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Crown Hosting Data Centres (CHDC) has won a significant contract with the Bank of England to provide Information Storage Co-location Services. The contract started on 1st March this year and will run until the end of February 2031 (seven years) and is valued at just over £22m.
CHDC is a joint venture (JV) between the Cabinet Office and Ark Data Centres, dedicated to providing Data Centre Services to the UK Public Sector. The original Crown Hosting framework agreement, for the provision of data centre colocation facilities for the ICT of public sector customers, was signed with Crown Hosting Data Centres (CHDC) in 2015.
CHDC had initial success as public sector customers took advantage of the new arrangement; from 2016 to 2020, the company achieved a strong compound annual growth rate of 80%. However, over the years growth slowed. In its FY21 and FY22 (Y/E 30th June) the CAGR was just 9%. The good news for CHDC is that double-digit growth returned in FY23, as CHDC saw revenues climb 28.6% to £57.6m. Profits also grew: by 10% to £2.9m, representing a 5% margin.
Ex-CEO, Steve Hall, was still at the helm during CHDC’s FY23 (see From Crown Hosting CEO to Littlefish CRO: Steve Hall | TechMarketView). Early in 2023, we caught up with him about the new hosting agreement signed in October 2022: Crown Hosting II (see Crown Hosting II: Game changer? | TechMarketView). The new framework agreement represented more than just a simple extension. Many of the changes looked set to give departments and agencies more cause to consider Crown Hosting as a viable alternative when putting in place legacy migration strategies.
It appears that is what has happened. CHDC explains its “significant” FY23 growth as being a result of “more eligible entities (using) Crown Hosting for their datacentre requirements”. Those entities have included organisations in the wider public sector, such as London Ambulance Service NHS Trust and NHS Arden Greater East Midlands Commissioning Support Unit.
In January this year, CHDC welcomed a new CEO. Jason Liggins initially joined Ark Data Centres in January 2014 as its CTO. Simultaneously he also served as CIO of CHDC. In 2020, Jason left to become a consultant at the Cabinet Office and Crown Commercial Service, within the Crown Hosting Framework Authority to “assist with the steering of central government’s aims towards a public cloud future, using Crown hosting as a bridging step from traditional IT services”. He, therefore, was heavily involved in the changes to the UK Government’s Cloud First Policy, as well as the award of Crown Hosting II.
Posted by: Georgina O'Toole at 09:51
Tags: contract colocation hosting legacy framework migration financial+services
Cognizant and Microsoft have announced an expanded partnership focused on the software giant’s generative AI and Copilots. The companies will collaborate to deliver industry-specific solutions using the Copilot Studio platform. Target vertical sectors for the joint initiative include retail and consumer goods, financial services, life sciences, manufacturing and communications and media.
As part of the enhanced partnership, Cognizant purchased 25,000 Microsoft 365 Copilot seats for Cognizant associates, along with 500 Sales Copilot seats and 500 Services Copilot seats. In addition, Cognizant will work to deploy Microsoft 365 Copilot to a million users within their global 2000 clients and across 11 industries. Through Cognizant's Synapse skilling program, 35,000 Cognizant developers have been trained on Github Copilot, with an additional 40,000 developers slated to receive training.
The expansion of the alliance with Microsoft is the latest component of Cognizant’s three-year $1bn generative AI investment programme. Earlier this month, the company declared that it will use the NVIDIA BioNeMo Gen AI platform for drug discovery in the Life Sciences industry. In March, Cognizant opened its Advanced Artificial Intelligence Lab focused on the science of AI and at the beginning of the year the company launched its gen AI software engineering platform, Cognizant Flowsource™️.
The big bet on Gen AI is, however, not set to reignite company growth in the nearer term. The latest guidance from Cognizant anticipates that FY24 revenue will land somewhere 2% down and 2% up yoy at constant currency (see here).
Posted by: Duncan Aitchison at 09:29
Tags: offshore partnership genAI
The UK government has launched an £8m Smart Shipping Acceleration Fund to drive maritime innovation and harness the benefits of AI to boost productivity.
