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I attended PwC’s Workday Tomorrow 2025 event, held in Frankfurt from March 25–27, as a speaker. The atmosphere crackled with knowledge-sharing and plans as the 50 attending HRIT leaders and professionals discussed how to leverage AI in terms of people processes.

IDC’s extensive interviews with HR leaders at the event revealed they are indeed keen to leverage AI for:

  • Recruitment: CV prioritization, interview scheduling, candidate communication
  • Performance Management: Summarization, feedback gathering, goal setting
  • HR Assistants: HR help desk, transactional assistance
  • Job Descriptions and Skills Management: Inference, automated skills surveys

As a Workday customer, you can gradually switch on the AI capabilities embedded in the functional areas to which you have subscribed. IDC, however, recommends that customers launch their AI journey with less complex use cases (e.g., “GenAI job description”) that can be switched on and tested for fit with your HRIT teams.

Each Workday client can turn on/off the AI functionality in their own tenants by way of configuration, including data contributions on a field level. Workday’s AI architecture allows customers to always retain control over their data within Workday.

To help customers adopt AI capabilities, Workday offers fact sheets for all available AI use cases in Workday Community. The vendor also offers a broad AI Masterclass to help organizations get started in adopting AI. The Masterclass aims to help HR and IT professionals deepen their understanding of AI technologies, including how to deploy and govern AI responsibly, and covers a range of concrete case studies.

The HR function is a business partner — but also a cost center. Some of the HR participants in Frankfurt discussed how HR can better establish its business value contribution to obtain resources and funding to work with AI. This requires HR to establish business cases with concrete financial ROI metrics to justify the investment. AI solutions that save significant time for employees and managers, for example, can have substantial benefits.

Comprehensive planning is required to execute such wide-ranging, transformational AI use cases. These are complex projects that demand organization, implementation, and funding. Successful project outcomes also require specialist skills to address legal topics, data security, change management, Workday configuration, and deep industry knowledge.

Workday Tomorrow 2025 offered attendees the opportunity to gain a better understanding of how consulting firms like PwC can support Workday customers to prepare, plan, and execute AI use cases within ongoing transformational programs.

How the AI Wave Will Impact the HR Function

Even if HR itself does nothing with AI, will HR be impacted by the AI deployed in the core business of organizations? (Hint: It will!)

A March 2025 IDC survey of 419 CEOs revealed that more than half (55%) believe AI will lead to fundamental business model changes in their organization in 3-5 years (IDC’s CEO Survey 2025; N = 419).

The survey showed that CEOs see a number of skills gaps impeding AI success in their organizations. Interestingly, the most important skills gap identified was teaching AI to regular business employees.

CEOs have turned or will turn to HR to help remedy this skills gap: IDC believes we will see extensive reskilling and upskilling efforts to create an AI-ready workforce. HR will also be tasked with recruiting, retaining, and developing scarce AI-related tech skills in security, AI governance, data management, development, and other areas.

Change management and communications skills will be much needed as organizations undergo difficult, tech-driven changes. Employees have a lot at stake: Some skills will lose value as AI agents take over certain tasks, and some job roles will change and result in new tasks. In Frankfurt, PwC expert Armin von Rohrscheidt talked about how – at least in a German context – involving workers’ councils early, fully, and transparently is the recommended approach.

Interesting HR Perspectives that Came to Light

  • How does an organization train its workforce to become “AI-ready”?
  • How can an organization prepare regular business users to work with conversational user interfaces, prompts, and agentic workflows?
  • Are new training methods needed?

IDC believes that traditional linear elearning approaches will not suffice to bring about such skills. Instead, collaborative, social, experimental, and hybrid approaches are called for (a mix of real-time interactions and individual learning). Furthermore, learner progress and proficiency levels must be monitored as opposed to simple pass/no-pass quizzes.

Another discussion concerned how AI will impact the career progression of junior employees. Organizations are in the process of implementing agentic workflows so that basic administrative processes, or even longer-running processes, can be automated, with humans supervising the process as opposed to just being in the loop.

These basic processes have typically been performed by junior employees to help them “get their hands dirty” and “learn the ropes” of the organization. But if these entry-level processes will be performed by AI agents, how will junior employees gain an understanding of the basic workings of an organization?

This has been a theme for IDC’s Future of Work team. One hypothesis is that AI will not only automate basic tasks but will also assume a mentor’s role, enabling junior employees to explore simulated, experimental workflows and use this as a path to insights into core business processes.

Reflecting on Workday’s Expanded Partnership with PwC

Workday’s partnership with a major partner like PwC goes far beyond the traditional applications vendor + global systems integrator setup. As a key partner, PwC has a large number of certified consultants in the various Workday solutions and cloud tools, co-sells the solutions with Workday, and markets services capabilities at Workday events.

Today, however, PwC sells its own branded solutions, certified by Workday and built natively on the Workday Extend platform. Furthermore, these PwC solutions are sold on the Workday Marketplace. PwC co-markets and co-brands events with Workday, and Workday involves PwC in its multiyear product road maps.

This implies that PwC’s customer relationships in the Workday ecosystem have become truly multifaceted, spanning strategic consulting, project services, managed services, as well as subscriptions to a range of software-based products.

Selling software products requires relatively long-term and in-depth collaboration between Workday and a partner like PwC. If PwC creates a new product — for example, Sickness and Recovery Management — it is important that Workday is not planning to add such capabilities to its own HCM solution (within the next 24 months at least). There is no perpetual guarantee of free play, of course, but a certain time window must be guaranteed.

Final Thoughts

AI is not just another wave of technology to manage and roll out. It has massive transformational potential. It will permeate the business world whether we like it or not.

Any AI initiative will receive serious scrutiny from employees, senior stakeholders, unions, and regulators. However, if HR and IT concentrate on the best practices outlined at the Frankfurt conference — especially related to internal communications and change management — now is the time to get started.

