TBR Talks: Decoding Strategies and Ecosystems of the Globe's Top Tech Firms

In this episode of “TBR Talks,” Batia Stein, managing partner at EY Law and partner at EY People Advisory Services, and Chris Gordon, Canada region leader at EY People Advisory Services Tax, speak with host Patrick Heffernan on EY’s AI strategy for people advisory services.   In this lively discussion, Batia and Chris detail EY’s approach to automation within the tax and audit divisions within EY....

“TBR Talks” is on break this week for the Thanksgiving holiday in the U.S. Join us Friday, Dec. 5 for a discussion on immigration, cybersecurity, data privacy, data sovereignty, tax and HR, and more with leaders from EY People Advisory Services.   In the meantime, be sure to catch up on the first half of “TBR Talks” Season 4, which featured discussions with top persons at Work & Co., Ericsson...

IT Infrastructure Principal Analyst Angela Lambert and Senior Analyst and NVIDIA research lead Ben Carbonneau join “TBR Talks” to share key takeaways and insights into NVIDIA’s strategies for 2026 and beyond. Recently, "TBR Talks" host Patrick Heffernan met with executives and others within the GPU ecosystem at NVIDIA GTC, and on this episode, all three analysts share their thoughts on p...

In this episode of “TBR Talks,” Senior Analyst Ben Carbonneau and Principal Analyst Angela Lambert review Lenovo’s 2025 Global Industry Analyst Conference, where Lenovo provided updates on its overall strategy and ambitions to shift its perception from a PC vendor to a full-stack, end-to-end solution provider. The pair discusses the event’s AI strategy announcement, how this year’s GIAC differed f...

How accurate were TBR’s 2025 predictions for the IT infrastructure market and digital transformation efforts? In this episode of “TBR Talks,” TBR IT Infrastructure Principal Analyst Angela Lambert and TBR Digital Transformation Principal Analyst Boz Hristov share how they and their teams look at the future of their respective IT market segments.   A mix of retrospective and forward-looking thought...

How accurate were TBR’s 2025 predictions for cloud and telecom markets?   In this episode of “TBR Talks,” Principal Analyst and Host Patrick Heffernan reviews TBR’s 2025 telecom and cloud predictions against the year’s actual market developments as well as what these developments mean for our 2026 predictions in an age of AI-enabled research and analysis.   Last year Principal Analyst Chris Antlit...

In this episode of “TBR Talks,” TBR Senior Vice President, Sales & Marketing, Dan Demers interviews host Patrick on how the globe’s top global systems integrators, ISVs, hyperscalers and OEMs use TBR’s proprietary data and analysis to make validated and data-backed decisions.   From strategy planning based on partners’ annualized revenue or headcount growth to allocation of training budgets an...

Eric Müller of Work & Co meets with “TBR Talks” host Patrick Heffernan to discuss security in the AI age, the importance of curiosity and creativity, and advice for the upcoming generation of talent from his perspective as a seasoned industry professional.   Eric Müller is an Associate Director of Product Engineering at Work & Co, part of Accenture Song. With over 20 years of experience sp...

Kelly See, knowledge analyst for BI/CI at Ericsson, joins “TBR Talks” host Patrick Heffernan to discuss the state of AI tools for knowledge management inside one of the world’s leading telecom vendors. Kelly also shares how the demands of global knowledge management are being served with artificial intelligence tools across a diverse global workforce.   Listen and learn with TBR Talks! Submit your...

TBR Principal Analyst Boz Hristov joins “TBR Talks” to share his insights into how global systems integrators and management consultancies are partnering with ISVs, hyperscalers, model makers and OEMs to deliver solutions to enterprise.   Additionally, Patrick talks through industry specialization, permission to play, data management and transformation orchestration within the rapidly evolving AI...

In this episode of “TBR Talks,” Senior Director David Martinez shares his point of view on key topics covered by his BCG Henderson Institute team, particularly regarding geopolitics and artificial intelligence. The BCG Henderson Institute is an internal think tank at Boston Consulting Group. David Zuluaga Martínez is a Senior Director at the Geopolitics & Society Lab, based in BCG’s Brooklyn o...

Elizabeth Roberts, Global Head of Information Management at Ericsson, joins “TBR Talks” host Patrick Heffernan to share insights into what Ericsson is doing to leverage AI tools for internal knowledge management at the world’s leading telecom vendor.   With over 3,000 regular users, each of whom support different business groups, executives and field leaders, Ericsson’s Business Intelligence Cente...

