Industry news

Prime Minister Keir Starmer has pledged the "biggest reimagining of our NHS since its birth" in a shake-up that prioritises wide-scale digital transformation of healthcare.

He revealed the government is developing a new 10-year plan to radically reform the NHS, describing it as "so different from anything that has gone before". The plan will be framed around three shifts in approach: 1) moving from an analogue to a digital NHS; 2) moving more care from hospitals to communities; and 3) moving from sickness to prevention.

Read the full article on TechMarketView here.

Amazon Web Services (AWS) had said it will plough £8bn into its UK data centre infrastructure over the next five years.

The funding will support the building, operations, and maintenance of data centres. The precise locations of the new data centres has not been revealed, but the plan is to place them to support demand in London and “areas to the west”. The government is also in discussions with AWS about investments in other locations across the UK.

Since 2022, AWS has invested £3bn in facilities in London and Manchester. It is evidently money well spent with the hyperscaler continuing to grow strongly in the UK (if slower than historic highs). This is against a backdrop of a shrinking total software and IT services market in 2023 (our latest full year analysed).

Read the full article on TechMarketView here.

TCS’s Financial Services platform BaNCS continues to prove popular with FS providers with Mansfield Building Society the latest to sign up.

The IT Services giant has announced a new deal to drive digital transformation within the 150-year-old building society, that is looking to grow the customer base of its mortgage and savings products. Specifically, TCS will deploy its BaNCS for Core Banking platform alongside its Digital Home Lending Solution, migrating the Building Society’s systems to the cloud. This is all designed to help improve customer and intermediary experience across all the main channels and streamline the mortgage process.

Read the full article on TechMarketView here.

EY is widely recognised as an organisation committed to helping clients increase the value of sustainability and supply chain strategies.

By managing risk, building trust and improving decision-making in this space, businesses stand to achieve a number of positive results including reduced costs and enhanced operational effectiveness.

In recent years, there has understandably been a discernible shift at EY towards supporting clients as they harness the power of technology to achieve supply chain sustainability.

Read the full article on Supply Chain Digital here.

Mondra is helping to make value chains more sustainable by reducing Scope 3 emissions with its apps, now available via Microsoft's Azure Marketplace

Mondra, part of the BRC Mondra Coalition, is working with more than 85% of the UK grocery sector to help them measure and improve the environmental performance of their products and reduce Scope 3 emissions through scaled product footprinting.

Retailers include Tesco, M&S, Co-op, Ocado Retail, ASDA, Lidl and Sainsbury’s, whilst major brands include Starbucks and Nando’s. Its suppliers span the likes of Avara, Samworth Brothers, Greencore, Pilgrims UK, Dunbia, Cranswick and Bakkavor.

Read more on Procurement Magazine here.

Launched in 2021, Unilever's Supplier Climate Programme saw a growing number of businesses within the supply chain accelerating their climate action.

Focusing its support on a subset of key suppliers whose materials contribute the most to its climate impact: around 300 suppliers that are equal to approximately 44% of Unilever's 'Scope 3' GHG emissions (outside its operations and within scope of our net zero ambition) that are related to raw materials, ingredients and packaging.

Today, TechMarketView launches the first instalment of the Sustainability Technology Activity Index for 2024 with a sneak peek at Q1’s supplier data

The Index tracks “milestone events” that indicate a state change in the development and production of sustainability-related solutions

SAP and software-defined vehicle specialist Sibros came out on top in Q1, in terms of their level of sustainability activity worldwide. Our research also shows that, behind the major tech suppliers, there’s a very long tail of smaller companies involved in just one or two activities, indicating a fragmented market of niche (and less active) players.

Read the full article on TechMarketView here.

In 2023, EY named Janet Truncale as its next chief executive officer. The move was a landmark appointment at the top table of the professional services industry – with none of the Big Four auditing and advisory firms having previously been headed by a woman beyond an interim capacity.

One year on, EY could be about to see the same thing in its UK practice. EY’s UK business is the second-largest firm in its international network, behind the US – and to date, it has never had a woman in its top role. But a shortlist on which two-thirds of the candidates are women suggests this could be about to change.

Microsoft has announced the creation of a dedicated decarbonisation team tasked with reducing Scope 3 emissions from purchased goods and services

Microsoft has confirmed a trio of appointments specifically designed to help the company address its Scope 3 emissions.

They are:

• Sofia Khan, former Net Zero lead for Meta and sustainability manager at Quantis;
• Tim Hopper, a Microsoft veteran with over 20 years of experience across sustainability efforts;
• Ray Waweru, former lead for sustainable procurement at Google and responsible sourcing manager at WeWork.

With rapid urbanisation and industrial growth in Asia, waste management has become increasingly critical. The challenge of handling the vast volumes of waste generated requires companies to play a pivotal role in implementing innovative solutions and driving progress towards a more sustainable future.

Offering invaluable insights in this landscape is Sharad Somani, who leads the infrastructure advisory practice for KPMG Asia Pacific and is also the Head of KPMG ESG at KPMG in Singapore. His areas of expertise include project financing, economics and regulatory advisory, as well as energy transition.