Think outside of the box. AI is not a traditional tool rollout. Knowledge must be shared internally and among peers in other organizations. Network and iterate often. The future of the HR function is — without a doubt — linked to AI and automation.

Bo Lykkegaard - Associate VP for Software Research Europe - IDC

Analyst Profile
Bo Lykkegaard is associate vice president for the enterprise-software-related expertise centers in Europe. His team focuses on the $172 billion European software market, specifically on business applications, customer experience, business analytics, and artificial intelligence. Specific research areas include market analysis, competitive analysis, end-user case studies and surveys, thought leadership, and custom market models.

Identity and access management (IAM), and by extension, identity security, is one of the most pervasive and impactful challenges facing all European organizations today, from an operational and risk management perspective.

The targeting of users and credentials has been well documented through year after year of the major global threat reports, such as Verizon’s Data Breach Investigations Report (DBIR). Phishing attacks continue unabated as threat actors steal more and more credentials. Verizon’s 2025 DBIR report highlights compromised credentials as the most common initial access vector among non-error breaches.

The challenge for many organizations is dealing with the sheer volume, velocity, and variety of IAM-related events. Take a workforce of a few thousand permanent employees that need access to an estate of a few hundred applications. Add in a few hundred temporary workers, partners, and contractors that need access to specific systems and applications on a constrained basis. Then add in a range of entitlement levels for what all of those users — permanent, temporary, and external — can do in each application. Remember also that the workforce is in constant flux, with new joiners, movers, and leavers. To prevent exposure, any changes to the access rights and entitlements of those users must be put into effect immediately when a transition takes place.

The outcome is a volume of IAM events and processes that simply cannot be managed without automation.

And that’s just the humans.

Organizations have become aware that there is an even bigger and faster-growing set of identities that they need to manage as a matter of increasing urgency: the non-humans.

The Rise of Non-Human Identities

Some non-human identity (NHI) types have been around for years, such as service accounts. These are already a concern, since many of them are entitled to execute privileged actions, which typically need a higher level of control to safeguard data and processes. Furthermore, nested privileges enabled by multiple overlapping or intersecting service accounts can obfuscate over-provisioning of access, which can be a major security risk.

Service accounts are just one category of NHIs that merit attention, however. The growing list includes device identities, cloud workloads, bots, APIs, and, increasingly, AI agents. Some of these NHIs are relatively long-lived and fixed, others are fast moving and ephemeral. Visibility into the creation and provisioning of some NHIs can be extremely limited for the identity, IT, and security professionals tasked with managing them. So how should organizations address this growing challenge and contain the risk? Can existing IAM and identity security tools be co-opted to manage the NHI pool?

According to preliminary data from IDC’s EMEA Security Technologies and Strategies Survey, 2025, more than a third of EMEA organizations are already grappling with this challenge. The short answer to the questions above is that existing tools can probably address some of the requirements of NHI IAM and security (but to adequately manage the risk, a dedicated approach is going to be required).

AI Agents: A Complex Challenge

If we take AI agents as an example, these are probably one of the most complex and fastest-growing NHI categories. According to IDC’s March 2025 Future Enterprise Resiliency and Spending (FERS) Survey, 38% of European organizations are already investing in agentic AI, with a further 43% conducting initial testing and proofs of concept. IDC’s 2025 Worldwide Future of Work Predictions report projects that by 2027, agentic AI workflows will impact at least 40% of knowledge work in G2000 organizations.

Functionally, AI agents can act like service accounts in some aspects; at the same time, they share some behaviors with human identities. They can also be a force multiplier for risk. In an ordinary business process, a human user might conduct actions that call a handful of APIs (another at-risk NHI category, since API access is often unsecured). When we enable AI agents to act on our behalf, they may be calling hundreds of APIs, creating a flywheel effect that multiplies the risk.

This brings in a bigger topic of security by design, which is as relevant here as it is in any other sphere of security. As development teams build agentic AI services, it is critical that security is built in from the start. It’s far more complex and costly to add on once agents are live. This means building in seamless and secure authentication requirements before a user or an agent is able to do anything; ensuring secure and vaulted credentials for API tokens; and applying fine-grained and dynamically updated authorization for permissions that an agent needs to complete a task (and nothing more).

From an IAM perspective, these are some of the key building blocks to ensure that AI agents don’t become an NHI risk; however, further controls and guardrails will be needed. For other NHI categories, the requirements may be different, and organizations should conduct risk assessments for each category individually before taking the necessary measures to protect them.

Like all IAM challenges, the NHI issue is not insurmountable. However, organizations should avoid the historic IAM mistakes of siloed approaches and short-term fixes and make sure that appropriate security controls are built in, from the beginning, wherever NHIs are active within their systems. What’s required is a strategic, granular, and risk-based approach that addresses IAM for all NHIs before they become embedded in all our business processes.

Mark Child - Associate Research Director, European Security - IDC

Analyst Profile
Associate Research Director Mark Child of IDC’s European Security Group leads the group's Endpoint Security and Identity & Digital Trust (IDT) research for both Western Europe and Central & Eastern Europe. He monitors developments in security technologies and strategies as organizations address the challenges of evolving business models, IT infrastructure, and cyberthreats. Mark's coverage includes in-depth security market studies, end-user research, white papers, and custom consulting.

Technology partners help bridge ecosystems. IDC’s 2024 EMEA Partner Survey sheds light on some of the underlying dynamics. For instance, 2 in 5 partners surveyed (41%) said they have a relationship with AWS. Of those AWS partners, 84% said they also work with Microsoft, while 23% partner with Red Hat and 15% have a relationship with ServiceNow.

At a global level, IDC’s Channel Partner Ecosystem (CPE) Database shows how the ecosystems of major cloud and software providers overlap to differing degrees, highlighting the need for different approaches across players.

The chart below demonstrates partner network overlap. Each column represents the degree of overlap between the provider on the row and the provider on the column. The darker the color, the more the overlap. For example, the analysis of ServiceNow’s partner network (column 7) shows a greater overlap with Salesforce than with Workday.