The Smart Shipping Acceleration Fund will kickstart feasibility studies to develop smart shipping technologies such as AI, robotics, and autonomous vessels. The winning projects will also require match funding – leveraging further investment from the private sector. Ports will be able to use AI to detect safety hazards, optimise port activities and reduce their environmental impact.
This latest funding forms part of the UK Shipping Office for Reducing Emissions (UK SHORE) programme. Launched in March 2022 and with £206m in funding, the programme is helping the sector reach net zero.
Maritime Minister, Lord Davies, made the funding announcement while visiting Ocean Infinity, a Southampton-based marine robotics company creating robotic and uncrewed vessel technology. The company is using the funding it won from the UK SHORE programme to develop decarbonisation projects, including future propulsion systems.
AI companies targeting the maritime industry include AIM listed Windward who grew 31% in FY23, See - Windward closes FY23 with revenue up 31% - and provides a range of solutions from an AI driven decision support platform, to solutions to predict fuel consumption and advise on sanctions compliance. Another is Dublin based Protex AI, which uses existing CCTV infrastructure and computer vision technologies to capture unsafe events autonomously in a variety of settings such as manufacturing facilities and ports. See - Protex AI raises $18m to enhance workplace safety.
Posted by: Simon Baxter at 09:24
Tags: AI maritime
Construction software specialist, Eleco made further strides along its strategic shift to a SaaS-based business model during FY23. Total recurring revenue ncreased by 22% yoy to £20.7m to account for nearly three quarters company turnover for the twelve months ended 31st December.
The accompanying cannibalisation of Eleco’s perpetual license revenue however, limited overall top line growth at constant currency to just 6% over the prior fiscal year. The company generated sales of £28m in 2023, of which £1m came from the acquisition last June of Project Portfolio Management (PPM) software provider, Best Outcome. The bottom line for the FY improved at faster pace with EBITDA up 12% yoy to £5.8m.
Eleco’s UK business was the star of last year’s show. Revenue in this country jumped by 22% yoy (12.6% organically) to just over £13m. Overseas revenues decreased by 6% to £15m with sales in Germany and Sweden impacted by divested and end-of-life products. There was better news from across the pond where the implementation a direct sales channel secured more than 40 new customers in the USA. FY23 turnover in this region rose by 7.5% yoy to £1.2m.
Despite the continuing headwinds in the construction sector, Eleco remains confident about its prospects for the current year. Annualised Recurring Revenue increased by almost a quarter in 2023 providing a solid platform for growth. The recent purchase of Romania-HQ’d software developer Vertical Digital (see here) together with the full year benefit of the Best Outcome buy will also bolster the FY24 top line. Investors appear to share the company’s optimism. At the time of writing Eleco’s share price stood over 25% higher than twelve months ago.
Posted by: Duncan Aitchison at 09:21
Tags: results saas software construction
Healthtech startup HealthKey has secured £1.13m in a seed round led by Aviva Ventures, with participation from Ascension, Oxford Capital, and Cur8 Capital.
The company was founded by David Joerring and Tudor Cotop in 2022 with the intention of making it easier for people to access the ever-expanding range of digital healthcare providers.
HealthKey helps employers offer health and wellbeing benefits to its staff, supporting recruitment, retention, engagement and duty of care. It provides a free platform that acts as a marketplace of vetted healthcare providers. Employers can allocate HealthKey Budget to their staff through this portal, allowing them to spend it on services that cover a broad range of areas, including mental health, women’s health, chronic conditions, health insights, sexual and reproductive health, parenting and children's wellbeing, and physiotherapy. Employers are charged as these Budgets are used by employees to access these services.
The seed funding follows a pilot project conducted in partnership with Aviva, which saw c.800 employees participate over a nine-month period. The investment will help HealthKey enhance its platform’s capabilities, broaden the range of services available to users and expand its interactions with employers, insurers, and health plan providers.
Helping employers and their staff navigate the increasingly complex ecosystem of digital healthcare providers is a sensible approach. It should provide employees with an easier way to explore and select the most appropriate digital healthcare service for their individual circumstance.
