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TechMarketView is delighted to announce that our fifth annual Market Readiness Index is now in the hands of our valued Tech User Programme members.
This year’s MRI is titled: “The road to AI: Mapping the readiness of the Top 10 IT & Business Process Services Suppliers”.
The companies assessed were: Accenture, Atos Eviden, Capgemini, Capita, Cognizant, DXC Technologies, HCLTech, IBM, Infosys, and TCS.
Our analyst team used TechMarketView’s unique and highly robust scoring framework to rate the suppliers across Corporate Resilience, Suitability of Offerings, Skills & Resources, Partner Ecosystem, Industry Expertise, Delivery & Execution.
The Market Readiness Index report is a combination of scoring and in-depth profiles giving a realistic and honest appraisal of the readiness of each supplier to address the AI – and in particular the Generative AI – needs of the market. Based on our independent data and analysis, we assess the capabilities and approach of the largest players in the UK market.
We’ve pored over the data and scoring, grilled the vendors, and spoken candidly with buyers and can now reveal that the Leading Pack (i.e., those suppliers exceeding the average score for the overall group in each category) consists of: Accenture, Capgemini, Cognizant, and TCS. Congratulations.
However, we highly recommended you read the full report to understand the narrative behind the scoring and which suppliers of the complete pack are best suited to your aims and culture.
By the way, a MASSIVE thank you to the Analyst Relations teams that helped co-ordinate the interviews and review process. You are the unsung heroes of our industry!
READ NOW: “The road to AI: Mapping the readiness of the Top 10 IT & Business Process Services Suppliers”
If you are not a member of our Tech Buyer community, you can purchase the report HERE or by contacting Deb Seth.
Posted by: Kate Hanaghan at 09:50
Tags: AI MRI
The UK’s AI Safety Institute (AISI) has opened a second location in San Francisco, as it seeks innovative ways to pursue its key objective.
Established in November last year (*UKHotViewsExtra* AI Safety summit concludes, but was it a success? | TechMarketView), AISI's primary raison d’être is assessing and addressing the risks of AI platforms to make AI safe across the whole of society. In the UK it sits within the Department for Science, Innovation, and Technology (DSIT) in Whitehall and has grown to just over 30 researchers in the last few months.
To attain its goal, AISI is conducting research and building infrastructure to test the safety of advanced AI (largely the latest foundation/frontier AI models) and to measure its impact on people and society. That means working with the wider research community, AI developers and other Governments to affect how AI is developed and to shape the global policymaking.
That work is not without its challenges. One achievement since AISI launched – announced just a week ago (see AI Safety Institute launches ‘Inspect’ platform for AI Evaluations | TechMarketView) was the release of Inspect, a set of tools for testing the safety of foundational AI models. The Institute has stated that it has been challenging to benchmark models. Moreover, with the key organisations involved in building foundational AI technology – such as OpenAI, Anthropic, Google and Meta – needing to “opt-in” to have their models inspected, it is unable to form a complete picture. We are also seeing a combination of AI incorporated into existing software solutions, or developed using proprietary closed models, both of which are harder to control and measure.
Bearing this in mind, it appears there are two key reasons for establishing a new office in the U.S., despite already having an MOU to collaborate with the US on safety issues (U.S and UK sign AI testing agreement | TechMarketView). Related to the challenges already faced, the first must get closer to the large US firms, to encourage them to work more collaboratively in the pursuit of AI safety and convince them all to have their models vetted prior to release. The second is to enable the Institute to keep pace with developments in the space, by being able to access the tech companies’ headquarters, as well as gaining access to an additional pool of talent state-side.
As AI projects continue to be undertaken at increased pace and scale, it is set to become tougher for AISI and similar organisations around the globe to keep up. International collaboration is crucial to the efforts to ensure responsible AI development. Moreover, the UK only wants to march forward with AI legislation once it has established a clear picture of the risks and potential risks. The biggest issue here is that it is faced with ever-moving parameters, and there continues to be a lot of onus on individual companies to do the 'right' thing when it comes to how they use AI.
Posted by: Georgina O'Toole at 09:46
Tags: testing policy research risk AI R&D legislation AI_ethics Foundation+Models
Cloud21 has announced the acquisition of BDS Solutions in a move designed to strengthen and broaden the range of IT services it can offer to healthcare organisations. The terms of the deal have not been disclosed.