Given the rise of connected ecosystems, insights like these aren’t just interesting stats but hold practical and increasingly strategic value in today’s tech landscape. Think about the potential of accessing the list of common partners across vendors in the map — and getting detailed information in seconds.

Links across technology portfolios and partner networks fuel opportunities for vendors and bring enhanced value to customers. The IT industry has seen a sustained rise of the “platform paradigm” that enables connectedness and modularity across infrastructure, applications, data, and more. This requires architectures that allow technologies to integrate with and layer on top of one another. This trend is fueling growth in alliances and ecosystem engagement.

Customers benefit by being able to run integrated tech stacks that match their needs and requirements. For example, an organization may choose to run SAP on Microsoft Cloud, or may leverage Red Hat OpenShift to manage hybrid environments. Approved partner solutions from SAP Store extend the functionality of the core application, while Microsoft Azure provides native integrations with data warehouse solutions like Snowflake and Databricks.

The value of an integrated technology stack based on customer choice will increase significantly with the growing adoption of AI, which depends on contextually relevant, high-quality data collected across different systems and workloads.

Vendors are supporting these increasingly connected, platform-based strategies through new technology alliances, by building out their own ecosystems, and by connecting to others. A key component in bringing these alliances and connected ecosystems to life is the integration of IT/technology partners such as systems integrators, managed service providers, and value-added resellers.

Understanding partner capabilities and relationships is key to managing the entire partner life cycle. IDC offers complementary support for partner engagement strategies, including:

• The IDC CPE Database consolidates information on more than 600,000 partners worldwide on their capabilities, business models, relationships with vendors, and more. The data-driven partner intelligence we provide enables companies to compress the time and effort needed to recruit new partners, evaluate their current ecosystem, and benchmark against competitors’ ecosystems.
• The syndicated and custom research of IDC’s Partnering Practice specializes in understanding the ecosystem of technology partners and their engagement with vendors and customers. Our team of dedicated analysts offers thought leadership and advice through quantitative and qualitative insights on the global and regional levels.

Andreas Storz - Senior Research Manager, EMEA Partnering Ecosystems - IDC

Analyst Profile
Andreas Storz is senior research manager for IDC’s Europe, Middle East & Africa (EMEA) Partnering Ecosystems program. Based in the US, Andreas focuses on the evolution of go-to-market models, new digital value chains and the wider impact on partner ecosystems, exploring how current and future trends will impact the vendor, distributor, and partner landscape.

Gabriele Roberti - Research Manager, European Industry Solutions, Customer Insights & Analysis - IDC

Analyst Profile
Gabriele Roberti is a director for IDC's European Data and Analytics team. In this role, he oversees IDC’s partner intelligence data. He manages all Channel Partner Ecosystem programs, providing an extensive view on partners’ and vendors’ capabilities and relationships. He joined IDC in 2012 with a focus on the Italian market, then moved into regional research coordinating the delivery of regional quantitative research on IT strategies for vertical markets.

Cutting Through the Noise with a Clear, Side-by-Side View of Performance

Starting with their 1Q25 results, IDC’s European Enterprise Communications Services program will publish a quarterly comparison and analysis of Europe’s top 5 telcos: BT, Deutsche Telekom, Orange, Telefónica, and Vodafone. A main goal of this initiative is to identify which telcos are most successful in transforming their monetization strategies.

Our analysis of telco performance will be based on new research by the IDC European analyst team. Other IDC products, including those from our colleagues in the Data & Analytics team, focus on telco revenue across individual product lines.

This blog post provides a high-level view of the operators’ 2024 global performance as a prelude to the quarterly analyses. Here, we compare the companies’ revenue performance, development of their geographical markets and strategic growth portfolios, and major announcements and events during the period.

The financial data has been adjusted for consistency and comparability:

  • Figures have been converted to USD on a constant currency basis at IDC’s published 2024 rate (EUR/USD 0.92420; GBP/USD 0.78269).
  • Reporting periods have been aligned to the calendar year (CY). For Deutsche Telekom, Orange, and Telefónica, this aligns to their financial year (FY). For BT and Vodafone, we have summed their quarterly results within each CY (e.g., CY 1Q24 to CY 4Q24, corresponding to their published FY 4Q24 to FY 3Q25 reports).

Group Revenue Performance

Figure 1 shows total group revenue and YoY growth for BT, Deutsche Telekom, Orange, Telefónica, and Vodafone from CY20 to CY24.

Converting all results to USD and aligning BT and Vodafone to CYs highlights the relative size differences between Deutsche Telekom (due to T-Mobile US) and BT, and the similarity between Orange, Telefónica, and Vodafone.

It also shows that CY24, like CY23, was relatively flat for Europe’s leading telcos, with top line growth between -2.2% and 3.4%. The exception is Vodafone, which posted a large decline in CY23 due to the disposal of two major country operations during 2024 (Vodafone Italy and Vodafone Spain). Vodafone’s restated historical financials omit Italy and Spain going back to CY 1Q23.  As the figures presented in this blog post are based on the restated numbers, the drop in revenue resulting from those disposals appears to occur in CY23.

