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New year, new Chief Information Officer at DXC Technology with the appointment of tech veteran Brad Novak (pictured), who also joins the firm’s leadership team.
London-based Novak joins DXC to lead a global team standardising and consolidating a range of different platforms and processes across the firm, aimed at improving workforce productivity. A key part of this will predictably be embedding AI in roles and processes across the piece, including coding assistants and AI-powered service management.
Novak is an experienced senior technologist with some 30 years track record in financial services tech, notably senior stints at Barclays, where he was the CTO for the Corporate and Investment Bank, and at Credit Suisse. Novak has also worked in Private Equity and Venture Capital.
Posted by: Marc Hardwick at 08:44
Tags: appointment
TechMarketView’s More than a Feeling: GenAI and Sentiment Analytics in Customer Experience report is now live for our subscribers.
The advent of the GenAI era will have a profound impact on both the Customer Experience (CX) domain as a whole and the hyper-personalisation of experiences in particular. The latter has placed Sentiment Analytics (SA), which seeks to enable businesses to track and react to the emotional state of customers at each stage of their journey, high on the list of CX GenAI investment priorities.
The latest technological wave promises to not only greatly accelerate the sense and react process, but also drive a step change in the quality and individual relevance of corporate “in the moment” responses to the feelings of each of their customers. Supply-side investment in the development of these capabilities has increased significantly and the opportunity to not only better understand, but also exert greater influence on individual buyer behaviour has also spawned a slew of SA proofs of concept and pilot initiatives.
But is this just another example of GenAI hype-inspired over enthusiasm?
This report is focused on the technology-enabled advances in Sentiment Analytics and assesses if and how they are redefining the art of the possible in the CX area. The analysis contains details of some of the more innovative, real world CX use cases for GenAI-drive Sentiment Analytics and identifies a number of the disruptive tech companies which are leading the charge in this rapidly evolving field.
If you are a subscriber to TechSectorViews, download the More than a Feeling: GenAI and Sentiment Analytics in Customer Experience report today. If you don’t have a subscription and would like to gain access the report and our other research and services please contact Deb Seth.
Posted by: Duncan Aitchison at 08:03
Tags: analytics newresearch AI customer+experience
CGI has secured a £75m, 10-year engagement with Hywel Dda University Health Board to transform healthcare services across Mid and West Wales. The relationship aims to help Hywel Dda achieve its strategic goal of becoming a fully digitally enabled health board.
Through this collaboration, CGI will support Hywel Dda improve patient outcomes and operational efficiencies by driving the modernisation of health and social care, with technology as a key enabler. This includes upgrading systems and facilities for healthcare professionals, exploring innovative solutions such as AI integration, and fostering closer collaboration between health and social care teams.
The deal has been struck at the most challenging of times for both the client and NHS Wales. Hywel Dda has by far the biggest cumulative spending deficit of all the health bodies in the Principality. This reached £150m for the three years between 2021/22 and 2023/24 representing almost 40% of the total overspend by NHS Wales. Waiting times for hospital treatment in Wales are at record levels with people waiting more than a year accounting for nearly a quarter of the list. The comparative figure in England is 4%.
First Minister of Wales, Eluned Morgan has identified “massive digital and technological transformation" as a cornerstone of her government’s strategy to radically reform the Welsh NHS. Hopes for the success of Hywel Dda’s partnership with CGI will be high, not least among the residents of Carmarthenshire, Ceredigion and Pembrokeshire.
Posted by: Duncan Aitchison at 07:52
Tags: contract health Digital transformation
Following two years stellar growth, which saw its turnover increase by 75%, digital delivery consultants Equal Experts suffered a reversal of fortune in FY24. Revenue for the twelve months ended 31st March decreased yoy by 7.4% to £203.1m dragging the company’s operating profit margin down by 440 bps to 13.9% (FY23: 18.3%).
The biggest hit to the firm’s top line came from a severe slump in its European activities. Sales in this region fell by two thirds against the prior financial year from over £24m to less than £8m in FY24. The going in the UK, which accounts for over 80% of Equal Experts’ revenue, also proved tougher in the last fiscal. Turnover here shrank by 3.4% yoy to £164.4m largely as a result of a reduction in spend on some of the firm’s public sector engagements. There was, however, positive progress reported by Equal Experts’ operations in the USA and India which helped lift company sales across the rest of the world by 24% to nearly £31m.
Looking ahead, the firm is confident that it will continue to operate with “stable revenue projections, sustainable if slightly lower margins and a lean operations culture”. The £40m win at HMRC late in 2023 (see here) and the two-year £74m deal with DEFRA landed last May will have contributed to this optimism.
The most significant recent develop at Equal Experts was, however, the completion of its shift to full employee ownership. Through the sale of the company to an Employee Owned Trust seven months ago, the firm hopes that, with no outside investors, no growth targets, and no individual financial incentives, it will be easier for it to focus on the longer term. For now, at least, the company will need to contend with trading conditions which remain challenging.
Posted by: Duncan Aitchison at 07:41
Tags: results digital systems+integration
When OpenAI was founded in 2015, the company was operating as a research lab focused on artificial general intelligence, or AGI, an entirely futuristic concept at the time. The company performed experiments ranging from toolkits for game-playing AI to robotics research and published papers, it had no products, no business, and no commercial revenue.
