Description

Systems integration (SI) makes up a significant portion of IT budgets in South Africa, as enterprises seek to accelerate their digital transformation. In the absence of an established leading technology platform across all operations, enterprises have mostly opted for best-of-breed systems. As a result, systems integration (SI) spend is being driven by the wide range of highly distributed systems and applications that enterprises are integrating in their operations.
In 2016, SI spend across seven verticals— banking and financial services (BFS), healthcare, manufacturing, mining, oil& gas, public sector, and retail—was estimated at R9.4 billion. The SI spend in these sectors is expected to grow to R10.5 billion by 2021.
This market insight provides an analysis of the current structure of the systems integration market, with an emphasis on the main service categories: infrastructure integration, application integration, and consulting services. Included in the report is a discussion of some of the main technology and industry-specific trends shaping the pattern of SI spending. Strategic action points are highlighted in response to the current and changing dynamics of the market.
The SI opportunity in the aforementioned verticals is expected to record a CAGR of 2.9% during the 2016–2021 period. BFS, which dominates the market (56%), along retail (18%) and the public sector (10%), will account for majority of the growth. Financial services providers and retailers, in particular, are digitising their operations to better serve an increasingly demanding customer base and a more mobile labour force. They are striving to leverage advanced analytics and mobility solutions in order to provide more personalised services and improve their engagement with customers.
The oil and gas and healthcare sectors are expected to have the highest SI spend growth, albeit coming off a very low base. The varying digital maturity stages at which the different verticals are will force SI providers to rely less on a one-size-fits-all approach and focus on adopting a strategic-partnership-oriented approach.
Whilst the hardware and software market is dominated by international OEMs and providers, local providers have become more competitive in the SI market. However, sectors such as BFS are keeping some of the development and management of applications in-house, as IT is increasingly becoming a more strategic differentiator in the industry. Of the three main SI categories, spend across the seven verticals is dominated by infrastructure integration, accounting for about 40% of the total SI budget. This is due to the continued spend on network and data centre integration, as enterprises invest in becoming more cloud-ready. During the forecast period, the contribution of integration consulting is expected to rise from 28% to 32%, as IT service providers adopt a more consultative selling approach.