describe the roles of relationship management, contract management and service delivery management in an engagement?

Customer Experience: We evaluated the relationships, products and services/programs that enable organizations to be successful with the service solutions under evaluation. Specifically, this included how organizations receive technical support or account support from their provider. This can include ancillary tools, customer support programs (and the quality thereof), the availability of user groups, and SLAs. We asked providers to supply five references for the help desk services they provide.

Operations: We examined each service provider's ability to meet its goals and commitments. Factors include the quality of the organizational structure, such as skills, experiences, programs, systems, and other vehicles that enable the organization to operate effectively and efficiently on an ongoing basis. We evaluated two primary areas:

• SLAs, metrics and measurement programs: We evaluated how effective each provider's performance measurement program was to determine whether the provider was effectively delivering service. This involved asking providers the following questions:

  • How do you arrive at reasonable service levels for your service recipients?

  • Do you have penalties or incentives tied to SLAs?

  • Do you measure customer satisfaction?

  • If so, how are the results of the survey used?

• Expertise with technical support/operations/tools: We evaluated the service provider's depth and breadth in help desk service technology areas. We looked at each service provider's skills and capabilities in help desk service environments and in the application of specific management tools, and the associated personnel expertise to satisfy the needs of each deal. This involved asking:

  • What are the principal standards, solutions and systems that your company can manage in help desk service engagements?

  • Exactly what help desk services do you provide?

  • Do you have specialized operational processes or tools for help desk service management?

Criteria Ranked Standard

Market Responsiveness and Track Record: We looked at each service provider's ability to respond, change direction, be flexible, improve continuously and achieve competitive success as opportunities develop, competitors act, customer needs evolve and market dynamics change. We reviewed the following areas:

• Client innovation: This involved asking:

  • Assuming your company pays attention to emerging trends and developments in the help desk service market, how is that knowledge shared with your clients?

  • Do you provide advice and recommendations regarding innovations and tools to customers?

  • If so, how do you present these?

  • How do both parties meet their strategic and operational goals, and respond to business and technology changes?

  • What examples of innovation and thought leadership have been brought to bear in client engagements?

  • What examples can you provide of investments your organization has made to stay ahead of the pack?

  • During the past 12 to 18 months, what innovations have you brought to market that have not been available previously?

• As part of client innovation, we also reviewed continuous improvement: This involved asking:

  • Do you use results from service levels to feed the continuous improvement process?

  • How do you measure customer satisfaction?

Criteria Ranked Low

Overall Viability (Business Unit, Financial, Strategy and Organization): This involved an assessment of the organization's overall financial health, the financial and practical success of the business unit, and the likelihood of the business unit to continue to invest in the service solution and advance a state-of-the-art service portfolio.

We analyzed each provider's Completeness of Vision according to the following criteria:

• Offering (product) strategy.

  • Practice area.

  • Operational/tool expertise.

• Business model.

  • Methodologies.

  • Management acumen.

• Market understanding.

• Innovation.

• Marketing strategy.

• Sales strategy.

• Vertical market/industry strategy.

• Geographic strategy.

  • Regional capabilities.

  • Alliances and partnerships.

The Completeness of Vision axis reflects each service provider's potential for success by analyzing its view of the market, service operating model, and strategic plans for growth and service improvements. Gartner verifies a service provider's vision regarding help desk services based on the provider's presentation, as well as direct feedback from extensive interviews with the provider's clients.

We asked each service provider many questions and evaluated each on its ability to articulate logical statements convincingly about market directions, innovations, customer needs and competitive forces. Ultimately, we rate providers on their understanding of how they can exploit market forces to create opportunities for themselves.

Each criterion is ranked high, standard or low and scored accordingly.

Criteria Ranked High

Offering (Product) Strategy: We asked each provider to describe its product solution strategy relative to future market needs. We evaluated service providers on their ability to demonstrate a well-defined and well articulated vision for assisting organizations in linking help desk services and associated tools and relevant solutions with enterprise technology and business strategies.

We reviewed the following areas:

• Practice area: We evaluated the composition of practice areas serving clients that require help desk services, including relative size, revenue, number of seats supported, geographic reach, leadership of the management team and the team's position in the corporate structure.

• Operational/tool expertise: We looked at whether providers used specialized operational processes or tools and if they used an ITIL or other process to manage their workload. In addition to asking providers what operational tool expertise they offered customers, we also asked the provider references:

  • Does your service provider use automated password resets as part of the help desk solution for your engagement?

  • Does your service provider have other self-help or self-healing tools (such as knowledge management databases of problem resolution) that your end-user community can use for assistance?

  • Are they effective?

  • Does your provider use remote diagnostic tools to assist in resolving issues remotely prior to dispatch?

  • Does it seem to help resolve problems?

Business Model: We evaluate two factors:

• Methodologies: We asked each provider for a high-level description of its help desk service delivery business model. In addition, we reviewed the procedures (operational, transitional, program management, relationship management and change management) that each provider provides to customers. We focused on the processes and best practices that the provider implements for a smooth transition of systems, people and assets. This involved asking:

  • Is the model embedded in a larger methodology?

  • How does this methodology link technology implementation to business objectives?

  • How do you ensure that the sourcing management processes are appropriate and effective for your various clients?

  • How do you ensure that help desk services can deliver high-value services by supporting applications and business processes?

  • Are processes to measure bottom-line business results (or value delivered via an optimized and agile IT infrastructure) embedded in the methodology?

  • If so, what are the key features for measuring results?

  • What practices does your organization use to ensure and control quality?