Notes:

  • BT and Vodafone figures are for the CY, based on quarterly reports.
  • Growth rates reflect operators’ reported figures and include conversion from local currency to reporting currency (EUR for Deutsche Telekom, Orange, Telefónica, and Vodafone, and GBP for BT).
  • Vodafone’s negative growth in CY23 is due to the disposal of Vodafone Italy and Vodafone Spain in CY24 and subsequent revenue restatements.
  • BT remains the smallest of the top five telcos by revenue and in growth terms has been a mid-pack performer in recent years, although it was the only company in the group to post negative top-line growth in CY24, of -2.2%. In addition to several country operation disposals over the last few years, BT has signalled its clear intent through CY24 under CEO Allison Kirkby to focus on the domestic U.K. market and is exploring options for its underperforming international business.
  • Deutsche Telekom is far ahead of its European peers in total revenue due to the contribution of T-Mobile US, with group revenue between $114B and $125B. However, revenue from Europe totaled €41.2B in CY24, placing it in line with Orange, Telefónica, and Vodafone (see figure 5 for side -by -side view for the 4 operators). Deutsche Telekom posted the highest YoY growth rate in CY24 at 3.4%, largely driven by the strong performance of its mobile and broadband services. Notably, this growth is primarily attributed to T-Mobile US, fueled by rising postpaid and prepaid revenues and a slight increase in terminal equipment sales. The contribution of approximately 65% of group revenue from T-Mobile US clearly sets Deutsche Telekom apart.
  • Orange’s YoY revenue growth in CY24 was limited to 1.5%, mainly due to the deconsolidation of Orange Spain after the creation of the MásOrange joint venture, and a decline in Orange Business’ revenue of -1.9%, primarily from fixed services. However, strong growth from the META region of 7.4% stabilized Orange’s overall business.
  • Telefónica, which ranks second in group revenue, reported modest YoY growth of 1.6% in CY24. This was due to growth in service revenues (up 2.5%) driven by a stronger B2B performance (up 4.8%) but offset in part by the depreciation of various Latin American currencies (in particular the Brazilian real) against the euro.
  • Vodafone, from CY20 to CY22 Vodafone was ahead of, and accelerating away from, Orange and Telefónica. However, the disposal of its Italy and Spain operations meant a loss of over $8 billion annual revenue, effective in its restated financials from 2023. This resizes Vodafone below Orange and Telefonica but, as of CY2024, it remains on a higher growth trajectory. Vodafone completed the sale of its Spain operation (to Zegona Communications) in May 2024 for €5 billion and its Italy operation in January 2025 (to Swisscom) for €8 billion. Around the same time it received regulatory approval for its merger with Three in the U.K.

Figure 2 positions the operators based on their CY24 group revenue and growth rate over CY23, with bubble sizes representing the absolute EBITDA or EBITDAaL (EBITDA after leases) values for CY24. It brings out the similarity of Orange and Telefónica’s businesses in terms of all three metrics (size, growth, and EBITDA). Deutsche Telekom and BT, while differing significantly in both revenue and growth, show nearly identical EBITDA margins—43% and 40% respectively—indicating comparable efficiency in generating operating profit.

Notes:

  • Size of bubble refers to the value of CY24 EBITDA (BT, Deutsche Telekom, and Telefónica) or EBITDAaL (Orange and Vodafone).
  • The percentages next to operator’s name plotted on the chart represent the EBITDA margin for (BT, Deutsche Telekom, and Telefónica) or EBITDAaL margin (Orange and Vodafone).

Figure 3 rebases each operator’s group revenue to a value of 100 in CY20 and plots relative development from that point. This clearly shows Deutsche Telekom’s outperformance over the others, the similar relative performance of BT, Orange, and Telefónica over the last three years, and again the temporary drop in Vodafone’s revenue due to major disposals.

Notes:

  • Revenue is plotted relative to a baseline of 100 for all operators in CY20.
  • Vodafone’s negative growth in CY2023 is due to the disposal of Vodafone Italy and Vodafone Spain in CY2024 and subsequent revenue restatements.

Geographical Markets

Figure 4 shows how operators’ total CY24 revenue breaks down geographically. Each operator’s domestic operations are labeled as its home market on the chart. For Vodafone, we assigned its largest country market of Germany as, not being an ex-incumbent, the concept of home market is less clearly defined.

The chart highlights how international businesses, primarily opcos, gained via historical acquisitions, are a sizeable fraction of each operator’s total business. The exception is BT. Following a series of divestments in recent years, BT is now very heavily concentrated on the U.K., contributing 89% of group revenue in FY24 (the year ending March 2024, BT’s most recent geographical reporting). BT CEO Allison Kirkby’s decision to focus on the U.K. still further is an extension of a trend already well established.

Notes:

  • Vodafone’s home market is assigned as Germany, its largest revenue-contributing market.
  • BT does not publish geographical splits on a quarterly basis, so CY splits are unavailable. We applied the latest published breakdown (year ending March 2024) to CY24 revenue for illustration.
  • The chart is organized in descending order of group revenue, progressing from the highest to the lowest value along the horizontal axis.
  • The percentage shows each region’s share of the overall group revenue, and the number shows the total revenue that region produced in CY24.

B2B Revenue Performance

Figure 5 shows how operators’ CY24 revenue from business customers compares with total group revenue. We aimed to capture all B2B revenue, including dedicated enterprise units (BT Business, Deutsche Telekom’s System Solutions/T-Systems, Orange Business, Telefónica Tech, and Vodafone Business), as well as other reported business revenue generated by the group organization. In practice, some very small business customers buy consumer products and are served by the consumer division of an operator. We don’t attempt to break out this revenue.

Notes:

  • Growth rates shown in red (decline) and green (growth) refer to CY24 B2B revenue growth.
  • Figures represent overall B2B revenue, including enterprise business units and services sold to business customers by the parent organization.
  • The chart is organized in descending order of CY24 group revenue, with operators arranged left to right from highest to lowest.
  • Deutsche Telekom (DT) is placed first as it recorded the highest total revenue in CY24. However, in this graph T-Mobile US has been excluded from DT’s revenue in this analysis, as the company does not report a segmented B2B vs B2C revenue breakdown for the U.S. market. This exclusion ensures a more accurate and consistent comparison of DT’s European B2B revenue contribution.

Deutsche Telekom

Deutsche Telekom’s B2B revenue comes from the summation of two segments: German Business Customers and Systems Solutions (T-Systems). Deutsche Telekom serves enterprise clients globally, but only these two components are reported in the operator’s annual statements. German Business Customers, part of Deutsche Telekom’s Germany segment, generated €8.7B in CY24, down 5.7% YoY (mainly due to reclassification of some revenue as wholesale since January 2024).