Cloud21 has been part of Tegria since 2022, when the US-headquartered healthcare consulting services company made a significant investment in the business and became the majority shareholder. Shortly after this investment, Cloud21 acquired Integris Solutions, providing additional capabilities in data migration, informatics and Electronic Patient Record (EPR) services.
The BDS acquisition will further expand Cloud21’s healthcare proposition, particularly in the area of identity management and access. Its solutions are currently being used by IT teams across over 80 NHS organisations to manage staff joiners, movers and leavers within Active Directory and email messaging platforms. The company, which was founded in 1994, also provides a range of IT systems infrastructure, integration and networking solutions.
Posted by: Dale Peters at 09:44
Tags: nhs acquisition identity healthcare IT+services
Aim listed Crossword Cybersecurity has announced that current CEO Tom Ilube will transition to the role of non-executive Chair, while Group Managing Director Stuart Jubb will assume the position of CEO, effective 1st August 2024. The current Chair, Sir Richard Dearlove, will remain on the Board as a non-executive Director. These changes are part of a long-term strategy to drive Crossword towards profitability in the latter half of the year.
Tom Ilube, who founded Crossword in 2014, has led the firm as CEO for the past ten years. Illube has extensive leadership experience, currently serving as Chair of the Rugby Football Union and a Board member of WPP. Previously, he was also on the Board of the BBC and chaired various organisations.
Stuart Jubb, who joined Crossword in 2016 to lead its cybersecurity consulting division, was appointed Group Managing Director in January 2022 with responsibility for Consulting, Sales and Managed Services. Before Crossword, Jubb was Associate Director, Defence & Security at KPMG. He also has a military background, having served as an officer in HM Forces.
Commenting on the succession plans, Tom Ilube said: "Stuart and I have worked closely together since 2016 and I always intended for him to be my successor. With me as Chair and Stuart as CEO, our partnership will continue as we enter the next phase of growth, scaling up Crossword as a rapidly growing, profitable company."
In the first half of 2023, Crossword shifted its focus to establishing a clear path to profitability. H2 saw revenue growth not perform as expected, despite a strong pipeline conversion to contracts slowed down, pushing several potential deals into FY24 (See Crossword launches CyberAI practise).
Posted by: Simon Baxter at 09:42
Palo Alto Networks (PAN) reported Q3 revenues grew at the top end of estimates, up 15% yoy to $2bn. The future outlook however didn’t show any upward momentum, and investors responded negatively, with shares falling in afterhours trading.
In February, the company cut its FY24 revenue guidance, sending shares plummeting 20% lower – See Palo Alto Networks cuts revenue guidance. Despite the many demand drivers we're seeing for cybersecurity, PAN said it was beginning to notice customers facing spending fatigue in cybersecurity. In Q3, PAN highlighted that high profile attacks are continuing to escalate, and AI adoption is creating a new attack surface and increasing cloud demand. The business said it sees a relatively stable spending backdrop with cybersecurity priorities well-funded.
Nikesh Arora, chairman and CEO of Palo Alto Networks, said the company was pleased with the enthusiastic response from customers to its platformisation strategy - a move towards getting customers to consolidate cybersecurity capabilities and adopt more of PAN's ‘platform’ offerings. In an interesting move last week PAN announced a new strategic partnership with IBM that will see it acquire IBM’s SaaS QRadar security assets and create a much closer tie-up between the two companies (See - Palo Alto Networks to acquire IBM QRadar in new security partnership).
Looking ahead, Palo Alto Networks provided guidance for Q4 2024 that predicts continued, albeit modest, growth (in contrast to previous years of high double-digit growth). Total Q4 revenue is expected to be c.$2.17bn, representing yoy growth of 11%. For the full FY24, guidance remains largely unchanged with total revenue of c.$8bn representing yoy growth of 16%, at the top end of the projections we saw in February, but down from the 18-19% guidance at the end of FY23.
