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Message from
the CEO
It is my privilege to take a minute and connect
with all of you via the Annual Report. The year
ahead promises to be one of the most important
that Persistent has had in years. The entire
Industry is accelerating to derive more value for
their business from the technology investments
that they are making.
It is important to note that all of us at Persistent
are extremely proud to be here. As a client of
Persistent, I have always admired the dedication,
ethics, and strength of character that the
Persistent team exhibited in any work I did with
them. I’ve known Anand for over ten years; during
that time I’ve called him a vendor, an investor, a
partner, and for the last several years I’ve called
himmy friend. During the time I was at IBM, Anand
and I swapped ideas, experimented with new
business models, told stories, held discussions
on our life’s journey, and marveled at the speed
of change at which businesses use technology
differently every year. To join Persistent with
Anand, utilize him as a mentor while nurturing
new thoughts is second to my children, one of my
life’s greatest accomplishments.
Every year the market takes bold steps.
Enterprises now have enough digital parts from
software vendors that they can attack the next
stage of digital IT transformation. Everyone has
tried pure cloud projects where they take new
business needs and use new technical digital
tools to address those. While all these cloud
projects are important and, at times, noisy in
the market, one should understand that the vast
majority of work in nearly all enterprises lays
in front of them. These enterprises live in the
world of hybrid. Years of investments made on
premises need to now connect their processes
in business-to-business and business-to-client
digital scenarios. Software vendors will continue
to make the parts of on-premise and digital
software. Yet, the enterprise will be left on
their own to figure out how to derive the final
business value by correctly assembling the parts
against what they already have in place. Thus, it’s
important to note the field in front of us presents
a myriad opportunities. Given our position, we are
uniquely capable of tackling these opportunities.
Our road ahead is about using all our tools to
our advantage and driving a unique Persistent
differentiation in the market. We are keenly
poised to add value around all of our partners and
the market is demanding the differentiation. It is
no longer sufficient to be good at projects, or to
have great technology people, or to understand
technology elements better than most. The
world of our clients today wants to take all the
individual advancements in technology and to
see them applied in a way that make sense for
their business. The analogy I’m fond of is: in a
tile floor, it’s no longer sufficient to be great at a
tile of technology, but you must show the mosaic
to the client. Customers are looking at the value
added outcome that they will have by putting
down the right tiles in the right pattern. We are
keenly poised to do that if we drive client value
as a theme across our great partnerships, our
great software, and, most important, our great
people who create the vision for our clients in
the market place.
It is fantastic to be a member of the Persistent
team, people, and culture. I’ll see you in the
market where our customers are, pushing the
pace of our teams, and always creating business
results for our clients and ourselves, that we can
be proud of.
Sincerely,
Christopher O’Connor
Executive Director and Chief Executive Officer