Systems Solutions, operating under the T-Systems brand, focuses on ICT services in the DACH region, spanning cloud, digital, security, and advisory services as well as road toll systems. Revenue rose to €4.0B in CY24, up 2.8% YoY, reflecting steady strategic growth.

System Solutions’ growth was driven by:
• Expanding demand for digital, cloud, and road charging services
• Strong momentum in public sector IT contracts, a key vertical for T-Systems
• Ongoing customer migration from legacy infrastructure to digital platforms

Despite ongoing pressure in traditional services, the gains in high-growth areas allowed Systems Solutions to post a 3.7% increase in external revenue and a 2.3% rise in service revenue, signaling healthy market traction and improved portfolio relevance.

The overall YoY revenue decline of -1.2% shown in figure 5 for Deutsche Telekom is the result of growth in its System Solutions segment being offset by a decline in revenue from its German business segment. Together they represent 31% of DT total revenue of $44,063063M excluding the U.S. region.

Telefónica

Telefónica Tech (TTech) is the digital services arm within Telefónica’s broader B2B segment. It focuses on services such as cloud, cybersecurity, IoT and Big Data, and AI and automation, while the B2B segment overall includes traditional connectivity and managed services. In CY24, TTech generated €2,065M in revenue, growing 10% YoY and contributing to total B2B revenue of €8,957M, up 4.8% YoY.

Main B2B growth drivers included:
• Bookings and commercial funnel growing at 30% YoY and 15% respectively in CY24
• Enhanced business sustainability and larger, higher-value projects in the backlog

TTech’s cybersecurity and cloud revenue amounted to €1,821M (up 12.3% YoY), and its IoT and data revenue totaled €246M (down 4.8% YoY) in CY24.

Orange

Orange Business contributed 19% of Orange’s total revenue in CY24, at €7.8B, down 1.9% YoY due to the decline in fixed service revenues. Although declining modestly, the segment demonstrated strategic resilience and a relative shift toward higher-value digital services.

B2B growth was driven by:
• IT and integration services, up slightly (by 2.7% comparable growth, or €102M) in a complex IT market
• Orange Cyberdefense (part of IT services), up 11.2% or €120M

Despite ongoing pressure on legacy product lines and equipment sales, positive momentum in IT and mobile segments demonstrates good portfolio realignment and robust underlying market traction.

Vodafone

Enterprise customers of all sizes are handled through Vodafone Business. The unit reports service (as opposed to total) revenue, which amounted to €7.9 billion in CY24, 21% of (total) group revenue. This was up 3.2% on CY23 (based on restated figures that exclude Italy and Spain), making Vodafone one of only two telcos in the group to be growing its B2B business.

Vodafone’s B2B growth drivers include:
• Strong demand for digital services (cloud, security, and IoT), particularly in the MEA region. Cloud revenue grew 25% YoY on average per quarter, and digital services grew from 17% of total business service revenue at the start of CY24 to 20% by the end.
• Demand for fixed connectivity, again particularly in MEA.
• Project work, often in the public sector, in some markets including the U.K.

Against the growth in digital services and fixed connectivity, Vodafone’s B2B mobile business was challenged during the year, from falling inflation-linked price increases as well as ARPU erosion during large contract renewals, notably in Germany.

BT

BT Business, the merger of the former U.K.-focused BT Enterprise with BT Global, accounted for 38% of BT’s total revenue in CY24. While this is a higher relative contribution than the other operators, and in absolute terms is larger than Telefonica, Orange, and Vodafone, the unit has underperformed for several years, being 23% smaller at the end of CY24 compared with the start of CY20.

There are few positive growth drivers to report, with most B2B segments in decline. U.K. SMB was a relatively strong performer up to CY24 but growth has since flattened and turned negative. The U.K. CPS (corporate and public sector) business, conversely, has turned from strongly negative to broadly stable in CY24.

In terms of service offerings, security is a consistent growth area, and BT is betting on its global NaaS platform, Global Fabric, to revitalize its B2B portfolio and boost its international business over the next few years. The first customer went live on Global Fabric in March 2025 and the roadmap sees many of BT’s network services being offered via the platform over the next two years.

Major Announcements and Events

These are some of the main revenue-impacting developments by operator during CY24:

BT

  • December 2024: BT Group signed a new £1.29B contract with the U.K. Home Office to deliver mobile services for the government’s Emergency Services Network, aiming to enhance communication capabilities for emergency responders.
  • November 2024: Reports, later confirmed by BT, suggested that the company was looking at options for its international business following a long period of underperformance globally and a strategic focus on the U.K. market.
  • August 2024: Indian Bharti Enterprises agreed to purchase a 24.5% stake in BT Group from Altice, making Bharti the largest shareholder in BT.
  • February 2024: BT Group welcomed Allison Kirkby as its CEO, the first woman to lead the U.K. telecom giant.

Deutsche Telekom

  • November 2024: Deutsche Telekom awarded Nokia a contract to roll out a large-scale commercial Open Radio Access Network (O-RAN) across more than 3,000 sites in Germany, supporting the operator’s strategy to diversify its supplier base and enhance network efficiency.
  • July 2024: Deutsche Telekom’s U.S. subsidiary T-Mobile US announced a joint venture with KKR to acquire fiber ISP Metronet. T-Mobile is investing about $4.9 billion for a 50% stake in the JV, which will absorb Metronet’s two million FTTH customers across 17 states.

Orange

  • May 2024: Orange announced the completion of the merger between Orange Romania SA and Orange Romania Communications SA as of June 1, 2024.
  • March 2024: Orange and MásMóvil completed the creation of a 50:50 JV valued at €18.6 billion in Spain, combining their operations to form a leading operator in terms of customers.
  • February 2024, Orange SA exited the retail banking business, after years of losses, by transferring its Orange Bank customers to BNP Paribas.