• Management acumen: We evaluated the management structure each provider uses to support and manage customers, as well as the experience of its managers, because these factors are directly associated with the success of a provider. Having good plans and the people to carry them out are essential. Deals are good for both parties when provider managers focus on ensuring that deals meet their clients' needs and on satisfying the provider's profit targets. Therefore, our evaluation involved asking:

  • What is management's experience and skill levels?

  • How are customer issues addressed?

  • What are the experience and skill levels of executive management and the assigned key customer-facing managers?

  • How are customer issues addressed?

  • Does the customer have access to the appropriate level of management in the providers?

Criteria Ranked Standard

Market Understanding: We asked each provider to describe its strategic plan and vision as it relates to help desk services, as well as its commitment to aligning services with future market needs. We also evaluated service providers based on their ability to demonstrate a well-defined and well articulated vision for assisting organizations in linking help desk services with enterprise technology and business strategies. This involved asking:

• How would you differentiate your strategic plan and vision from your competitors' strategic plan and vision?

• What is your company's heritage in this area?

• How long have help desk services been part of your service portfolio?

• How has it evolved and grown?

• How will it maintain a leading position in a challenging market?

Innovation: We evaluated each service provider's position in the market as a thought leader and innovator. We assessed each service provider's leadership and supporting investment to develop innovative strategies in the help desk services market. This involved asking:

• How does your company stay current with new technology and tools?

• Do you have alliances with other suppliers?

• Do you offer innovative services to your customers (for example, adaptability and agility of the services, quality of the services, and ability in managing a long-term relationship)?

• How do you offer innovations to your customers?

• What investments is your company making to sustain and enhance its vision for innovative help desk services?

Criteria Ranked Low

Marketing Strategy: We evaluated each provider's strategy and approach to the market and how it promotes help desk services. We asked each provider to supply a high-level sales organization chart to demonstrate its go-to-market strategy and assessed each provider's capability to articulate its value proposition and differentiate its services. We also evaluated providers' penetration of industries and their capability to leverage vertical expertise in their sector and other sectors. We looked at their capability to demonstrate expertise in vertical markets and business processes, which are underpinned by help desk services. This involved asking:

• How many dedicated personnel do you have?

• How does your company measure the effectiveness of the business development model?

• What training do marketing people receive?

Sales Strategy: We evaluated each provider's sales strategy and capability to sell help desk services. This involved asking:

• How many dedicated personnel do you have?

• How does your company measure the effectiveness of the sales organization?

• What training do salespeople receive?

• What is your sales strategy for help desk services?

• Do you have standard sales processes, and do you use sales productivity tools?

• How do you respond to requests for proposals?

Vertical/Industry Strategy: We evaluated each provider's strategy to direct resources, and the skills and offerings it has to meet the specific needs of individual market segments, including vertical industries. We assessed the extent to which providers have penetrated industries and their capabilities to leverage vertical expertise in their sectors and other sectors. We also evaluated their ability to demonstrate expertise in vertical markets and business processes, which are underpinned by help desk services.

Geographic Strategy: We reviewed the following areas:

• Regional capabilities: We evaluated each service provider's strategy to direct resources, skills and offerings to meet the specific needs of regions outside its "home" or native geography (directly or through partners, channels and subsidiaries) as appropriate for that geography and market.

• Alliances and partnerships: We evaluated each service provider's relationships with product providers or other service providers to add value, provide full-service solutions or bring innovation closer to their clients. In particular, we looked at providers' capabilities to demonstrate that they had selected strategic relationships that are well-defined and can successfully and seamlessly link into many client environments.

Providers in the Leaders quadrant are performing well, have a clear vision of market direction and are actively building competencies to sustain their leadership positions in the market. The following providers (listed in alphabetical order) are the Leaders in this Magic Quadrant:

• ACS, A Xerox Company

• CSC

• CompuCom

• Dell

• HCL Technologies

• HP

• IBM

• Siemens IT Solutions and Services

• Stefanini TechTeam

• Unisys

All these providers have demonstrated that they have significant help desk outsourcing experience and understand the dynamics needed to deliver help desk services successfully. Experience weighs heavily in the Leaders quadrant.

Providers in the Challengers quadrant execute well. However, they have a less defined view of market direction, so they may not be aggressive in preparing for the future. The following providers (listed in alphabetical order) emerged as Challengers in this Magic Quadrant:

• CGI

• Ciber

• Genpact

• Pomeroy

• Technisource

• Wipro

These providers demonstrated a solid base of satisfied help desk outsourcing clients. Overall, each provider in the Challengers quadrant has great potential to become a market leader, if it can enhance its strategic vision and broaden its service offerings to meet organizations' future needs.

Providers in the Visionaries quadrant have a clear vision of market direction and are focused on preparing to execute that vision, but they can improve in optimizing service delivery. After reviewing each provider's completeness of vision, we determined that no provider qualified as a Visionary.

Providers in the Niche Players quadrant focus on a particular segment of the client base, as defined by characteristics such as size, vertical-market focus, selective help desk service offerings or time in the market. The following providers (listed in alphabetical order) emerged as Niche Players in this Magic Quadrant:

• Fujitsu

• GlobalServe

• Maintech

• Patni Computer Systems

• Verizon

These Niche Players are viable options for help desk outsourcing. Although they may have limited experience in the general or commercial North American markets, or they may only provide specific service offerings, they have a broad spectrum of delivery capabilities defined as help desk outsourcing services.

Xerox's strategy for ACS, which it acquired in 2010, includes approaching the help desk outsourcing services market through a multi-pronged approach including growth, client intimacy, innovation and operational excellence. Xerox stated that it would accomplish this through further acquisitions and additional investments in ACS service products, as well as best-practice delivery through its four global centers of excellence.

• The combined financial position of Xerox and ACS remains strong, with global revenue of $22 billion. Combined, they have more than 130,000 employees in 160 countries.

