OUR BUREAU Accenture has retained its position as the top information technology service provider in Everest Group’s 2018 ranking.

Tata Consultancy Services took the second place, leapfrogging Cognizant and IBM, according to the group’s annual ranking of top global IT service providers. Out of the top 20 global service providers in the ranking, seven are pure-play Indian companies while the rest are headquartered in other countries but have a large offshore presence in India.

Among the major changes in the ranking this year, Wipro moved from 5th place to 4th; Infosys from 9th to 7th and NTT Data from 20th to 10th. Tech Mahindra slipped to 14th from 12th, the report said.

Two service providers, Mphasis and Genpact, entered the leader board for the first time. DXC Technologies (9th ranking), a merged entity of CSC and HPE, featured for the first time.

In 2017, Everest Group evaluated 24 segments, including healthcare and life sciences, and BFSI, for the PEAK Matrix methodology. It determined the service provider of the year based on consistent performance across these segments, the report said.