Posted by: Dale Peters at 09:08
Tags: funding startup marketplace healthcare wellbeing healthtech
London-listed, Canadian infrastructure connectivity specialist, Alphawave IP Group PLC (trading as Alphawave Semi) saw revenue for FY 2023 significantly increase year-on-year to $322m (FY 2022 $185m), in part down to the previous year’s acquisitions of US chip makers, OpenFive (for $210m) and Banis Labs (for $240m). However, the Group moved into loss making territory with operating losses of -$19.4m, down from an operating profit of $37.6m for FY22, reflecting a decrease in gross margin and higher operating expenses. Operating margin in 2023 was -6%, also significantly below FY 2022’s 20%.
Founded in 2017, Alphawave moved its head office to Cambridge (UK) in 2021. The group has enjoyed strong growth off the back of the significant global demand for critical data infrastructure, fuelled by technologies such as AI and automation. Alphawave originally chose to list in London due to what is perceives as the excellent technology ecosystem that exists here (see: Alphawave IP opts for London listing). Indeed, Alphawave Semi recently joined Arm Total Design, an ecosystem to make specialised solutions based on Arm Neoverse Compute Subsystems (CSS) widely available across the infrastructure.
In May 2023, Alphawave was forced to temporarily suspend its shares on the LSE because its auditors (KPMG) needed additional time to sign-off the group’s accounts. The delay was caused by the challenge of properly auditing the significantly enlarged organisation following Alphawave’s recent acquisitions. Shares in the Group continue to trade some -70% down on their 2021 peak and have shifted little in the last twelve months.
Looking forward, the company expects modest revenue growth in FY 2024 revenue to between $345m to $365m with adjusted EBITDA of approximately $70m (or approx 20% of revenue). The company is de-prioritising growth in China, which will reduce materially as a proportion of revenue. The revenue profile in 2024 will be back end loaded with H124 below H123, which saw a significant contribution from the legacy OpenFive backlog.
Posted by: Marc Hardwick at 09:05
Tags: results semiconductor chip
According to a report in the Financial Times (FT), BT Group’s new CEO, Allison Kirkby, has installed Tom Meakin, a Senior Partner at McKinsey to the board. Meakin, who is the consulting firm’s co-leader of global Consumer Technology and Media, has reportedly taken on the role of Interim Chief Strategy and Change Officer. The move is on a temporary basis until the telecoms giant finds a suitable permanent candidate for the role.
Kirkby was chosen to replace BT’s outgoing CEO Philip Jansen in July 2023, having been a Non-Executive Director since 2019. A leaked memo reveals Kirkby’s vision that a new Strategy and Change unit will help to “define the next phase” of BT’s ongoing transformation. It appears that the Strategy and Change unit will replace BT’s Corporate Strategy and Development, and Group Transformation and Assurance teams.
As Kirkby looks to make her mark and drive further change, the latest move does have some echoes of the past. BT previously had Mike Sherman, in post as Chief Strategy and Transformation Officer, prior to his departure in 2021. Sherman's team ultimately became part of what is now BT’s Digital unit, led by Chief Digital and Innovation Officer, Harmeen Mehta. The Digital unit is currently responsible for digital innovation, operational transformation, IT, and data and product strategy.
Posted by: Jon C Davies at 08:38
Tags: telecoms
In February, as part of its H124 results announcement – for the six months to end November (see Made Tech: Signs of growing pains? | TechMarketView) - Made Tech said that 90% of its FY25 revenues were already covered by contracted backlog and the renewal of ongoing projects. Another contract award, revealed today, has further underpinned the company’s revenue expectations for the next financial year.
The provider of digital, data, and technology services to the UK public sector has won a new contract worth up to £19.5m with the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities (DHLUC). The contract will run for two years with an option to extend for a further year.
Under the arrangement, Made Tech will work with the department to design and develop new digital tools and services. The first of the services to be delivered is expected to be the Private Rented Property Portal, a national private rented sector database.
Back in 2002, in our Market Readiness Index (MRI) report (see TechMarketView Market Readiness Index 2022 | TechMarketView), we highlighted that Made Tech’s “impressive revenue growth is largely attributable to a ‘land and expand’ strategy with existing clients, who have turned repeatedly to Made Tech for additional projects. This indicates a high level of client satisfaction to date.” The DHLUC win further supports this view. Having first worked with the DHLC in 2019 with a £0.8m contract to deliver the Energy Performance Buildings Register, Made Tech has steadily expanded its footprint with the department, growing the size of its engagements along the way. In total it has undertaken 35 digital projects.