• Clients praised ACS for the quality of its account management structure and the personal and flexible account management. In addition, clients indicated that ACS had an excellent understanding of their businesses, including how they operate, what is important to them and the impact ACS services have on their businesses.

• As in previous iterations of this Magic Quadrant clients said that ACS continues to be very good at delivering outcomes once it has assumed responsibility for the day-to-day steady state activities.

• Clients reported that ACS staff, particularly in offshore delivery centers, sometimes lacked experienced and the necessary skills to perform their role. Clients considering ACS should ensure that they are involved in the hiring of key personnel and use staff quality as a service level with associated incentives and penalties.

• While innovation in help desk solutions remains an industrywide challenge for ACS, clients indicated that ACS was not proactive enough at offering innovation, although it did respond favorably when asked by its clients to deliver innovation. Therefore, organizations should ensure that they can take advantage of all new solutions that ACS offers and engage ACS contractually to deliver innovation.

• While flexible in its account management process, clients stated that ACS could improve its relationship management and transition planning. Existing or potential ACS clients should take the time to include relationship management processes and transition planning in their contracts with supporting service level measures to ensure compliance.

CGI's strategy is to provide complete infrastructure services across all IT towers for vertical sectors including manufacturing, government, healthcare, retail, distribution, telecommunications, utilities and financial services.

• CGI is a global IT outsourcing provider that employs 31,000 staff and achieves $4.5 billion in revenue. CGI focuses on North America and remains the leading provider in Canada.

• CGI is somewhat unique in that the company does not answer any level one help desk calls from India. The provider is, therefore, a good cultural fit for North American clients that will not or cannot adopt offshore delivery.

• CGI focuses on SLAs and metrics, providing clients with visibility into SLA performance and measurement. In general, clients praised CGI for delivering solidly against SLAs. Additionally, clients indicated that CGI is quick to work on resolving issues once they have been identified.

• CGI's portfolio of services in help desk outsourcing is largely delivered in the context of a full IT outsourcing contract. Clients seeking a stand-alone help desk outsourcing relationship may find CGI less aggressive during the sales process because the scope is not large.

• Comments from clients indicate that CGI seeks to exclude benchmarking during the contract negotiation process. Clients should ensure that CGI agrees to include benchmarking in the contracts to help them ensure that long-term deals with this provider remain price competitive.

• CGI does not have a high degree of first call resolution for some clients. Due to the nature of its outsourcing engagements, CGI may rely more heavily on dispatch for problem resolution than some other providers. Clients should ensure that CGI meets their service level expectations for issue resolution by including it as a performance-based measure and incorporating sufficient penalties for nonperformance.

Ciber is a $1.1 billion global IT services company that builds, integrates and supports application and infrastructure for business and government with more than 8,000 employees in 70 offices in 19 countries. In the past year, Ciber invested in operations, infrastructure and tool improvements and expanded its help desk operations by adding a help desk in Poznan, Poland.

• Ciber's IT outsourcing practice continues to leverage its vertical expertise in financial services, manufacturing, distribution and government to provide higher-level functional support to enhance its help desk services.

• Clients said Ciber is responsive and easy to work with. They pointed out that its trained staff show dedication and commitment to their jobs. Ciber uses a consistent methodology and formalized procedures to deliver help desk services.

• Clients added that Ciber's competitive pricing was a key reason for selecting the company as their help desk vendor.

• As Ciber continues to focus on certain industry segments, clients considering this provider should ensure that it has experience in their industry segment and confirm Ciber's abilities through a thorough reference checking process.

• Clients indicated that their experience with transitions to Ciber has been challenging, though the company does try to meet their transition requirements and is responsive to their needs during the transition.

• Ciber's strengths appear to be in support of mainstream areas. References reported that they experienced some challenges around the support of nonstandard or custom-based applications. Organizations need to ensure that their contract with Ciber provides them with the flexibility to change SLAs during the course of the agreement in order to accommodate any issues with nonstandard support areas.

Building on its current toolset and global delivery model for help desk clients, CompuCom's strategy includes making investments in automated call handling, remote management, and tools and processes including ITIL, cross-functional integration, service catalog and portal integration across clients businesses.

• CompuCom continues to grow and improve its desktop outsourcing and help desk service offerings. It is also further expanding its international delivery capabilities to Europe and Asia/Pacific.

• CompuCom has continued to grow its client base and associated call volumes, which has resulted in revenue growth of over 25% since 2008. This indicates that CompuCom has improved its delivery capabilities, as corroborated by positive feedback from clients.

• Clients also gave CompuCom high marks for its infrastructure knowledge and skills, flexibility in delivering service, and the professionalism of its staff. Clients also continue to give very positive feedback about CompuCom's methodologies, including its ISO/IEC 20000, ITIL and Six Sigma processes and tools used to support their engagements.

• Clients indicated that some of CompuCom's offshore help desk delivery capabilities were weaker than expected. Organizations seeking global delivery must verify that CompuCom's offshore service capabilities can satisfy their requirements, which can be accomplished, in part, by rigorous reference checking.

• Some clients said that CompuCom did not use its continuous improvement processes to assess call drivers and use the results to reduce overall call volumes. Clients should include a continuous improvement process with service levels in the contract and should engage in the continuous improvement process so they can avoid this issue.

• A few clients indicated that inexperienced personnel were assigned to their accounts and that in CompuCom's offshore delivery locations, strong accents remain an issue. Clients using offshore delivery locations should thoroughly review and test solutions and sites. This process should include visiting help desk sites to ensure that these issues are not present or that CompuCom is addressing them before signing the deal.