Palo Alto Networks continues to demonstrate strong fundamentals and a clear strategic vision. Not every company will want to consolidate to a single vendor, but we are certainly seeing a broader consolidation of security products, which have sprawled in recent years, adding unnecessary complexity and cost. AI is also increasingly a key battleground for differentiation, with PAN deploying co-pilots cross its platforms and announcing new AI defense capabilities (Precision AI), a topic I am sure we will cover in more detail in this years Cybersecurity Market trends and Forecast report.
Posted by: Simon Baxter at 09:32
Newry-based FD Technologies has released its latest annual results revealing a dip in revenue and an increased pre-tax loss. Total group revenue for the twelve months ended 29 February 2024 was down 2% at £248.9m whilst the company’s pre-tax loss was £7.7m compared to £0.4m at the end of the prior fiscal. Adjusted EBITDA was down 31% to £23m.
FD’s two data-driven businesses, financial markets specialist First Derivative and real-time intelligence provider KX enjoyed contrasting fortunes during FY24. KX revenue grew 12% to £79m as recurring revenue rose by 19% to represent 86% of the total. Meanwhile, revenue from First Derivative was down 8% at £170m as weakness in the investment banking market fuelled caution among customers, following the collapse of SVB.
The latest financials follow the previous guidance issued by the company earlier this year, alongside which it was revealed that FD had agreed to an all-share merger of its predictive intelligence arm MRP. As a result of the deal CONTENTgine, a provider of B2B technology buyer insights and lead generation has taken control of MRP (see: FD divests MRP as revenue dips).
The changes represent a significant transformation of the FD business model and in part appear to reflect the impact of the cold winds that have been blowing across the global economy during the prior eighteen months. MRP had become a major drag on the overall FD business and its revenue was down 33% at the half-year stage at £15.7m. FD owns 49% of the combined entity, which is reflected as an associate investment rather than consolidated in Group financials.
During FY24, FD continued to invest in the KX executive team, with the addition of a Chief Revenue Officer, Clint Maddox; a Chief Marketing Officer, Peter Finter; and a Chief Product and Engineering Officer, Michael Gilfix. Meanwhile, FD has made good progress in diversifying its commercial footprint and more than 40% of new bookings now come from outside of the company’s traditional heartland of capital markets. Around 25% from Aerospace & Defence and 10% in semi-conductor manufacturing.
During FY25, FD expects KX to achieve additional ACV in the range of £16m to £18m, resulting in gross ARR growth of 20-25%. On the First Derivative side of the business, revenue is forecast to come in the range of £160m to £170m, based on continued caution around consultancy spend by capital markets customers.
Posted by: Jon C Davies at 09:05
Business Process Services leader Capita saw its revenue decline -9% on a ‘like for like’ basis in the four months to the end of April 2024, compared with the same period last year.
Whilst expectations for FY24 and financial guidance for the “Group’s adjusted revenue to be broadly in line with 2023” remain unchanged. This morning’s trading update does outline in ‘black and white’ the impact that recent contract attrition is having on both Capita’s divisions.
Capita Public Service saw adjusted revenue reduce -5%, in the first four months of the year, reflecting previously announced losses, and reduced contract activity in Defence and Education. Capita Experience (mainly private sector) saw adjusted revenue decline -16% reflecting the one-off impact last year of the Virgin Media O2 renewal, as well as contract losses within Financial Services, most notably the Co-op Bank, and lower volumes in its UK contact centre business.
Sales wise, Capita saw its contract win rate come in at a similar level to 2023 at 77% (2023 80%) whilst Total Contract Value won decreased -9% in the first four months. As we have covered in HotViews previously, Capita Experience had a couple of major renewals this year with two European telecoms providers, one with an expanded scope, with a TCV of more than £250m, whilst today’s update also points to some success in Defence, Learning, Fire and Security for Capita PS.
New CEO Adolfo Hernandez confirmed that Capita remains on track to deliver its full year guidance with Group adjusted revenue broadly in line with 2023, with Capita Public Service expected to show full year revenue growth, driven by a number of contract wins from last year, including the Functional Assessment Services. Capita Experience however, is expected to show a full year revenue decline, principally reflecting the one-offs in 2023 coupled with losses and volume reductions - as covered above.
Capita is holding a Capital Markets Event in early June and will announce its interims at the beginning of August when we will report more.