In 2019, OpenAI aimed to move past its role as a research lab in hopes of functioning more like a startup, so it created a so-called capped-profit model, with the nonprofit still controlling the overall entity. At the time OpenAI estimated that it would have to raise c.$10bn to build AGI (I would think that figure is much higher today). But the real change came in 2022, with the launch of ChatGPT, nobody (including OpenAI) expected the runaway AI hype train that would follow. Understandably this LLM driven demand has opened the doors for OpenAI to make a huge amount of money, and in so doing also attract far more funding than it would have thought possible in its early years.
This has culminated in October’s $6.6bn funding round, valuing OpenAI at around $157bn (See - OpenAI raises $6.6bn at $157bn valuation). To tap into this funding however means dropping the profit cap, with investors looking for outsized returns on their AI investments.
Over the festive period OpenAI further outlined its plans to move to a for-profit structure. This will involve the creation of a public benefit corporation (PBC) incorporated in Delaware to oversee commercial operations, removing some of its nonprofit restrictions and allowing it to function more like a high-growth startup. The Delaware PBC will have “ordinary shares of stock” allowing it to pursue commercial operations while separately hiring staff for its nonprofit arm for charitable activities in health care, education and science. The change in structure still faces challenges however, including a lawsuit from Elon Musk, a co-founder of OpenAI, who has sued to stop the move.
When or if AGI will exist remains an unknown, even defining the behaviours and outcomes of such an AI system are still largely theoretical. It is certainly an aspirational goal for companies like OpenAI, a north star so to speak, but I think we should be under no illusion that like so many other AI startups profit is the short-term goal, as is competing with the likes of Anthropic, Amazon and Meta and becoming the LLM of choice for enterprises and consumers alike. 2025 will be a year of further progress in the field of AI, with OpenAI likely continuing to lead the way, but I suspect most organisations will care little about AGI’s progress, nor OpenAI’s change in structure, and much more about practical everyday considerations like reliability, scalability, cost efficiency and safety.
Posted by: Simon Baxter at 10:01
Telco giant Vodafone confirmed this morning that it has completed the sale of its Italian operations to Swisscom for €8bn in cash, a deal first mooted back in March, that values Vodafone Italy at a multiple of c.7.6x adjusted EBITDA. As part of the deal Vodafone will continue to provide certain services to its former Italian business for up to five years post deal. The annual charge for the first year is estimated at some €350m.
The mobile telco, which last year agreed to merge its UK business with Three, now plans to use the proceeds to pay down its large debt pile and return a further €2bn to shareholders once the current buyback programme is completed.
Posted by: Marc Hardwick at 08:33
Tags: divestment telco
TechMarketView’s latest UK Police Software and IT Services (SITS) Suppliers, Trends, and Forecasts report is now available. It is the final part of our series of reports providing in-depth analysis of the six UK public sector subsectors. It follows reports on Central Government, Health, Defence, Local & Regional Government, and Education, and our overall summary of the UK Public Sector SITS market. We have also recently published our UK Public Sector Predictions 2025 report, which reveals the challenges and opportunities that will underpin these public sector technology markets in 2025 and beyond.
This report represents our view of the UK Police SITS market from a market and supplier perspective. It provides our analysis of the performance of the market in 2023, a year in which a small number of suppliers performed extremely well, but many struggled for growth. We also provide a view on 2024 and look ahead to 2027 as policing tries to balance financial challenges, the need to improve standards and productivity, and work to restore public trust. The market also faces uncertainty related to the government's major reform programme, pressure to improve neighbourhood policing, and targets to halve violence against women and girls and tackle knife crime, all without damaging its ability to fight the growing threat from cyber-enabled and cyber-dependent crime.
The report also contains an update to our UK Police SITS Top 10 supplier rankings, with our analysis of what is driving each player’s performance, as well as an insight into those suppliers that are threatening to unseat the leading players, and our pick of the ‘ones to watch’.
PublicSectorViews subscribers can find out the size of the UK Police SITS market, its future growth, and who the leading suppliers are by downloading Police Software and IT Services Suppliers, Trends and Forecasts 2024 today. If you are not yet a subscriber, or are unsure if your organisation has corporate subscription, please contact Belinda Tewson to find out more.
Posted by: Dale Peters at 08:13
Tags: police forecasts market+trends law+enforcement public+safety supplier+rankings
Just before Christmas I presented my Annual Review of the Holway Portfolio for 2024. A 24% in the year (making it 808% since I started in 2010) wasn’t too sluggish!
At that time Amazon was my 2024 #1 performer – up 48%.
But since then Raspberry Pi has had a ‘Super Santa Rally’. IPOed at 280p on 11th June 24 they ended the first day of trading at 385p. I deliberated the following day believing I had missed the boat. But bought anyway at 429p. So even at that price, my Raspberry Pi shares are up 49% - just pipping Amazon to the #1 slot. Of course if you had got in at 280p you would have gained 130%.
Who said that the London market for IPO was Boring!
Raspberry Pi had already announced excellent maiden results. Interims to 30th June 24 had shown revenues up 61% at $144m and EBITDA up 55% at $20.9m. On 12th Nov, it announced a partnership with Italian IoT specialist SECO. Then on 18th Dec 24 it was announced thar US Hedge Fund SW Investment Management had taken a £48m/3.59% stake.
Although most think of Raspberry Pi as making stripped down computers for the hobbyist market, it is now finding all kinds of new niches being integrated in various control systems etc. It even has an AI offering (The Raspberry Pi AI Kit)
As we end the year, it really is so good to be reporting a great British success story. Not just good for the company – which manufactures most of its stuff in the UK – but also for the London Stock Exchange and the outlook for UK IPOs.
Let’s hope we get more Raspberry Pis in the year to come…
Posted by: Richard Holway at 07:59
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