CSC's strategy and vision is built around the consumption of information and the IT interactions that facilitate it. To support this vision CSC has, in part, invested in global tool standardization and integration, offshore delivery center expansions, and self-service portfolio development.

• CSC's investment in developing new solutions helps it remain at the forefront of the "new technology" curve. CSC also has a strong vision for the future as it offers help desk tool integration, such as remote management, in support of other CSC service offerings, such as desktop and data center services.

• Clients continue to praise CSC for its depth and breadth of offerings. They pointed out that CSC offers the latest standard delivery model to new and existing accounts, and continuously improves its standardized delivery models.

• Most clients also commended CSC for its consistency, dependability and customer focus, saying that the provider is responsive and eager to help its clients solve challenging problems.

• A few clients indicated that they would like to see more customer intimacy from CSC, commenting that they feel like they are one of many clients and, therefore, not getting the attention that they need. Clients should build a detailed relationship management plan into the contract structure that includes a formal communication plan, continuous improvement plan, and regularly scheduled meetings to support day-to-day activities.

• Other clients indicated that CSC does not have a "deep bench" of help desk technicians. They also mentioned high staff turnover as an issue, as well as the length of time it took to hire replacement personnel. In order to mitigate the risks inherent in high staff turnover, CSC clients should detail the hiring process and include behavior drivers in the contract.

• A few clients pointed out that the onboarding process needed improvement through better partnering and communication during the transition process. A contract that includes an onboarding plan that covers training, especially for any custom support requirements, can also improve the onboarding process.

Dell bases its service strategy on four key pillars. It aims to achieve delivery capability targets through an expanded global delivery footprint, its advanced support/cloud services, its domain expertise and a vertical market approach. Dell focuses on key industry segments including healthcare, financial services, government, insurance, manufacturing and education, while it continues to nurture other industry segments.

• Strategically, Dell has strong plans to continue growing its services business and expand its market presence. It is continually adding experienced senior leadership and its recent acquisition of Perot Systems — a Leader in previous help desk Magic Quadrants — is part of its further growth strategy.

• Dell's results have shown excellent growth in the help desk market. In addition, its retention rate is very high in the market, with a reported retention rate in excess of 90%.

• Dell reacts positively when clients require a benchmarking clause in the contract. This signals Dell's confidence in its solution and price. Clients indicated that the contract terms were founded on effective service levels and relevant and substantial penalties that enable them to feel comfortable with their ability to drive Dell's day-to-day operational behavior as needed.

• With Dell's successful growth, clients need to ensure that Dell has the resources and skill levels needed to support them.

• A few clients indicated that achieving a high rate of retention for help desk personnel was a challenge for Dell. Some clients indicated that the turnover rate exceeded 30%. High turnover may lead to an inconsistent delivery capability. Gartner recommends using contract terms to drive Dell's behavior by using a customer satisfaction service level to mitigate this issue.

• Some clients stated that Dell's methodology and repeatable processes for continuous improvement were insufficient, leading to protracted timeframes to fix known issues. In some cases, clients said that this had caused some customer dissatisfaction and occasional missing of a customer satisfaction service level.

This is the first time that the North American help desk Magic Quadrant has included Fujitsu. This is a testament to its global IT services growth strategy. Fujitsu's strategy is founded on a "think global, act local" mantra with the local strategy founded on proximity and responsiveness, specialized insight and innovation, decision making and accountability, and client relationships. The global mantra includes scale and coherence, knowledge, assets, expertise, delivery capability and client management.

• Fujitsu has expanded in the market with service desk revenue of more than $250 million, over 400 agents, support for numerous languages, and multiple delivery centers. As a result, current Fujitsu customers (largely point of sale customers) are likely to renew their deals with the provider.

• Due to the geographical coverage of facilities and staff, Fujitsu is positioned well to evolve its North American help desk offerings to support clients beyond point-of-sale solution support.

• Clients commended Fujitsu for its willingness to be flexible in contract negotiations, which enables deals to support business change.

• Because of its goal to grow its business in current economic conditions, Fujitsu is hiring people as it wins deals. As a result, staff frequently have limited company knowledge. Clients can address this by including contract language with penalty-based service levels that include measures for staff turnover, staff replacement and staff capability.

• To date, evidence provided by Fujitsu for the North American help desk market shows support only in point-of-sale solutions. However, Fujitsu claims to be moving increasingly toward more traditional, commercial help desk business support. Clients must ensure that Fujitsu can meet technical help desks requirements before considering it as a help desk service provider.

• Some clients indicated that Fujitsu was not proactive in its continuous improvement process, resulting in recurring problems and high levels of customer dissatisfaction. Gartner recommends that clients should see, review with references and test all day-to-day processes (such as continuous improvement, escalation processes and communication processes) prior to engaging Fujitsu.

As a GE company, Genpact's strategy and vision are based on a defect-free environment that results in it increasing productivity and employee satisfaction while lowering the cost of service. To support this strategy and vision, Genpact continually invests in the necessary help desk tools, supporting technology and associated processes to move toward better client end-user productivity and, ultimately, a Six Sigma result.

• GE's heritage and process orientation enable Genpact to excel at operational reporting and analytics on behalf of clients. An example would be Genpact's Smart Enterprise Processes model and its "eliminate defects based" approach to solutions.

• Genpact has a strong pricing methodology and a willingness to offer clients a low-cost solution with year over year pricing improvements. In addition, and related to GE heritage, Genpact will frequently drive continuous improvement (often resulting in lower costs) and share efficiencies with clients.

• Genpact's vision for its help desk offering includes investments in many of the key technology drivers, such as a knowledge database of the most frequently asked questions and associated answers it sees shaping the help desk outsourcing market.