Posted by: Marc Hardwick at 08:47
Tags: trading update
A softening in second half demand did not prevent Kainos from delivering a strong bottom line performance in FY24. The twelve months ended 31st March saw the company’s adjusted pre-tax profit rise by 14% yoy to £77.2m. Driven by a significant decrease in contractor usage (from 209 in FY23 to just 42 last year), an improvement in staff retention (up yoy from 88% to 93%) and a further a shift in the employee mix towards more junior personnel, firm-wide margin increased by 200 bps yoy to an impressively healthy 20%. Total dividend per share for the period was lifted by 14% yoy to 27.3p.
Progress on the top line was slower, albeit FY24 still marked Kainos’s 14th consecutive year of growth. Revenue for the period was up 3% yoy at constant currency to £382.4m with the pace of expansion falling from 8% in first half (see here) into negative territory in H224. The drag on turnover came mainly from a reduction in sales to the company’s private sector clients in the UK. A near 19% yoy drop in revenue from this segment pulled the firm's turnover in this country down by 4.2% against the prior fiscal to £232.6m.
Beneath these headlines, however, there were a plenty of positives to note regarding the strength of Kainos’s market traction. Digital services sales to the UK Public Sector held up despite increasing pricing pressures and core healthcare business levels (excluding Covid-related revenue) increased by 23% yoy to stand twice as high as the pre-pandemic run rate.
The firm’s Workday-related, largely international activities proved resilient in FY24. Now accounting for 44% of company-wide turnover, revenue from these software and services offerings grew by 12.5% yoy to £169.3m. The success of Kainos’s Workday product suite in particular, boosted by the launch mid-year of the Employee Document Management module, continued apace during the last fiscal with sales increasing by 28% yoy to £57.3m. Annualised Recurring Revenue (ARR) from these products reached £60.5m at the end of the period keeping the firm squarely on track to reach its target of £100m ARR by 2026.
We spoke this morning with new Kainos CEO, Russell Sloan. He is confident that, notwithstanding the current trading headwinds, expansion of firm’s larger business segments will continue in both the near term and medium term. Further modest reductions in demand from the company’s commercial sector customers within Digital Services will, however, negatively impact revenue during FY25. Delivering a 15th consecutive growth year for Kainos will not be without its challenges.
Posted by: Duncan Aitchison at 09:49
Tags: results systemsintegration digital public sector
Sainsbury’s and Microsoft have announced a new five-year strategic partnership which will see the UK supermarket using Microsoft’s artificial intelligence capabilities to help accelerate its ‘Next Level’ strategy.
In February, Sainsbury’s announced its 'Next Level' strategy, which aims to enhance shareholder returns by expanding its food range, boosting the Nectar loyalty platform, achieving £1bn of structural cost savings and investing in a modern technology platform, including creating a simplified, automated and more process-led business.
Sainsbury’s is looking to invest in its technology infrastructure to create more agile, flexible systems to both protect its current propositions and accelerate the speed at which it can bring improvements to customers. Investments in AI and intelligent automation are being focused as a way to bring greater speed and efficiency to decision-making in areas such as pricing, proposition, range, logistics and sourcing. As well as rolling out new infrastructure, Sainsbury’s staff will be supported through upskilling programmes to help them learn how to fully leverage AI.
There were no details on the size of the deal, however Sainsbury’s will use Microsoft’s services to transform across three core areas:
Sainsbury’s are but one of a number of retailers looking to better leverage AI capabilities to drive store efficiencies and improve the customer experience. Last week Curry’s announced it was working with Accenture and Microsoft through its joint venture Avanade, to modernise its technology estate and accelerate the adoption of Microsoft AI technologies. (See Curry’s picks Accenture, Microsoft and Avanade for core cloud delivery).
Posted by: Simon Baxter at 09:14
Tags: retail AI
London-based climate fintech startup ekko has raised £2m in a funding round led by Fuel Ventures, with participation from Sorven Partners, Mishcon de Reya, and existing investors. The company previously raised £45k in pre-seed funding in 2021.