Telefónica

  • November 2024: The Spanish government approved Saudi Arabian STC Group’s acquisition of a 9.9% stake in Telefónica, allowing STC to appoint a board member, with conditions to safeguard national interests.
  • July 2024: Telefónica and Vodafone Spain (now owned by Zegona) agreed to form a joint fiber venture in Spain. The non-binding MOU outlines plans to combine and expand FTTH networks to cover ~3.5 million premises.
  • February 2024: Telefónica finalized an agreement to sell its Telefónica Argentina unit for about $1.245B to Telecom Argentina.

Vodafone

  • December 2024: Vodafone Group’s merger with Three U.K. received conditional approval from the U.K.’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA), forming the largest mobile operator in Britain.
  • December 2024: Vodafone, in partnership with AST SpaceMobile, achieved a world-first: a direct-to-mobile satellite video call using a standard smartphone.
  • May 2024: Vodafone sold its Spanish operations to Zegona Communications for €5B, as part of its strategy to simplify its portfolio and focus on core markets.
  • March 2024: Swisscom agreed to acquire 100% of Vodafone Italia for €8B, aiming to merge it with its subsidiary Fastweb to create a leading converged operator in Italy.
  • January 2024: The U.K. government raised national security concerns over the 14.6% stake in Vodafone Group acquired by Emirates telecom e& (formerly Etisalat).

Conclusion

This post has provided comparisons over a limited selection of metrics. Starting with CY 25Q1 results, we will publish more detailed comparisons and analyses in IDC’s European Enterprise Communications Services program, initially across the five operators presented here.

Masarra Mohamad - Senior Research Analyst, European 5G Enterprise Strategies - IDC

Analyst Profile
Masarra Mohamed is a senior research analyst specializing in analysing the connectivity and communications services markets, focusing on the changing networking requirements, trends, and competitive dynamics that support enterprises in their digital transformation. She explores how enterprise network strategies evolve to enable cloud, AI, and security.

Having released the initial Zen 5 based single Core Complex Die (CCD) 3D V-Cache-based Ryzen 7 9800X3D in November 2024, AMD announced the dual-CCD Ryzen 9 9000X3D variants, including the Ryzen 9 9900X3D and Ryzen 9 9950X3D, on January 6, 2025 ahead of CES 2025.

The AMD Ryzen 9 9950X3D is a high-performance desktop processor with 16 cores and 32 threads. It uses two CCDs, each containing eight cores. The processor also features 2nd generation 3D V-Cache technology, which significantly enhances performance by adding extra cache on the chip.

Each of the two CCDs in a Ryzen 9 9950X3D features 32 MB of L3 cache, and there is an additional 64MB of 3D V-Cache that is stacked under one of the CCDs. This extra cache significantly enhances the performance of tasks that benefit from larger cache sizes, especially gaming.
The AMD Ryzen 9 9950X3D became available on March 12, with a starting suggested price of $699.

2nd Generation 3D V-Cache

The new Ryzen 9 9950X3D and Ryzen 9 9900X3D feature 2nd Gen 3D V-Cache, but on only one of the two CCDs. Similar to their predecessors, the other core complex does not include 3D V-Cache. This design offers the best of both worlds: the first CCD with 3D V-cache optimized for latency, and the second CCD without it, optimized for the highest possible clock speeds and throughput for highly-multithreaded workloads that do not depend on L3 cache for performance.

AMD has advanced and optimized its 3D V-Cache technology, as we covered in our Ryzen 7 9800X3D review and now with the new Ryzen 9 9950X3D and Ryzen 9 9900X3D parts. This latest iteration, known as 2nd Gen 3D V-Cache technology, offers notable improvements in performance. The key difference lies in the cache placement. Previously, the 3D V-Cache was layered on top of the cores in the Ryzen 5800X3D and Ryzen 7000X3D processors.

In the Zen5-based Ryzen 7 9800X3D and Ryzen 9 9000X3D series, the 2nd Gen 3D-V-Cache is now positioned below the processor cores. This change allows the primary heat source, the CCD, to interface directly with the cooling solution. Since the 3D V-Cache is less sensitive to temperature, this results in up to 46% better thermal resistance, according to AMD. Cooler temperatures enable higher sustained clock speeds, both single- and multi-threaded.

AMD Provisioning Packages Service Update

The latest update to the AMD Provisioning Packages Service, which is included in the chipset driver update for Windows 11, brings significant improvements to the user experience. This service manages AMD provisioning packages, including processor and nonvolatile memory express (NVMe) power management.

Designed specifically for Ryzen 9 processors, the service optimizes CPU power and performance during gaming. It uses power/frequency optimization and core parking within the Windows Game Mode power profile. The service dynamically applies optimizations to specific power profiles when an application is launched. When gaming, it “parks” the cores on the second CCD that lacks the 3D V-Cache, making them temporarily unavailable to the OS. This ensures the game runs on the CCX. The AMD Ryzen 9 9950X 3DV features two CCDs (Core Chiplet Dies).

Each CCD in this processor contains a single CCX (Core Complex) with 3D V-Cache, improving the L3 cache hit rate and overall game performance and particularly bolstering critical elements such as the 1% low frames per second (FPS) rate.
If there are changes to the CPU name, core count, logical processor count, or L3 cache count, the service will automatically uninstall and reinstall the relevant AMD provisioning packages. AMD advises performing a clean installation of Windows when changing the processor to avoid potential configuration issues with other software. The time to complete provisioning changes is typically around two minutes after booting to Windows.

While there is no BIOS option for this feature, the AMD Provisioning Packages Service can be disabled in Windows Services settings. NVMe provisioning requires Windows 11 version 22H2 or later. The Windows 10 user experience remains unchanged.

Overall, this update enhances the predictability, performance, and efficiency of Ryzen 9 9000X3D V-Cache-enabled processors, particularly for gaming, by intelligently managing power and core usage.

AMD 3D V-Cache Performance Optimizer

The AMD 3D V-Cache Performance Optimizer enhances the performance of Ryzen 9 9000X3D 3D V-Cache processors in gaming and non-gaming tasks. It achieves this by dynamically adjusting the “favored” processor cores based on the current application. During gaming sessions, the OS prioritizes cores connected to the larger L3 cache. Conversely, for non-gaming tasks, it favors the cores with the highest frequency. Notably, the AMD 3D V-Cache Performance Optimizer does not “park” any cores.

