Vendor consolidation in operational tooling, continued

The quiet pattern of the last eighteen months continued this quarter: a steady, undramatic consolidation of operational tooling vendors. No single transaction stands out. The cumulative effect, however, is a meaningful narrowing of buyer choice in several adjacent categories.

The downstream effect of consolidation is rarely felt at the moment it occurs. It is felt later, in the renewal cycle, when the alternative the buyer assumed would be there is not.