Founded in 2019, ekko provides a debit card, apps, and plugin “checkout experiences” for third parties that embed sustainability solutions into any payment or transaction. The company has partnered with the likes of Gold Standard, Conservation International, Tusk, and Prevented Ocean Plastic to fund reforestation, conservation, carbon offsetting, and ocean-bound plastic collection activities from donations or inclusive transaction charges when consumers make purchases.
Consumers are able to select where their money goes (and choose to boost the impact by increasing a donation); merchants benefit from real-time segmented data bout their customers’ spending and corresponding environmental impact (providing handy information for reporting and marketing purposes, as well as intelligence on customer preferences).
ekko plans to use the funding for further product development and international expansion.
Green Finance initiatives, such as those enabled by ekko’s platform, provide important visibility of, and sources of funding for, a variety of sustainability projects – and the inclusion of real-time analytics enable companies to track the priorities of their customer-base (where options are given), enabling them to fine-tune messaging and align themselves with initiatives that resonate the most with their customers.
It’s also one of the use case areas covered in the Sustainability Technology Activity Index – TechMarketView’s unique take on sustainability technology and the activities being undertaken worldwide across a range of impact areas. 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 09:01
Tags: green finance
In case you missed it, on Friday, we published this month's View from the Chief Analyst.
A chink of light in an otherwise gloomy tech market
In this edition of TechMarketView’s ‘View from the Chief Analyst’, Georgina O’Toole looks back over the last month of TechMarketView analysis – in UKHotViews, UKHotViewsExtra, and reports – to identify some of the most prominent trends we are seeing in the UK tech market.
This month, Georgina highlights a chink of sunlight in an otherwise gloomy reporting period. While the dominant Q1 24 message from suppliers was of a growth slowdown, one industry stood out: the Manufacturing Sector. It proved a fertile hunting ground for a wide range of suppliers.
And with increased activity, has come increased investment in the form of acquisitions, partnerships, and portfolio development. For many, the excitement is around Industry 4.0, which makes TechMarketView’s recent Quantum Computing research an essential read.
You can download May’s ‘View from the Chief Analyst’ now. To learn more about TechMarketView’s research and array of services, please contact Deb Seth.
Posted by: HotViews Editor at 08:49
Tags: manufacturing iot IIoT quantum Industry4.0 market+trends smart+factory
Japanese-headquartered IT services and consulting player, NTT DATA, has signed a new contract with CRM giant Salesforce to help “standardise and streamline company’s application environment.”
NTT DATA is to support the management and development of applications across Salesforce’s organisation, including its internal instance of its own products. The applications span Salesforce Sales, Marketing, Service, Experience, and Commerce Clouds, MuleSoft, Heroku, Slack, and lots of third-party and custom apps.
The new contract capitalises on the 2022 acquisition that NTT DATA made of Arizona-headquartered consulting firm Apisero (see NTT DATA to acquire MuleSoft consulting firm Apisero) designed to bolster its cloud and data and engineering capabilities. Apisero was a niche provider that primarily supported MuleSoft including API and application design to implementation, management, and support with particular strengths in the data space, but also brought with it wider Salesforce ecosystem expertise and some 500 Salesforce consultants that were added to NTT DATA’s digital transformation services team.
“By consolidating managed services across the Salesforce stack, we can focus on building new capabilities and helping our customers use data and AI to achieve better insights for their users and better productivity for their employees,” said Juan Perez, Chief Information Officer, Salesforce.
Posted by: Marc Hardwick at 08:42
Tags: contract IT+services
CGI has been appointed as the Technology Delivery Partner (TDP) for the Home Office’s Emergency Services Mobile Communications Programme (ESMCP). The contract award has a value of £51m over its initial five-year term but could rise to £71m if the two 12-month optional extensions are initiated. The contract was awarded via the RM6100 Technology Services 3 framework.
ESMCP is delivering the Emergency Services Network (ESN) critical communications system, which will replace the current Airwave service used by the emergency services in England, Wales and Scotland.
Initially, CGI will be responsible for implementing and delivering five areas of work. This comprises technology strategy and services design; transition and transformation; operational services (including end user services, operational management, technical management, and application and data management); major services transformation programmes; and service integration and management. Further projects are expected to be drawn down throughout the contract period.