This feature benefits desktop processors such as the Ryzen 9 9950X3D, Ryzen 9 9900X3D, Ryzen 9 7950X3D, and Ryzen 9 7900X3D. However, it does not provide advantages for single CCX X3D processors like the Ryzen 7 9800X3D or Ryzen 7 7800X3D.

Configuration options for this feature are available in the BIOS under AMD CBS/SMU Common Options/CPPC Dynamic Preferred Cores. The settings include:

– Auto | Driver: Allows the driver to decide which CPUs to prefer based on the active window.
– Cache: Always prefers CPUs in the 3D V-Cache CCX.
– Frequency: Always prefers CPUs in the highest frequency CCX.

Overall, the AMD 3D V-Cache Performance Optimizer significantly boosts the efficiency and performance of compatible Ryzen 9 processors by intelligently managing core usage based on the task at hand.

AMD Application Compatibility Database

The new AMD Application Compatibility Database, which requires both a new BIOS and chipset driver, is designed to address specific game titles that exhibit performance-limiting behavior not fully resolved by the AMD Provisioning Packages Service. These targeted optimizations reduce the thread pool size for the affected games, resulting in improved L3 cache utilization and higher FPS. This is achieved by repurposing the Windows Compatibility Toolkit’s ‘ProcessorCountLie’ feature, originally co-developed with Microsoft.

Users with Socket AM5 Platform Ryzen 9 9000 series and Ryzen 9 7000 series processors, both with and without X3D, can benefit from this new feature after a BIOS update. Currently, the Ryzen 9 9950X3D benefits from an AMD Application Compatibility Database File with optimizations for several games, including Deus Ex: Mankind Divided, Dying Light 2, Far Cry 6, Metro Exodus, Metro Exodus Enhanced Edition (RT), Total War: Three Kingdoms, Total War: Warhammer III, and Wolfenstein: Young Blood.

Overall, the AMD Application Compatibility Database enhances gaming performance by intelligently managing thread pool sizes and improving cache utilization for a smoother and more responsive gaming experience.

The AMD Ryzen 9 9950X3D for Productivity

Rendering is a good example of productivity. The choice between CPU and GPU rendering hinges on a project’s specific needs and constraints. While GPUs excel in parallel processing and are often faster for many rendering tasks, some studios and creators still prefer CPUs. CPUs can handle larger amounts of system memory, offer better price-performance ratios compared to professional GPUs with limited VRAM, and provide high precision and stability. Additionally, CPUs are usually certified by most ISVs to run their applications smoothly without issues. This makes CPUs a reliable choice for many rendering workflows, even if they take more time.

For the first-generation implementations of AMD Ryzen 3D V-Cache, the cache tile being placed on top of the CCD limited the potential for higher clock frequencies and headroom increases due to thermal constraints. This meant that while certain workloads such as gaming saw big performance increases with 3D V-Cache enabled CPUs, highly-threaded, productivity-centric applications could see worse results with the lower frequencies on the 3D V-Cache-enabled CCD.

With the cache tile being placed underneath the CCD in second-generation 3D V-Cache parts, the CPU frequency is able to boost to higher frequencies, helping make these parts much more comparable in performance to the standard, non-3D V-Cache CPUs on highly multi-threaded workloads. This capability gives demanding users the best of both worlds of gaming and productivity.

Blender Benchmark

Blender Benchmark version 4.3.0 was used to assess the AMD Ryzen 9 9950X3D processor’s rendering performance. With a score of 613.88, the processor’s performance ranked among the top 37% of benchmarks running the same workloads. Given the inclusion of GPU results, the CPU performed brilliantly in proportion to its core count.

Compared to the Ryzen 9 7950X (non-3D V-Cache) that we reviewed last year, the Ryzen 9 9950X3D achieved an average benchmark performance that was 17% faster.

IndigoBench

IndigoBench v4.4.15 is another standalone benchmark based on Indigo 4’s rendering engine and the industry-standard OpenCL.

The processor scored an impressive 19.048 million samples per second on IndigoBench, ranking it among the top 30 CPU results. This was achieved with normal settings and no overclocking. Many of the top scores were from high-end server CPUs like the AMD EPYC 9654 96-Core Processor.

The processor outperformed the Ryzen 9 7950X again by 17%, thanks to its cooler operation and faster core speed of 5.2GHz on all cores under load.

Overclocking

We enabled Precision Boost Overdrive (PBO), which remains the best method for overclocking while maintaining optimal power efficiency. It is important to note that PBO is an advanced overclocking feature that may void the warranty, according to AMD. In the BIOS, under the Advanced settings, we set the limits to “Motherboard” and adjusted the CPU Boost Clock override to “+200MHz.” We incrementally adjusted the Curve Optimizer, starting at -10 and achieving stability at -20 on all cores, verified through Cinebench 2024 testing.

The single core boost hit 5.9GHz, while all cores under load consistently ran between 5.15 and 5.2GHz. Thanks to the be quiet! Silent Loop 2 280mm water cooler, temperatures remained below 80°C. In Cinebench 2024, the default settings yielded a score of 2,190 points. However, with PBO enabled, we achieved a 9.5% performance boost, raising the score to 2,399 points at a lower voltage. This was also 15% better than the Ryzen 9 7950X CPU, which scored 2,094 using PBO boost settings.

Besides overclocking manually in the motherboard’s BIOS, users can also use the Ryzen Master tool to fine-tune performance. This flexibility allows advanced users and overclocking enthusiasts to fully explore and enjoy the capabilities of this chip.