• Genpact needs to offset high turnover and attrition among help desk agents through training and onboarding programs, which is currently leading to unskilled and inexperienced Level 1 agents for many clients. Clients should ensure they are fully aware of Genpact's training processes and may consider retaining the right to approve or reject new staff if they experience such challenges on their account.

• Genpact has the capabilities to drive down overall call volumes, but it can do more for existing clients in doing so. Clients should work with Genpact to agree to targets, SLAs, pricing models, and an operational plan for driving down call volumes through the use of chat and end-user self support databases.

• Although Genpact has strong reporting and analytics capabilities, the company can do more to offer suggestions to clients. Clients expecting a proactive relationship should ensure their contract with Genpact specifies in the statement of work and other key areas how they want Genpact to participate in this regard.

GlobalServe is a long-term participant in the Gartner help desk Magic Quadrant process and maintains its position as a Niche Player through its focus on delivering products to global companies. GlobalServe's vision remains to support the procurement, delivery and disposal of PC assets, supported in part by a comprehensive help desk offering.

• GlobalServe focuses primarily on supporting global companies, from one of the eight defined functions in desktop managed services — that is, product procurement, in which GlobalServe remains very strong.

• GlobalServe provides an alternative approach to service with its distributed international businesses. Because its focus continues to be primarily international, GlobalServe falls into the Niche Players quadrant.

• GlobalServe's goals are to assist its customers in optimizing their business performance, and to reduce the total cost of customer support through help desk support, as well as the entire desktop life cycle from procurement through to management, to the disposal of PCs.

• GlobalServe references indicated that they're using the vendor primarily for product procurement; although GlobalServe does an excellent job in the area of desktop managed services, it doesn't demonstrate capabilities in the other seven desktop managed services disciplines (that is, help desk, deskside support, desktop application support, asset management, network management and administration, relationship management, and security).

• GlobalServe continues to use a network of subcontractors, but this approach reduces the provider's control of delivery. Organizations must ensure that they have penalty-supported SLAs in place to ensure consistent service delivery quality.

• GlobalServe clients have noted concerns about the scope of the services that were available, and also about GlobalServe's relationship management skills. When negotiating a contract with GlobalServe, organizations must clearly define the scope of work and include the approval of the relationship management team in the contract terms and conditions.

With revenue exceeding $5.5 billion and 77,000 employees, HCL's strategy and vision is to provide a best-in-class end user computing service that creates business value for customers. HCL's solution is built on a work culture of innovation and collaboration. To accomplish this, HCL is investing in total contact ownership, multilingual support capabilities, and a global delivery model supported by a service readiness and service improvement team.

• HCL's ongoing investment in its help desk solution has moved it from the Challengers quadrant in last year's help desk Magic Quadrant to the Leaders quadrant this year.

• References also indicated that HCL showed a great deal of flexibility and willingness to go beyond the contract to solve problems, with one client stating "the contract was never used when executing the help desk service" and "HCL performed activities outside the contract without asking for any additional consideration."

• Clients also praised HCL's language support for large, complex multinational clients, saying that the provider successfully ensures staff in offshore delivery locations have excellent language skills and are easily understood. This is an achievement in an industry where strong accents in offshore delivery locations are one of the biggest challenges.

• Clients indicated that transition results appear to be variable despite HCL focusing strongly on the transition process. While this could be due to the nature and scope of the transition, including environmental diversity and the replacement of incumbent contractors, clients should detail sufficient communications, controls and accountability in contracts with HCL.

• A few clients indicated that, at times, HCL let the customer drive the process and may be willing to adopt client practices that are inherently flawed. Clients should, through frank and open discussions, ensure that they are not driving HCL to accept suboptimal solutions.

• Although HCL's aggregate attrition for help desk outsourcing is generally in line with its competitors, some clients interviewed noted high turnover/attrition of staff on specific accounts. This may be due to HCL's policy of employee rotation after a defined tenure to provide growth opportunities, or it could be a function of the high growth rates HCL is achieving in this space. Clients should identify key personnel and define what they consider to be acceptable levels of turnover on the account as a key measurement for HCL.

HP's Instant-On Enterprise model is the foundation of its strategy. HP aims to deliver the "best delivery model for the solution — the delivery model that provides the right outcome, in the right time frame, at the right price." This demonstrates that HP has a well defined and articulated vision for assisting clients in linking desktop managed and service desk services with enterprise technology and business strategy. HP's investments included unified communications and collaboration, client virtualization services, and "x-as-a-service" models.

• With HP's continued strong financial position, it has continued to invest in infrastructure services. In 2010, the company invested more than $1 billion in enhancing its infrastructure service solutions.

• HP continues to be one of the top performers in help desk services. Its clients rate its ability to deliver top quality services very highly and praise its services on toolsets such as ITIL and other standardized methodologies.

• In addition, clients stated that HP is flexible during deal execution and builds strong customer relationships at all levels of the organization. This helps to prevent clients from feeling that the provider only pays attention to the highest level of management personnel, which is one of the leading customer satisfaction issues among the end-user population. Clients also indicated that HP brings a sense of teamwork to their deals, and excels in the use of tools and processes used in the delivery of services.

• Although HP provides good technical support, a few clients indicated that there is still room for improvement when implementing new parts of the solution. When HP makes an improvement in its standard help desk toolset, such as to its knowledge database tools for help desk support, clients indicated that HP must ensure an efficient and effective implementation.

• A few clients indicated some room for improvement in implementing automated tools, such as self-help and self-healing tools. Therefore, clients should diligently check references and seek confirmation that HP can execute the implementation and transition cost-effectively.