ESMCP has been delayed several times since the first supplier contracts were awarded back in 2015. The programme was reset in 2018 (see A new strategic direction for ESN) with the Home Office adopting a phased approach to deployment. In 2019, the Home Office was forecasting the total cost of ESN would be £9.3bn, a 49% increase from their forecast in 2015 (see ESN programme faces further criticism from NAO). By June 2021, the timetable for turning off Airwave had slipped further, and the cost increased to an estimated £11bn. The situation was further complicated by the Competition and Markets Authority’s (CMA) investigation into the dual role of Motorola as the provider of Airwave and a key supplier in the roll-out of ESN. Further delays are expected to be revealed when a newly revised business case is published later this year.
This is a key win for CGI, which cements its position at the heart of the Home Office’s emergency services programmes. The company was appointed the Strategic Delivery Partner for the Department’s Police & Public Protection Technology Portfolio in 2022 (see CGI UK: Home Office win contributes to Q322 positivity) and has been operating the Police National Database (PND) since its inception (see £70m extension takes CGI’s PND contract to 2026).
ESMCP is a hugely complex programme that has been beset with challenges and costly overruns. CGI will need to draw on its extensive experience in telecoms and national critical infrastructure to help ensure this vital programme makes positive progress over the next five years. The contract award follows its recent £100m Strategic Delivery Partner deal with the Cabinet Office (see CGI wins £100m Cabinet Office Strategic Delivery Partner deal) and provides further proof that its strategy in central government is paying off.
Posted by: Dale Peters at 14:49
Tags: contract police bluelight telecommunications partnership law+enforcement public+safety public+sector home+office central+government
DXC Technology announced its latest annual results last night, revealing another year of revenue decline, coupled with a small profit. For the twelve months ended 31 March 2024, DXC’s global revenue fell by 5.3% to $13.67bn and was down 4.1% on an organic basis (taking account of DXC’s divestments). Despite the latest decline, DXC’s fall in full-year revenue was an improvement on the 11.3% decline experienced during FY23. In what was the first full quarter under the leadership of new CEO Raul Fernandez, DXC’s revenue declined by 5.7% to $3.39bn (down 4.9% on an organic basis). Meanwhile, the company posted a small full-year net profit of $86m compared to a prior year loss of $566m.
FY24 revenue from DXC’s Global Business Services division (GBS) was down 2% at $6.82bn whilst Global Infrastructure Services (GIS) revenue fell by 8.3% to $6.8bn. DXC’s segmented analysis for the latest fiscal revealed that Insurance Software and BPO was something of a shining light, rising 3.3% to $1.54bn. Elsewhere, Cloud Infrastructure and ITO ($4.77bn), and Modern Workplace ($1.64bn) were both down by around 9%. Applications revenue was down by 7% at $3.06bn, whilst Analytics and Engineering ($2.2bn) and Security ($433m) rose by around 1%.
The latest numbers make fairly grim reading for DXC’s new leadership team and its investors. Off the back of the latest revenue declines the company’s new outlook for FY25 indicates that full-year revenue is expected to continue to fall and will be down by between 4 and 6% by the end of the fiscal with a decline of up to 8% in Q1. Meanwhile, diluted EPS is expected to be between $2.50 and $3.00 on a non-GAAP basis. Perhaps unsurprisingly, the DXC share price plummeted last night and was tracking to be down around 25%, from $20.80 to just over $16 following the release of the company’s latest financials.
Posted by: Jon C Davies at 10:04
Reddit has announced a partnership with OpenAI to integrate its content into ChatGPT, part of the company’s broader strategy to diversify its revenue streams beyond advertising. Reddit's stock price rose by 12% in extended trading following the announcement.
This new partnership follows Reddit's recent collaboration with Alphabet, in which Reddit’s content was made available to train Google’s AI models, generating approximately $60m in annual revenue. OpenAI will utilise Reddit's data API to provide real-time, structured content for ChatGPT and other OpenAI products. Additionally, OpenAI will become a Reddit advertising partner.
The collaboration aims to improve the user experience on both platforms. For Reddit, this means developing new AI-powered features for users and moderators, leveraging OpenAI's GPT models. For OpenAI, it means incorporating Reddit’s extensive archive of human conversations and content into ChatGPT, enhancing the chatbot's ability to provide timely and relevant information.