Final Words and Conclusion

The second-generation AMD 3D V-Cache, which places the cache tile underneath the CCD die, helps overcome the biggest limitations of the original generation, allowing better heat transfer and sustained higher clock speeds. The Ryzen 9 9950X3D boasts the fastest Zen 5-based 3D V-Cache-enabled CCDs, reaching up to 5,550 MHz, compared to 5,450 MHz for the Ryzen 7 9800X3D. This not only helps the new Ryzen 9 9950X3D have a better gaming performance due to the higher clock speeds of the 3D V-Cache CCD; it also also closes the multi-thread performance gap on highly multi-threaded workloads, as the clock penalty of the 3D V-Cache is much smaller than the prior generation 3D V-Cache CPUs.

3D V-Cache has been proven to work very well overall, but it is not the whole story. Looking to the future, and particularly with the prevalence of AI-enhanced workloads coming down the pipeline, we would suggest that AMD considers focusing on improving memory performance and capacity as a differentiator. With DDR5, supporting large memory capacities with four DIMMS spread across two channels normally requires dropping the memory transaction speeds significantly to achieve reliability. This usually means that many customers prefer to populate only one DIMM per channel to maximize memory throughput, which can limit the installed DRAM capacity.

Doubling the number of DRAM memory channels from two to four and providing only a single DIMM slot per memory channel in future platforms will allow the DRAM to run at maximum transfer rates for all DIMM slots to support the higher demands of dual CCD CPUs. It will also enable the use of four DIMMs per system for maximum memory capacity at a cost-effective price. A single DIMM slot per memory channel will also help to reduce electromagnetic interference issues, simplify engineering, and increase reliability and performance compared to having an empty second DIMM slot on a memory channel. This would allow for greater upgradability and significantly enhanced performance in creative applications, without compromising memory bandwidth and speed.

 

Related Reviews: AMD Ryzen 7 9800X3D Processor Review: Gaming Performance Redefined

Mohamed Hakam Hefny - Senior Program Manager - IDC

Analyst Profile
Mohamed Hefny leads market research in EMEA on professional workstation PCs and solutions. He also reports on professional computing semiconductors, processors, and accelerators (CPUs and GPUs), as well as breakthroughs and trends related to the market. In addition, Mohamed is actively involved in AI PC taxonomy and research. He participates in business development projects, contributes to consulting activities, and provides IDC customers with analysis, opinions, and advice.

The 2025 edition has once again cemented Hannover Messe’s status as the world’s most important industrial trade fair, serving as a vital convergence point for technology, business, and international cooperation. The March 31–April 4 event drew an impressive crowd, with around 127,000 visitors making their way from 150 different countries to engage with the 4,000 exhibiting companies.

During the 40+ meetings I attended, a palpable sense emerged that today’s driving industrial productivity force is the full integration of the physical world of machines with digital intelligence (including AI, obviously).

A fellow delegate and I joked that if an AI bot had been eavesdropping at Hannover Messe 2025, recording and analyzing all that was discussed, so much knowledge could’ve been extracted as to move industry 10 years forward overnight.

While I do not have such a brain or computing power, I still managed to get down in Hannover some of the most compelling trends that I believe are shaping industry today.

1. The BANI World is Here — and Agility Wins

We have entered the era of the BANI world — brittle, anxious, nonlinear, and incomprehensible. It’s clear that the old certainties are gone and the name of the game now is agile and operationally excellent. Having digital tools and the ability to make smart, data-driven decisions is no longer optional; these are essential to navigate the new reality.

2. Think “Information Superhighway” — Not Just “Data Integration”

Everyone’s talking about data integration, but it’s more than just connecting systems. It’s about building a reliable, high-speed “information superhighway” from the edge to the cloud. Just like adding lanes to a real highway, the more data we can access, the more we’ll want. CIOs will need to think continually about their data infrastructure.

3. Industrial AI is Blossoming

Industrial AI isn’t a futuristic concept anymore — it’s taking root in practical ways.  The companies that will succeed are those that take a focused approach, figuring out exactly how AI can solve specific problems in their operations. It’s about moving beyond the theoretical and getting real, reliable results on the shop floor.

4. AI Agents — Exciting, But Let’s Be Strategic

AI agents and orchestrators are definitely generating excitement, and they could be game changers. But we need to think carefully about whether we’re seeing them as a quick fix for underlying issues or as a way to really amplify the power of our data. The latter is where the real potential lies.

5. Sensing the Shop Floor Like Never Before

The ability to get a complete, real-time pulse of the shop floor is becoming a reality thanks to connected tools, robots, and cameras. And with AI, both workers and supervisors can analyze this wealth of data to boost productivity and optimize processes in ways we couldn’t before. It’s about unlocking the hidden secrets of our operations.

6. Empowering the Frontline Worker

The explosion of connected worker apps is really interesting. It’s about connecting people, processes, and machines in a more seamless way. This can help bridge skill gaps, accelerate learning, and create a more engaging work environment, especially for the next generation of workers.

7. The Metaverse is More Than Just a Visual Stunt

Forget just seeing a digital twin — with platforms like Omniverse, we’re moving toward a fully immersive “vision experience.” Imagine being able to zoom from a high-level overview down to the tiniest detail on the shop floor, all synced with real-time production data. Furthermore, the power to “rewind” and “fast-forward” production steps for meticulous traceability is there. That’s a game changer for understanding and managing operations.

8. Production Scheduling — Finally Getting the Spotlight

Production scheduling might not be the flashiest topic, but it’s becoming increasingly critical. With better data integration and AI, and the need to connect production with the wider supply chain, these tools are finally getting the attention they deserve for optimizing efficiency.

9. The Power of Working Together

The idea of ecosystems built on shared data structures, like those promoted by IDSA, is gaining real traction. Initiatives like Manufacturing-X, Factory-X, and Catena-X show a renewed focus on companies collaborating to solve big business challenges in a more connected way.

10. MES is Evolving — Has Evolved — Fast

The traditional manufacturing execution system (MES) is changing rapidly to meet new market demands. We’re seeing a big push toward cloud deployment, more flexible architectures, user-friendly designs, integrated data platforms, better connections with other enterprise systems, and the incorporation of AI and analytics. It’s a whole new era for MES.