Made Tech’s growth slowed in its H124. Its Sales Bookings were also down. Wins like this will be very welcome. Maintaining strong relationships with existing clients like DUHLC – and mining those relationships - will be crucial as the company continues to invest for its next phase of growth.
Posted by: Georgina O'Toole at 09:52
Tags: contract digital central+government frameworks public sector contract award
It was reported on Friday that retail flooring chain Carpetright was hit with a cyber-attack last week that saw hundreds of customer orders disrupted.
Hackers targeted the company HQ in Purfleet, Essex, sending malware to gain unauthorised access. Carpetright's network was taken offline due to the cyber-attack but management insist that the virus was isolated before any data was swiped. Staff and hundreds of customers were affected by the malicious virus with employees reportedly unable access their payroll information, whilst customers couldn't get through to helplines or fulfil some orders. The company said it was not aware of any customer or colleague data being impacted by the incident and are testing and resetting systems, with investigations ongoing. At this stage it is not clear who was responsible for the breach.
The attack is the latest in a number of UK cyber incidents made public over the past few months. At the end of March, NHS Dumfries and Galloway issued a statement that it had been the target of a focused and ongoing cyber-attack, with the INC Ransom extortion gang threatening to publish three terabytes of stolen data – See NHS Scotland receives ransom demand to prevent data leak. Earlier in March, clothing and footwear retailer Vans warned of fraud and identity risks following a breach in December where threat actors accessed personal data on 35 million customers - See Vans warns of fraud and identity risk following data breach - and Leicester City Council saw IT systems and a number of its critical service phone lines go down following a "cyber incident" - See Leicester City Council hit by cyber attack.
Posted by: Simon Baxter at 09:18
Tags: cybersecurity
Following a competitive tender process, the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) has announced a change of partnership in the delivery of its Protective Domain Name System (PDNS) service.
A three-year contract has been awarded to Cloudflare Inc, the connectivity cloud company will implement the NCSC’s PDNS service from September 2024 in collaboration with services provider Accenture. PDNS was created by the NCSC and previously implemented by Nominet.
NCSC’s PDNS service – one of its widely deployed Active Cyber Defence capabilities (ACD) – was launched in 2017 to hamper the use of Domain Name System (DNS) for malware distribution and operation within UK public services. Over the past seven years PDNS has resolved over 2.5 trillion DNS queries and prevented access to 1.5m malicious domains. Today it protects over 1,400 UK organisations in central government, local government, healthcare, emergency services and beyond, preventing average annual losses of at least £59m according to the NCSC.
In other related news, Richard Horne has been appointed as the new CEO of the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC). He is scheduled to take up the role in the autumn, taking over from Lindy Cameron, who has become the UK’s high commissioner to India. Horne will also become a board member of national intelligence and security organisation GCHQ.
Horne will join NCSC from PwC UK, where he currently chairs the cyber security practice. He has also been managing director of cyber security for Barclays, during which he was seconded to the Cabinet Office to help shape the Government’s first Cyber Security Strategy. He has also served on a number of advisory boards for academic institutions and cyber security start-ups.
Posted by: Simon Baxter at 09:04
Infosys has entered into a definitive agreement to purchase German-based Engineering R&D services specialist, in-tech GmbH. The all cash €450m acquisition aims to boost the offshore major’s capabilities in the automotive sector.
Founded in 2002, in-tech today employs some 2200 personnel and generates annual revenue of over €100m. The company develops solutions for the automotive, eMobility, transport systems and smart industry sectors. The firm’s clients include Audi, BMW, Ford and Rolls-Royce. Headquartered just outside Munich and with a further twelve offices across Germany, in-tech has expanded internationally and now has operations in Austria, China, the Czech Republic, Spain, Romania, India and Warwick in the UK. The latter reported an average headcount of 14 staff in 2022.
The manufacturing sector has been proving a comparatively happy hunting ground for Infosys in recent times. The company’s second fastest growing industry vertical in FY24 (see here), sales to clients in this segment increased by c.9% yoy to around $2.6bn. The in-tech purchase should help further strengthen Infosys’s position in automotive arena.