It is quite an interesting partnership in that there is clearly huge benefit for OpenAI to have access to the wealth of data on the Reddit platform, which is currently largely written by humans (rather than AI generated). My only concern is that while yes Reddit can be a great source for up to date information on a huge range of topics, it is also filled with memes, inaccurate or completely falsified information, unique terminology, and some rather ‘colourful’ language. Filtering out the bad parts for bias or hallucination could be a challenge.
Earlier this week Google announced its new ‘AI Overviews’ (See Google I/O 2024: The Gemini Era & Project Astra), which could have a significant impact on how we search for information on the web. Other content providers like Reddit are surely watching closely, and thinking about how they can make their own moves with AI to be an alternative go-to source for answers.
Posted by: Simon Baxter at 09:46
Ofwat’s Innovation Fund has announced the winners in the fourth Water Breakthrough Challenge competition, which provides around £40m to highly collaborative water-sector innovations with the potential to deliver “wide-scale, transformational change benefitting customers, society and the environment”. Water companies and their partners were able to bid for funding through two streams: Catalyst (approximately £10m available for projects between £150k and £2m), and Transform (£30m for larger projects, between £2m and £10m apiece). Ofwat’s fund covers a maximum of 90% of project costs, with the remainder being provided by entry partners.
The River Deep Mountain AI project is amongst the winners under the Transform category and sees Northumbrian Water team up with half a dozen other water utilities, Cognizant (through its relatively new Cognizant Ocean business group, launched a year ago to focus on the “blue economy”), Tidal (one of Google X’s “moonshot” companies), wastewater and water solutions specialists Xylem, Water Research Centre, and The Rivers Trust.
The partners will work together to better understand the problems of waterbody pollution, leveraging AI and machine learning techniques to develop open source, scalable, digital models that track river health trends, and the pollution patterns associated with storm overflows, agriculture and road run-offs, etc. – helping to inform more effective action.
"I am excited to see Northumbrian Water receive funding from Ofwat to help provide improved insights into river health and water quality," said Niraj Seth, VP of Manufacturing, Logistics, Energy and Utilities UK&I at Cognizant. "AI is fundamentally transforming our world and now we anticpate working with Northumbrian Water, to use AI and machine learning to aggregate data from multiple sources, allowing us to better interpret river health trends and pollution patterns at scale."
Other winners this time around include projects looking at converting sewage sludge into hydrogen-rich gas, developing technology to repair leaks from within live water mains without disruptive excavations, an autonomous “pipebot” robot which will roam the sewers – constantly inspecting for blockages as they form, a “tell-us-once” service for vulnerable customers across utilities companies responsible for water, energy, telecoms, and support agencies. Ofwat will open up for proposals again (for Round 5) in the Autumn.
The protection of nature and natural resources is a key use case for technology in sustainability, and was highly-placed (in terms of amount of activity worldwide) in TechMarketView’s Sustainability Technology Activity Index). 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 09:32
Tags: competition water ofwat pollution
Customer experience specialist Hinduja Global Solutions (HGS) has its sights set squarely on building a significant position in the UK. The company has been quietly going about its business in this country for almost three decades and currently sits just outside TMV’s Top 30 in the UK BPS market. With $500m still in its war chest from the sale of Healthcare division in 2021 (see here), however, HGS is firmly on our list of “ones to watch” in this arena.
Historically focused on the contact centre arena, the firm has built up a sizeable roster of UK clients predominantly in the Public Sector, Utilities and Retail verticals. Today, the company turns over c.£70m pa and its local headcount numbers some 2,000 employees across five offices in London, Liverpool, Preston, Selkirk and Belfast.
Last year Patrick Elliott was appointed as the new UK CEO charged with developing and implementing a strategy to drive higher growth. The key tenets of the resulting three-year programme are a significant pivot to digital, the increased leverage of offshore delivery, the rebuilding of the firm’s growth function, and the establishment of an enhanced partnering capability.
We recently sat down with Patrick to discuss the progress, priorities and ambitions in this region. What we found is a business that has been building firm foundations and is confident that it is now ready to start stepping up.
TechMarketView subscribers, including UKHotViews Premium subscribers, can read about what our discussion with HGS UK revealed in our expanded UKHotViewsExtra article by clicking here.