• Some clients indicated that HP needs to speed up the process of replacing key relationship management positions and day-to-day help desk support personnel. Clients should review and confirm, by checking references and testing the process, that HP is able to replace personnel with appropriately skilled personnel in a timely fashion. Having the right of refusal for relationship management team members is a best practice that will help ensure the right fit.

IBM says that it helps organizations improve productivity and manage IT, risk and cost. It does so by using its "right-to-left" strategy in order to deliver "cost take-out," productivity and innovation. Its strategy is to focus on continually improving end-user productivity and satisfaction through seamless support and access to applications and data on any device, anywhere, at any time, while at the same time delivering value to clients and IBM's business. IBM aims to do this by reducing cost throughout the end-user services life cycle. The company, through IBM research, is continually providing process improvements such as shared contact center infrastructure and Web-based user enablement.

• With a continued strong financial position, an extremely diverse customer base and continued investments in technology, processes and procedures, IBM maintains its position as a Leader in the help desk Magic Quadrant.

• Clients indicated that IBM exemplifies strong leadership and management capabilities dedicated to building strong relationships and becoming a team member in the clients' business.

• Clients said that IBM's methodology is strong and proven to help them standardize to drive consistency. They added that IBM remains very good at leveraging processes, skills and leadership for them, and that its depth and breadth of people enables IBM to be flexible with the redeployment, addition or removal of staff when adjusting to changing client demands and needs for projects and outage incidents.

• Gartner considers IBM less agile and slower to adapt; therefore, dynamic organizations should build flexibility into the deal.

• Clients said that IBM makes significant use of contractors, which affects productivity and the provider's ability to deliver effectively while maintaining business knowledge and continuity. Organizations that see this as a problem should contractually limit the use of subcontractors in their help desk engagement to drive IBM's behavior.

• Clients felt that the complexity and inflexibility of IBM's contracts often led to alignment issues, missed expectations and the inability to make changes needed to meet client business requirements.

Maintech is new to this year's help desk Magic Quadrant, having previously participated in the data center Magic Quadrant. As part of its data center solution, Maintech provides related solutions like help desk and desktop support. The resulting revenue and client base qualify Maintech for participation in the help desk Magic Quadrant for North America. However, the company is a Niche Player, as it only participates in a help desk solution if it is part of a data center outsourcing engagement.

• Maintech is a suitable choice for clients who are seeking a provider that has the strength to implement a solution based on standardized toolsets, and that can help the client become more familiar with these toolsets. Clients corroborated that Maintech has a strong capability in implementing standardized toolsets, such as ITIL, as the foundation of its total solution package.

• Although most providers have remote service capabilities, Maintech focuses heavily on providing remote managed data center services. By using that strength and the associated toolsets in the delivery of its help desk solution, it provides clients with the confidence that Maintech can quickly identify, address and resolve help desk calls that would otherwise require a technician to be dispatched to the site to determine and solve the problem.

• Maintech recognizes that it is a Niche Player and does not try to reach beyond its capabilities. This shows that it remains focused on a specific approach to the market.

• Maintech does not offer help desk as a point solution, but rather only as part of a larger full infrastructure offering. As such, it is not a suitable candidate for clients seeking a help desk only solution.

• Although clients indicated that Maintech's technical expertise is very good, they said that it did not always proactively offer some processes and tools, such as automatic password resets and self-help tools. Clients need to examine whether these tools are appropriate and, if necessary, include them in their requirements.

• There have been some issues with assigned management support, so potential clients should interview the assigned managers and ensure that they are comfortable with the selection.

iGate is in the process of acquiring Patni, though the transaction had yet to be completed as of the publication date of this Magic Quadrant. Patni's stated strategy and vision is "to be a trusted partner, powered by passionate minds, creating innovative options to excel."

• Patni has increased its help desk locations in the U.S. and China as part of its global delivery model. This expansion adds to its already robust multilingual capability.

• Clients stated that Patni's ability to adapt to changing customer priorities by creating a flexible contract and work environment influenced their decision to select the company and their satisfaction with working with the provider.

• During the reference checking process, clients reported that Patni's transition capabilities were strong. We believe that this is down to Patni's customer focus and collaboration efforts that drive it to fit in with the client's culture.

• Patni clients stated that the company's knowledge of legacy applications and its tool expertise fall short of expectations, while high staff attrition has also affected delivery.

• Clients also indicated a need for Patni to better communicate with them to enhance business choices and develop plans for improving processes. Additionally, clients stated that Patni needs to be more proactive in leveraging new tools and technologies to support the client business, as well as in offering any new solutions it may develop to existing new clients.

• References reported that Patni tries to satisfy the customer to a fault by not saying "no" at times or not bringing forth ideas to drive business change within the environment. This creates a feeling that the customer owns continuous improvement and innovation more than Patni.

Pomeroy's strategy is to focus on its areas of expertise, continually improve the services and solutions it delivers today, and invest in solutions that support the delivery of current offerings. It also plans to adopt new solutions and prudently but effectively enter new markets. To support this strategy and vision, Pomeroy has invested in new tools, technologies and locations to support its service delivery operations. In addition, the company tries to be as easy to work with as possible in order to encourage long-term relationships.

• Pomeroy continues to implement new tools, such as a knowledge database, and improve existing tools and processes, such as ITIL and other quality processes, in order to significantly improve its ability to execute. It continues to progress toward a more-comprehensive vision. Many Pomeroy clients indicated a high price/value performance, even though it was willing to implement a shorter contract life. They also stated that Pomeroy executed extremely well with regard to service levels and the service level management process.

• Clients reported that Pomeroy was one of the providers that had an extremely low turnover rate on its help desk, which often leads to high customer satisfaction ratings as well as a high level of trust in most relationships.