The Engineering R&D segment continues to attract sporadic interest as a target for acquisitive expansion from the larger IT services supplier community. In 2021, for example, Accenture bought Germany-HQ’d engineering consulting and services firm, umlaut. The prior year saw Capgemini purchase Altran Technologies for €3.6bn (see here). Further mergers in the space should be expected as firms continue to build out their Industry 4.0 propositions.
Posted by: Duncan Aitchison at 09:02
Tags: offshore acquisition automotive R&D engineering
Wipro’s year-long decline continued though the final quarter of FY24. Company revenue for the three months ended 31st March of $2.66bn was down sequentially and yoy by 0.3% and 6.6% respectively at constant currency. The offshore major’s turnover of $10.8bn for the financial year as a whole decreased by 4.4% against the prior fiscal. Wipro’s increased focus on driving efficiency did, however, bear fruit. The FY24 operating margin improved by 40 bps yoy to 16.1%.
Across the company’s regional and industry sector market portfolio, only the Health vertical achieved top line growth in the last financial year. Sales in this segment rose by 8.6% yoy to $1.43bn. Demand from Wipro’s Banking, Financial Services and Insurance (BFSI) clients, which account for around a third of the firm’s global turnover, softened significantly. Their combined revenue shrank by c.9% compared to the previous FY.
From a geographic perspective, Wipro Europe experienced the steepest fall in revenue. Sales in this territory were down 7% yoy in FY24. The company’s Americas businesses, which together generate more than three fifths of firm-wide revenue, proved somewhat more resilient. The drop in turnover across these units was limited to a little over 3% for the period.
The company did report that some green shoots of recovery had started to emerge in the latter part of the last FY. The signs of a return to growth in Consulting, which surfaced in Q3 with Wipro’s Capco unit experiencing a double-digit increase in orders, maintained momentum during the final quarter. The firm’s BFSI sector returned to sequential quarterly revenue growth for the first time in eighteen months in Q424 and there had also been uptick in large deal successes in Europe since the turn of the year.
These more positive indicators were, however, not sufficiently encouraging for the company to see a material reversal of its fortunes on the immediate horizon. Wipro expects that Q125 revenue will be in the range of $2.62bn to $2,67bn. This translates to sequential guidance of -1.5% to +0.5% in constant currency terms.
Speaking on the results call, newly installed CEO, Srini Pallia struct a cautious tone regarding the outlook for Wipro in the coming months. While the company’s priority is to accelerate growth, market conditions remain tough. The task facing the new leader is both challenging and complex. As he somewhat understatedly noted “there’s a considerable amount of work ahead of us”.
Posted by: Duncan Aitchison at 08:53
Tags: results offshore IT+services
This week threw up a couple of emotive examples of why humans – for now at least – prefer honest use of AI imagery in the media.
Firstly, much news coverage has been given to The Cass Review, an independent review of gender identity services for children and young people. Amongst the many discussions this prompted in the media was one around some of the people imagery in the report looking AI-generated (e.g., see p233). The Cass Review team used Adobe stock imagery, which it would appear contained both real and AI-generated images (some of which might be considered to be stereotypical). However, several media outlets pointed out that this does not seem to have been made clear in the report. Given the sensitivity of the subject matter – not least the degree to which some of the children the report is centred around will be dealing with complex issues of self-image – one can see why this could be problematic.
Secondly, beauty brand, Dove, launched The Code campaign, which takes an incredibly strong stance against the use of AI generated images – specifically for the representation of women in beauty campaigns. The campaign launch video shows the results you get from prompts such as “perfect skin” or “gorgeous woman”. The pictures generated (showing actual results from an AI tool) are stereotypical images of beauty in women (e.g., blond/slim/white/young).
The video then proceeds to show what happens if you add “according to Dove Real Beauty Ad” (the firm’s been running its Real Beauty campaign for 20 years) to the prompt. This throws up an entirely different set of images, including women with disabilities, older women, women from around the world, and women with different skin colour. The brand then makes the pledge to “never use AI to create or distort women’s images”. Dove has worked with AI experts to create its Real Beauty Prompt Playbook to help “set new digital standards of representation”, which contains tips on how to create “real beauty images” and make prompting “more inclusive”.