If you aren't a subscriber – or aren't sure if your organisation has a corporate subscription – please contact Deb Seth to find out more.
Posted by: Duncan Aitchison at 08:28
Tags: digital HotViewsPremium BusinessProcess customer+experience
Posted by: Georgina O'Toole at 07:00
Tags: partnerships manufacturing iot IIoT Industry4.0 acquisitions market+trends investments smart+factory
Palo Alto Networks (PAN) and IBM have announced a new strategic partnership to deliver advanced AI-driven security services. The collaboration will see the acquisition of IBM QRadar security assets by PAN and IBM Consulting as the preferred managed security supplier for PAN customers.
PAN plans to incorporate IBM's watsonx large language models (LLMs) into its Cortex XSIAM platform, enhancing its Precision AI solution. IBM will, in turn, feature Palo Alto Networks' products in its security consulting services, with PAN becoming the IBM cybersecurity partner of choice. In a rather unexpected move, a notable aspect of the deal is Palo Alto Networks' acquisition of IBM’s QRadar Software as a Service (SaaS) assets.
QRadar is a successful security product in its own right, but clearly IBM saw more opportunity (or less risk?) from going all in with PAN. For QRadar customers this means a likely transition to the Cortex XSIAM platform. Both companies will provide no-cost migration services to ensure a smooth transition. The integration of watsonx LLM’s into Cortex XSIAM is also expected to drive further automation and improve customer support outcomes, such as creating tailored self-service solutions and boosting agent productivity within PAN.
IBM is set to train over 1,000 security consultants on the adoption and deployment of Palo Alto Networks products, with IBM Consulting to be a preferred Managed Security Services Provider (MSSP) for current and future PAN customers. The partnership will also see the establishment of a joint Security Operations Center (SOC) and a Cyber Range for immersive customer experiences. IBM will also build industry-vertical capabilities on top of Cortex XSIAM, leveraging watsonx.
IBM will also adopt Palo Alto Networks' security platforms internally, showcasing the practical benefits of the collaboration. The deal, expected to close by September 2024, is an interesting move by both organisations and really typifies the ongoing consolidation in the cybersecurity market.
Posted by: Simon Baxter at 10:26
Cisco reported revenue fell -13% yoy to $12.7bn in Q3 2024, as the networking business took a significant hit, whilst the $28bn Splunk acquisition helped prop up growth across security and observability.
Cisco saw declines across all geographic segments due to the continued implementation of inventory by customers. Its networking business, which represents over half of company revenue, fell -27% yoy and is now down -11% YTD. Despite a tough comparison to Q3 2023 where networking revenues benefited from significant shipments of excess backlog, this still doesn’t paint a positive picture.
Fortunately, other areas performed better though revenue from the Splunk acquisition significantly propped up growth, with Splunk contributing $413m in revenue. Security was up 36% yoy, with Security revenue overall now up 14% YTD. Excluding Splunk, security grew just 3%, driven by growth in SASE and double-digit growth in Cisco’s zero trust offering.
Collaboration was flat, driven by growth in cloud calling and contact center offerings, offset by declines in meetings and devices. Observability was up 27%, driven by growth in ThousandEyes network services and the benefit from the Splunk acquisition. Excluding Splunk, observability grew 14% yoy in Q3. In customer markets, service provider and cloud were up 10%, public sector was up 6%, and enterprise was up 2%.
Combining security and networking continues to be a focus of the business, with the launch last month of Cisco Hypershield, an AI-powered approach to highly distributed security. Cisco also continue to push customers toward its Security cloud, a unified platform with end-to-end solutions, including XDR and Secure Access capabilities. Gary Steele, former Splunk CEO was named president of Go-to-Market, effective immediately, with his experience expected to contribute significantly to Cisco's strategic plans.
In February, Cisco confirmed expectations that it will cut 5% of its global workforce, some 4000 jobs, (See Cisco cuts 4000 jobs as revenue declines) as it adjusts to the tough market conditions it is facing. The pain looks set to continue in Q4 with revenue forecast to be between $13.4 to 13.6bn a decline of c.11%.
Posted by: Simon Baxter at 10:21
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