• Additionally, clients stated that Pomeroy shows an excellent ability to service the client's needs and understand the importance of the client's culture as part of the process. One client described it this way: "Pomeroy understands the customer requirements and it is reflected in their communication and coordination when handling our VIP and Priority 1 escalation processes."

• Some customers expressed concern with Pomeroy's ability to sustain its help desk performance at all times, given it has only one help desk in place. Potential clients should review and ensure that Pomeroy's backup plans are strong, and if they do indeed contract with Pomeroy, then they should be sure to test the backup not less than once a year.

• Some clients indicated that Pomeroy did not have a strong continuous improvement process and, therefore, did not drive down the incident count over time. Pomeroy clients reported 1.13 calls per user, per month in 2010, which represented no real improvement over 2008. Clients should, therefore, seek performance measures, supported by behavior drivers such as incentives and penalties, to help drive down the number of calls per user, per month.

• A few clients indicated that they were unaware of the formal communications process. They also indicated that full inclusion in the communication process at all levels could avoid the misunderstandings and dissatisfaction that otherwise should have been avoided. Clients should incorporate a formal and well-defined communication process into the contract and put measures in place that will ensure that Pomeroy meets the requirements to include all parties.

Strategically, Siemens IT Solutions and Services' (SIS's) portfolio supports three distinct value-driven streams — vertical-specific, business enhancement and leveraged support. In addition, the vendor focuses on leveraging horizontal strengths and a global vertical portfolio of solutions in North America. As a result, SIS's help desk strategy aims to reduce cost through intelligent technology and improve structures and processes.

• Clients praised SIS for its focus on understanding their environment and its ability to adapt to changes in that environment.

• SIS is one of the few providers whose clients noted its formal innovation process and recognized the value of the providers' investment in socializing new ideas with their account. While not universally true for all customers, SIS has made progress in addressing what was once a caution in this space.

• SIS's vision for help desk outsourcing includes a road map of planned investments through 2012 that are well aligned with key trends in end-user computing. SIS has also demonstrated good overall end-to-end processes from sales through to transition and delivery.

• Due to Atos Origin's acquisition of SIS in Western Europe,¹ organizations seeking to use SIS as a help desk service provider should review the acquisition and how that may affect their deal.

• As improving profits is a core focus in many IT services acquisitions, clients should pay close attention to the status of operational integration and the longer-term strategy for the combined entities when considering SIS for help desk outsourcing.

• As clients reported inconsistent transition results, Gartner recommends clients ensure that SIS is delivering sufficient project management and knowledge transfer to deliver a successful go-live experience from day one.

Stefanini's recent acquisition of TechTeam has created a $600 million global IT services company that builds, integrates and supports applications and infrastructures for midsize and large enterprises with over 13,000 employees in 68 locations and 27 countries. The new Stefanini TechTeam focuses on many industry segments including automotive, manufacturing, services, consumer products, oil and gas, technology, financial services, power and utilities, telecom, life sciences, retail and hospitality, and travel and transportation.

• Prior to this acquisition, TechTeam was a frequent participant in the help desk Magic Quadrant, and clients have consistently recognized TechTeam for its flexibility, expertise with its tools and a high level of staff retention. Gartner's interactions continue to corroborate these strengths.

• In the past year, Stefanini TechTeam has invested in Lean Six Sigma and ITIL methodologies and new solutions, including cloud-based solutions, such as hosted virtual desktop services (HVDS) and other end-user computing tools. Stefanini TechTeam has also continued to invest in new solutions, technologies and processes, and methodologies as it looks to the future of where the help desk fits in the overall scheme of the infrastructure outsourcing space.

• Many clients expressed that Stefanini TechTeam is willing to "jump in" and solve problems whether or not it is responsible for the issue. As a result, these clients praised Stefanini TechTeam's field support personnel for partnering with their clients.

• Some clients indicated that they found Stefanini TechTeam's lack of transparency an issue. Clients considering the company should carefully check references and include contract language that promotes transparency.

• TechTeam clients who had previously contracted Stefanini for help desk services and had been dissatisfied expressed concern over Stefanini's acquisition of TechTeam. Clients considering the newly merged entity for their help desk engagements should include performance measures and drivers in their contracts. For example, fee-reduction-based penalties and a change of control mechanism would drive the provider's behavior.

• A few clients indicated that continuous improvement was slower than expected, which could indicate any number of challenges, such as a lack of a formal continuous improvement process. Clients considering or renegotiating contracts with Stefanini TechTeam should include the right level of measures, incentives and penalties to build a performance-based contract.

Technisource is a $500 million help desk service provider that focuses on the North American market. It is strategically using its capabilities as the sixth largest technology staffing firm in North America to try to become the best choice for help desk outsourcing services at a cost competitive price. Technisource is structured to be flexible in its delivery model and supports its staff with standardized process and methodologies, such as ITIL, which is embedded in all Technisource help desk services.

• Technisource's investments have led to improvements in its delivery models. The provider is offering these new solutions to existing and potential clients.

• Clients indicated that Technisource was very flexible and very actively engaged in each process of the help desk. This flexibility was a significant plus point for clients who were actively engaged.

• Other clients indicated that Technisource was very proactive, with one client stating that "when the chips are down Technisource responds, and quickly." In addition, they said that the provider responds with a high level of professionalism, bringing ideas from other deals to the table and recognizing and working well within the culture of each client.

• Technisource, based on its North American focus, is a service provider that organizations should carefully study to ensure that the solution provided is the one that will meet their needs.

• Some clients indicated that Technisource's inconsistent hiring practices had led to some ill-advised hires that had to be replaced quite quickly. This resulted in a drop in delivery capability. Gartner recommends that clients considering or using Technisource should develop a contractually supported process, including service levels to measure success, to reduce turnover and increase retained knowledge.