AI-generated imagery of people raises all sorts of complex issues and discussion points around how we are ALL represented – or under-represented – online. Furthermore, given that so much online content will be generated by AI over a very compressed timeline, the issue will be anything but easy to solve. However we ultimately address these issues, it would seem ‘honesty is the best policy’, at least for now.
Read TechMarketView’s latest research on AI: Artificial Intelligence: Market trends, use cases, and suppliers
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Posted by: Kate Hanaghan at 09:55
Tags: AI AI_ethics AI_images
Yesterday Meta announced the launch of Llama 3, the latest version of its open-source AI large language model.
The announcement debuts two new pretrained and fine-tuned language models with 8 billion and 70 billion parameters respectively. These are described by Meta as a major leap in performance compared to previous models in Llama 2. It is becoming commonplace with such LLM announcements to see claims proving that models perform better than competitors across a range of benchmarks. In this case Meta show Llama 3 (8bn) beating Googles Gemma and Mistrals 7bn parameter models, and the 70bn Llama 3 model beating Gemini 1.5 pro and Anthropic’s Claude 3 Sonnet model. As ever take these benchmarks with a pinch of salt.
The Llama 3 models will soon be available through a range of partner platforms including; AWS, Databricks, Google Cloud, Hugging Face, Kaggle, IBM WatsonX, Microsoft Azure, NVIDIA NIM, and Snowflake. Versions optimised for specific hardware from AMD, AWS, Dell, Intel, NVIDIA, and Qualcomm will also be released down the line. Meta also said that it is dedicated to developing Llama 3 in a responsible way, and is providing various resources to help use it responsibly including a new tool, Code Shield – which is designed to detect code from generative AI models that might introduce security vulnerabilities.
The company’s AI assistant ‘Meta AI’ is also being rolled out to more countries and enhanced through the latest Llama 3 models. Meta AI will be available across Facebook (where it will be popping up in your feed so you can ask it questions about posts), Instagram, WhatsApp, Messenger and for the first time through a standalone website. You will also be able to create images from text in real-time using Meta AI’s Imagine feature. You’ll see an image appear as you start typing — and it’ll change with every few letters typed!
And there is more to come, Meta claims its largest models still in training are over 400B parameters. Over the coming months we can expect to see the release of multiple models with new capabilities including multimodality, the ability to converse in multiple languages, a much longer context window, and stronger overall capabilities.
What does this all mean for enterprise organisations and end users? Well, it all just boils down to more choice, better performance across a number of use cases, and more flexibility in creating what is quickly become a multi-model AI strategy for many organisations. However, with so many different AI models to choose from, navigating this ever-evolving AI ecosystem is becoming increasingly complex.
Posted by: Simon Baxter at 09:37
Tags: AI ArtificalIntelligence
Earlier this week it was announced that Silicon Valley-based venture capitalist firm Andreessen Horowitz had raised a whopping $7.2bn to invest in a range of start-ups across areas including gaming, apps, and AI. One of the largest VC raises in several years.
Whilst it may be based ‘states-side’ Andreessen Horowitz is a name that crops up regularly in TMV funding posts (see here and read back) as a supporter of UK-based start-ups and scale-up businesses. Capital raised is to be split across several different funds. $3.75bn is to go into the firm’s growth fund, whilst $1.25bn will go into fund focused on AI infrastructure, with another $1bn going to support AI application development.
AI investment has grown significantly over the last couple of years and has pushed up company valuations accordingly, particularly around those businesses that provide the large language models. This in turn has made it tough going for some VC businesses to underwrite. It looks like Andreessen Horowitz sees value in investing in the applications and infrastructure developed on top of, and underpinning, the highly valued AI-model providers.
The firm also earmarked two blocks of $600m for funds focused on gaming and its ‘American Dynamism’ strategy, where it is looking to back US based start-ups in aerospace, defence, and manufacturing.