IT, OT, plus AI — In a Season 3 bonus episode of “TBR Talks,” Principal Analyst Bozhidar Hristov and Principal Analyst and “TBR Talks” host Patrick Heffernan discuss Hitachi Digital’s view into Industry 5.0. Looking beyond the marketing spin of Industry 5.0, TBR’s analysts discuss how Hitachi Digital leverages its engineering expertise, industrial know-how and IT capabilities to bring solutions to...

Technology executive Darlene Wilson joins “TBR Talks” for a discussion on tech disruptions, business model evolutions and life as a technology expert. Darlene is a seasoned technical strategist with over 20 years of leadership experience at companies like Amazon Web Services, Whole Foods Market, and E*TRADE, where she has driven growth through both market- and customer-centric efforts. She is know...

In this episode of “TBR Talks,” Senior Analyst Kelly Lesiczka and Principal Analyst Boz Hristov share insights into EY’s People Advisory Services after their meeting with senior leadership and partners during a recent showcase of the service line. Additionally, Kelly, Boz and “TBR Talks” host Patrick Heffernan discuss how EY manages the critical aspect of people advisory in digital transformation...

Principal Analyst Boz Hristov and Analyst Alex Demeule join "TBR Talks" for an exclusive look at TBR’s Ecosystem Reports, which detail how the top global systems integrators (GSIs) most important technology partners — Amazon Web Services, Azure, Google Cloud Platform, SAP, Oracle, Workday, ServiceNow, Salesforce, Adobe — collaborate with integrators and consultancies. How many certified,...

In this episode of "TBR Talks", Principal Analyst Boz Hristov and Senior Analyst Kelly Lesiczka join Patrick for a discussion on the challenges occurring amid reductions in force and labor rationalization across the global tech marketplace. The pair, who specialize in digital transformation, ecosystems and management consulting research, also look at the trends and predictions TBR’s team...

Post-KPMG Global Analyst Day 2025, Senior Analyst Kelly Lesiczka joins "TBR Talks" host Patrick Heffernan for top takeaways from the February event. The pair review KPMG’s strategy, including its emphasis on IT and Strategy Consulting, within the context of its legacy Tax & Audit business model, and its position as client zero in implementing and adoption AI across its global operati...

Principal Analyst Bozhidar Hristov, Senior Analyst Catie Merrill and Analyst Alex Demeule join "TBR Talks" to share key takeaways top announcements from KPMG’s Global Analyst Day 2025, held in February at KPMG’s global training facility, Lakehouse. The group also discusses strategies of the leading advisory firm as well as multipartner ecosystem management and co-investment across declar...

Who gets the best talent? Who decides what’s next? Who does the selling? How does everyone know what everyone else is doing? And what role will managed services play? Despite their digital transformations over the years, TBR is still hearing these five questions from the Big Four — KPMG, EY, PwC and Deloitte — and in this episode of "TBR Talks," we leverage our recent publications on the...

Research Analyst Alek Maxfield and Senior Analyst Ben Carbonneau of TBR’s hardware research practice share insights into the performance forecasts and emerging solutions of leading semiconductor providers and OEMs. Additionally, the pair discuss their predictions for the hardware market in 2025, including the possibility that the much-discussed AI PC refresh will be overshadowed by other drivers o...

How are research firms, including TBR, and market and competitive intelligence groups within technology vendors using powerful new generative AI (GenAI) tools? In this episode of "TBR Talks," TBR Senior Vice President Dan Demers joins Patrick to discuss how global systems integrators, telecom vendors, hyperscalers and others are deploying GenAI internally to improve operations as well as...

TBR’s Public Sector Senior Analyst John Caucis joins the podcast to share how the very real concerns have led to net-zero impact on federal systems integrators’ financial performance in the last fiscal quarter, with some leading services firms revising guidance upward. Are the fears going to be substantiated into the next fiscal quarter, or will demand for IT modernization within the U.S. federal...

What challenges will IT decision makers face in the current macroeconomic environment and amid the need to manage enterprise data, workload migration and ongoing services? In this episode of "TBR Talks," TBR Principal Cloud Analyst Allan Krans shares his analysis of and predictions for cloud market share in 2025, including expectations for generative AI (GenAI) spend and the impact the t...

From post-proof of concept use cases of generative AI and adoption rates of fixed wireless access to missed ROI opportunities of 5G and the vision of 6G, in this episode of "TBR Talks" Telecom Principal Analyst Chris Antlitz joins Patrick to highlight his top takeaways from Mobile World Congress 2025. Chris considers the implications for the global telecom market and how the market must...