I would caution comparing IBM to McKinsey. Very different DNA. Also, vs Accenture\Deloitte there is a big difference in that the two don't have their own products to push into boxes in component diagrams - IBM does and execs know it. This puts it very much at a disadvantage.

Accenture, Deloitte & IBM are considered Tier 2. The BMW, Mercedes, Audi if you will.

McKinsey, Bain, BCG are Tier 1. The Lamborghini, Ferrari, Aston Martin, etc.

Tier 2 do their darndest to get into Tier 1 but the nature of the work is very different and the chasm between tiers is hard to cross just like in the car industry. Source: I've done extensive work in both tiers.

McKinsey just lost their schedule contracts with the feds: https://federalnewsnetwork.com/acquisition-policy/2020/05/gs...

Probably depends on location? I’ve never heard of Bain or BCG.

Nope. McKinsey, Bain, and BCG are the tier 1 everywhere. McKinsey is by far the biggest and best-known, but it's like MIT and Caltech. One is bigger, and one is smaller. The smaller is less well-known, but it's no worse.

In this case, the smaller companies are, if anything, slightly higher-end (more boutique).

I'm not actually sure the Tier 2 are trying to become Tier 1. It's like comparing Walmart to Tiffany & Co. They're very different business models, but upscale doesn't necessarily beat mass market.

Just curious, as an industry outsider -- what do MBB do that make them Tier 1?

My experience is the Tier 2 vendors you've listed are more tactical, and typically handle execution (outsourcing etc.).

Whereas MBB are more strategic, C-Suite, but the value-add may or may not be significantly different from the former.

Price point, access, quality of analysts.

I would say the model has changed from selling your own software explicitly to writing most of the software (glueing systems+customizations) for Client 1, and reusing most of it when Client 2 roughly asks for the same thing.

What about EPAM Systems btw?

No they are not (only) that. IBM is a global cloud provider on par with the rest as far as the basic offers go.

IBMs cloud is on par? With whom? Certainly not AWS and Azure. Nor GCP. Not even with OCI.

IBM doesn't have it's own cloud, it runs on AWS.

Edit: I was confused by this:

https://www.ibm.com/cloud/architecture/architectures/ibm-clo...

Seriously now? https://cloud.ibm.com/login

IBM cloud has nothing to do with AWS or any other provider. It is an autonomous provider just like AWS, Azure, Google, Alibaba, etc

Disclaimer: Close friend works there.

Jesus, get your facts straight before shooting such inaccuracies.

That is an outright lie. I’ve seen IBM data centers.

The most basic googling will show this is a lie.