Posted by: Marc Hardwick at 09:33
Tags: funding venturecapital AI
A flat growth final quarter left Infosys slightly shy of its most recent bottom end revenue guidance for FY24. The 2.2% sequential constant currency decline constrained company turnover for the three months ended 31st March to $4.56bn. Full year sales improved by 1.4% yoy to $18.56. Operating margin for the period decreased by 30 bps against the prior year to 20.7%.
The results narrative for Q4 remains largely unchanged from that for the previous two quarters. From a geographic perspective, it was continuing shrinkage in Infosys North America that most adversely impacted the offshore major’s top line performance. Accounting for three fifths of firm-wide sales, revenue in this region was down yoy by 2.2% and 1% respectively for the final quarter and full year. Demand for the company’s services held up better in Europe where turnover rose by c.6.4% yoy to a tad over $5bn in FY24.
In terms of industry verticals, only sales to the company’s Manufacturing clients remained in double digit growth territory in Q4. This improvement was, however, more than offset by an 8.5% decline in turnover in the Infosys’s Financial Services vertical which generates over a quarter of the firm’s global revenue.
A significant inflow of large deals during both the final quarter and the full year (Q424: +114% yoy to $4.5bn, FY24: +80% yoy to $17.7bn) does not appear to have had a commensurate effect on Infosys’s nearer term growth prospects. Company guidance for the current financial year anticipates that FY25 revenue will increase by 1%-3% in constant currency to deliver an operating margin of 20%-22%. The trading headwinds in the IT services market look set to remain strong during the coming months.
Posted by: Duncan Aitchison at 08:43
After five consecutive years of double-digit top line growth, PA Consulting’s forward progress all but ground to a halt in FY23. Firm-wide fees for the twelve months ended 31st December increased by just 0.5% yoy to £790m. The loss of momentum took a toll on the bottom line with adjusted EBITDA margin for the period dipping by 200 bps against the prior year to a still very respectable 21%.
The results made for a slow start to the tenure of new CEO, Christian Norris. He took up the reins at PA following the unexpected and hasty departure of his predecessor last August (see here). The FY23 performance has also almost certainly put paid to the firm’s objective set four years ago of becoming a £1bn turnover business by the end of 2024.
The going proved toughest for PA in its Americas region last year. Fee income in this territory fell by 11.4% yoy to c.£97m. The firm’s UK business, which accounts for three quarters of global revenue, inched ahead by 0.3% against FY22 to generate fees of £593m in 2023.
There were some brighter spots reported across PA’s business portfolio. The firm saw strong demand for its Defence and Security services last year. We highlighted the consultancy as ‘one to watch’ in our latest UK Defence SITS Suppliers, Trends & Forecasts report and at the end of 2023 PA was awarded a place on all six Lots within the Ministry of Defence’s Digital and IT Professional Services framework (see here). Sustainability-centric projects, including work to respond to regulatory changes, secure energy supply chains, and exploit new technologies such as hydrogen, also enjoyed an uptick in sales during FY23.
Little by way of commentary on the outlook for the current year was provided by the firm. Our most recent forecast for the UK SITS Consulting Market, however, projected a further cooling of demand in this segment during 2024. PA will have its work cut out to reinvigorate growth in the nearer term.
Posted by: Duncan Aitchison at 09:46
Tags: results defence consulting public sector
Banking technology specialist Finastra has partnered with TradeSun to integrate the latter’s CoriolisESG AI-powered ESG (environmental, social and governance) scoring capabilities into its Trade Innovation working capital solution.
The partnership actually encompasses the full TradeSun Intelligence platform (which includes OCR, document checking, real-time compliance, and global markets analytics), with ESG assessment built-in.
The combination will enable Trade Innovation customers to bring automated ESG scoring insights into the management of trade and supply chain finance, giving them better oversight of the sustainability impact of trade operations and helping them make more sustainability-informed decisions.
ESG data gathering, analysis (especially when combined with other business data), and reporting encompass the main use case areas featured in TechMarketView’s Sustainability Technology Activity Index (our unique take in the sustainability technology landscape).
Subscribers to our SustainabilityViews research stream can download the Index now. If you are not yet a subscriber, or would like to learn more about our sustainability research, please contact Deb Seth for more information.
