Ten of the top vendors that consult clients through their data center infrastructure transformation could use better marketing strategies, according to a report on the market published recently by the research firm IDC.

Other most common areas that needed improvement were pricing models and sales and distribution strategies, IDC said.

Ali Zaidi, senior research analyst at IDC, said consulting firms’ team members also had a hard time working together with the clients’ teams.

“Buyers of data center transformation consulting services find consulting firms struggle to integrate their team members with those of the customers on data center transformation projects,” Zaidi said.

Key drivers for buyers of consulting services for data center transformation were improving operational efficiency and data center consolidation, according to IDC.

The research analyzes ten vendors in the space, identifying three of them as leaders: Accenture, IBM and HP. The other seven are Capgemini, CSC, Dell, Deloitte, Infosys, KPMG and PriceWaterhouseCoopers.

Most common strength areas among the ten companies were future cost-management strategies, current offerings and future innovation and customer-service strategies.