• A few clients who were looking at bundling their help desk and desktop together perceived Technisource as needing to improve its desktop outsourcing services solution. Clients seeking a single provider to deliver multiple IT towers should use all available market information, such as Gartner Magic Quadrants and MarketScopes, to determine which provider is capable of meeting their business demands.

Unisys has significantly improved its cash flow, its profitability and its balance sheet. To achieve this, it has leveraged several areas of strength — end-user computing, including help desk services; a delivery model that emphasizes efficient, globally standardized processes; and a geographically dispersed footprint.

• Unisys continues to be a Leader in the help desk Magic Quadrant for two main reasons. Firstly, it focuses on the day-to-day delivery of services to achieve high levels of customer satisfaction. And secondly, it improves customer productivity through continuous improvement; for example, through per user, per month client call reductions, and other quality methodologies such as Six Sigma and implementing ITIL as part of its deals.

• Unisys continues to perform the day-to-day operational requirements of its help desk services at a high level. The majority of its clients would rehire the company without a bid process if they could, and many of them have done so in the past 18 months.

• The last publication of the North American help desk Magic Quadrant said that potential Unisys clients should carefully study Unisys' financial picture as many investors were concerned about its financial status. At this time, those financial challenges seem, for the most part, to be behind Unisys. Although Unisys, like all providers, still faces the challenges of the current economy, its financial picture has improved substantially since last year's Magic Quadrant.

• Although Unisys has recovered well from its financial challenges of two years ago, every organization should perform intense due diligence and ensure that their contract has adequate change of control provisions.

• Some references noted that Unisys struggles with inadequately trained staff and high turnover. This leads the provider to use temporary personnel, which creates challenges in service delivery. Clients should, therefore, include provisions to measure time to replace personnel as one of the penalty-based measures in the contract.

• References stated that the use of multiple suppliers/subcontractors meant that it was not possible to manage the contract as seamlessly as they would like, as decisions were not always within the account manager's control or capabilities.

Verizon, a large telecommunications company with many business areas, provides help desk services to its clients in North America. The company has based its vision and strategy on leveraging its IT help desk as a single point of contact for more complex deals, ensuring the IT help desk is the wrapper for the larger transformational deals and partnering — where appropriate — with a global IT help desk and managed desktop providers to increase speed to market.

• Verizon's help desk outsourcing practice is the beneficiary of relatively low staff attrition compared to other providers. Its ability to provide a career path related to other support groups within Verizon appears to be a positive contributing factor.

• Clients commend Verizon's agents for their focus on the client's end-user community and its orientation toward service.

• Verizon demonstrates a strong ability to handle volume fluctuations among clients while still delivering a targeted SLA.

• Verizon aims to deliver to divisions within large enterprises and has a larger appetite for serving clients with lower seat counts than some of its competitors.

• Although Verizon's clients are generally satisfied with Verizon's staff, from help desk agents through to the leaders of its help desk outsourcing service line, they express concerns over relationship management. Clients should enter into a help desk outsourcing relationship fully aware that Verizon is a telecommunications company and that the service experience will be slightly different to what they would receive from other providers of help desk outsourcing services.

• Verizon only delivers help desk services in English and Spanish. Although it has recently announced a global partnership with Fujitsu to help offset Verizon's lack of presence outside North America, clients should remain aware of the company's language coverage limitations. Clients with multinational and/or multilingual requirements should take note of both providers' positions in this Magic Quadrant and closely investigate this partnership as it matures.

• Although Verizon has communicated its commitment to ITIL and ISO 9000:2001, not all its standard tools, notably the ticketing system, which support help desk outsourcing, are ITIL v3 compliant. Clients requiring such functionality should closely evaluate Verizon's road map related to ITIL v3, and the investments Verizon makes available to the help desk outsourcing leadership team.

Wipro's strategy includes building a solution set that meets its clients' business-driven service levels with the proper help desk resources, continuing to enhance help desk skill sets, delivering help desk as a service, and addressing emerging client business needs. It aims to achieve the latter by building state-of-the-art certification programs for its help desk personnel and offering highly flexible and standardized global support that ensures business continuity.

• Clients stated that Wipro had a flexible service offering and delivered high overall customer satisfaction. Many customers believed that this was due, at least in part, to Wipro taking ownership of the outsourcing deal and proactively addressing and solving problems before being asked to do so.

• Some clients indicated that Wipro delivered effective services and that the price/value equation was very favorable. Again, this shows Wipro's willingness to take ownership of deals, fix problems and proactively make changes.

• Many clients indicated a high level of satisfaction with Wipro's global delivery platform as well as its tools and technology, such as self help/self healing tools and remote management capabilities, that it supports consistently across global delivery locations.

• Some clients expressed concern with the maturity of Wipro's back-end processes, such as continuous improvement and escalation procedures. This led to a few organizations to query Wipro's long-term viability as their vendor. Existing Wipro clients should seek to modify the contract to fix these back-end process issues. This should involve clearly defining each process and using measures with appropriate penalties to drive Wipro to implement and follow ongoing best practice improvement and escalation processes.

• A few clients indicated that Wipro was not proactive in bringing new technology to the deal and that they could not obtain new technology until it was time for renewal. Existing and potential Wipro clients should implement a performance-based contract with appropriate penalties and incentives to drive Wipro's behavior.

• Clients said that Wipro had high employee turnover, causing a loss of knowledge capital, peaks and valleys in customer satisfaction, and a continuous struggle to meet customer satisfaction service levels. Clients also indicated that the high turnover rate created language and dialect issues that drove low customer satisfaction. Again, Gartner recommends using contracting techniques to drive the required behavior.