Posted by: Craig Wentworth at 09:41
Tags: partnership esg supply chain trade finance
Law enforcement organisations and technology companies have joined forces to disrupt the LabHost Phishing-as-a-service (PhaaS) operation.
The site, which the Metropolitan Police Service (MPS) says was used by more than 2,000 criminals, was established in 2021. In exchange for a monthly subscription fee of between $179 and $300 paid via BitCoin, LabHost (also known as LabRat) offered turnkey phishing kits to enable the creation of websites, emails and campaigns designed to trick victims into revealing personal information. This included branded kits, featured multi-factor authentication (MFA) phishing, for banking organisations, healthcare providers and postal services mostly in the UK and North America.
The MPS, which led the operation, said that by the start of 2024 more than 40,000 fraudulent sites had been created using the service. Just under 70,000 UK citizens are known to have fallen victim to this fraud, resulting in criminals obtaining 480,000 card numbers, 64,000 PIN numbers and more than one million passwords; however, the MPS warns the total number of victims is likely to be higher.
The work to disrupt LabHost started in 2022 following intelligence from the Cyber Defence Alliance, the coalition of financial institutions established to improve cyber defence and counter cyber threat networks. The MPS Cyber Crime Unit partnered with the National Crime Agency (NCA), City of London Police, Europol, Regional Organised Crime Units (ROCUs) across the UK, and international police forces to disrupt LabHost. Technology partners including Chainalysis, Intel 471, Microsoft and Trend Micro, as well as The Shadowserver Foundation, were also part of the efforts to counter the criminal operation.
Over the last few days over 70 addresses in the UK and beyond were searched and 37 suspects have been arrested. This includes arrests at Manchester and Luton airports as well as addresses in Essex and London. Yesterday (17 April), LabHost and its associated websites were seized, and 800 users were sent a message stating that law enforcement know who they are and what they’ve been doing.
The operation follows several high-profile attempts to tackle significant online fraud and cybercrime in recent months, including the NCA-led Operation Cronos aimed at disrupting LockBit (see LockBit ransomware disrupted by law enforcement). As was the case with LockBit, which was up and running again shortly after its servers were seized, this is unlikely to be the end of the story for LabHost. The distributed structure of these criminal networks means the target is always adapting and evolving, and LabHost is just one of many other PhaaS operations out there e.g. Frappo, Greatness, Robin Banks and Darcula.
Posted by: Dale Peters at 09:38
Tags: police fraud cyber law+enforcement public+safety cybercrime phishing phaas crime
FYLD, a London based supplier of an AI-powered field work execution platform has raised £12m in Series A funding, led by Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan.
FYLD was co-founded in 2020 by CEO Shelley Copsey, COO Anish Patel and Chief Futurist Karl Simons OBE. The company provides a field work execution platform for the infrastructure sector, particularly utilities and heavy civil construction. FYLD initially collaborated with UK Gas utility provider SGN to test and validate its technology. To date, the company has raised a total of £26m, and achieved 3x revenue growth in 2023.
The management team boasts a broad range of experience, with CEO Shelley Copsey holding a number of senior roles helping to scale innovative startups, COO Patel helped to form UK taxi app FarePilot, which was spun out of BCG and later acquired by Shell, whilst Chief Futurist Simons has acted as an advisor to the UK Cabinet office, as well as holding senior roles at Thames Water and Water & Sanitation for the Urban Poor.
The FYLD digital platform empowers field managers to make proactive, data-led decisions in real time and transform operational processes and procedures with data. Critical infrastructure organisations from utilities through to heavy civil construction and highway maintenance – use FYLD to drive operational efficiency and reduce safety incidents with data. Using natural language processing, computer vision and artificial intelligence, FYLD analyses what is taking place in the field in real time, helping managers and operational teams make better decisions and drive more jobs to completion.
Commenting on the news, CEO Shelley Copsey said: “…typical customers achieve over 8% productivity uplift in just 6 weeks. With this short time to value, we are feeling market pull for our solution and buy-in on our vision of the future of fieldwork.”
FYLD intends to use the new funds to scale its commercial team, accelerate product development, enhance its AI-driven predictive analytics platform, and expand in its existing markets and into new markets globally.
Posted by: Simon Baxter at 09:28
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