Industry news

Cognizant is to acquire Wilmslow-headquartered former Little British Battler (LBB) Mobica as it looks to enhance its IoT software development capabilities.

We first looked at Mobica back in 2012 when they formed part of our 'Little British Battler' initiative (see here) – indeed at the time we were particularly impressed with the way the top team ‘walked the walk’ as well as ‘talked the talk’. Fast forward eleven years and they have talked and walked themselves into a deal with acquisitive SI Cognizant who is looking to expand its IoT embedded software engineering capabilities. Sensible stuff given that IoT has become one of the hottest parts of the SITS market.

Read more on TechMarketView here.

London based start-up GoodVision Ltd, which provides an AI driven Advanced Traffic Analytics Platform, has raised €2.7m in funding to further scale and grow the business.

GoodVision provides automation tools for all stages of traffic projects, from AI traffic data collection to traffic modelling and real-time traffic control. The company was founded in 2017 by Daniel Stofan and Lukas Hruby and has raised €3.7m in funding to date. The latest round was led by Lead Ventures, with participation from Credo Ventures, and Bulgarian Sofia Angels Ventures.

The company’s main product is its ‘Video Insights platform’, a SaaS traffic analytics platform that automates the traffic data collection from existing camera infrastructure and provides deep traffic analytics for calibrating traffic models. They also offer products for real time traffic video analytics and video storage. Existing clients include Arup, Jacobs and the New Zealand Transport Agency.

Read more on TechMarketView here.

On the back of Proxima's newest CPO report, in which the industry's leading voices share their insights on the year ahead, the procurement specialist outlines the key trends impacting the commercial environment.

Proxima recently released its latest CPO report in which the industry’s leading voices share their insights on the year ahead. In this article, Proxima outlines the key trends impacting the commercial environment.

Read more on CSW here.

Crown Commercial Service (CCS) is the UK’s biggest procurement organisation. It uses its commercial expertise to help buyers in central government, and across the public and third sectors.

With inflation surging, and ever growing financial pressures on many organisations, there has arguably never been a tougher time to be charged with making budgets go further – particularly across the public sector. This is especially the case for public sector organisations considering their IT spend, with so many looking to digitally transform in the light of changing work patterns and consumer behaviour post pandemic.

Read more on CIPS Supply Management here.

There’s been quite a bit of hype about the metaverse — it’s the next big thing, it will transform how companies engage with customers and it will alter the way we do business. The metaverse simply integrates the physical and digital worlds, enhancing both through virtual worlds or simple contextual overlays. While companies currently interact with customers via multiple channels — mobile devices, desktop computers, email, social media and chatbots — leveraging the metaverse helps companies create immersive and interactive retail experiences for customers.

What those advanced interactive features will look like is still under development. What we do know, according to IDC analyst Ramon Llamas, is that they’ll be available across devices. “That includes via VR/AR glasses, smartphones, tablets and PCs, chat rooms with video, but also probably via up-and-coming things like holograms, digital signage, digital assets and digital content.”

Read more on Retail Touchpoints here.

Teleperformance (Paris:TEP), the global leader in outsourced customer and citizen experience management and related digital services, announced that it assisted more than 60,000 children in situations of vulnerability across 50 countries last year through its Citizen of the World (COTW) program.

Founded in 2006, COTW is part of the Teleperformance Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) strategy to meet today’s major global challenges. The company is committed to developing in a sustainable manner, creating meaningful connections to bring people together and create value for all stakeholders while ensuring that future generations can meet their own needs. This includes helping the world's most vulnerable infants and children meet basic survival needs and ultimately reach their individual potential.

Read more on BusinessWire here.

Six per cent of the workforce to go as search and ad tech giant latest to announce layoffs, wants to refocus on AI.

Google is to lay off approximately 6% of its workforce and refocus on its priorities, including AI, according to an email sent to staff on Friday by CEO Sundar Pichai. The email was followed up by a blog post.

"We've decided to reduce our workforce by approximately 12,000 roles. We've already sent a separate email to employees in the US who are affected. In other countries, this process will take longer due to local laws and practices," Pichai wrote.

Pichai said the company will be reviewing its current operations in order to make the most of its early investments in AI.

"To fully capture it, we'll need to make tough choices. So, we've undertaken a rigorous review across product areas and functions to ensure that our people and roles are aligned with our highest priorities as a company."

Read more on Computing here.

TechMarketView has released its updated outlook for the UK Software and IT Services market. In this new forecast cycle, we update the data published in Summer last year to reflect current economic conditions and market activity in Q3 and Q4 of 2022.

As we tracked quarterly supplier results and buyer sentiment/action through the second half of 2022, it became obvious that - despite some more recent reports of a slowdown in decision making - the market has continued to expand at an extremely brisk, in part inflation, fuelled pace.

Read more on TechMarketView here.

TechMarketView is delighted to be partnering with the Surrey Institute for People-Centred AI, part of the University of Surrey, to produce a programme of research. The alliance will see TechMarketView Research Directors collaborate with the institute to bridge the gap between academia and industry and enable the cross-fertilisation of research into the way AI can be applied to improve the way we live our lives (see TechMarketView partners with Surrey Institute for People-Centred AI | TechMarketView).

The first report, entitled Building AI-aided workforce resilience, is available now for TechMarketView clients to delve into. It includes analysis of the role of AI/ML in workforce resilience and advice for suppliers operating in the market.

Read more on TechMarketView here.

Every year our theme is designed to sum up in a few words the key trends that we think will impact the tech market in the year ahead, and this year it is Pursuing Productivity.

The UK has had a productivity crisis for the last decade. Over that time, successive Prime Ministers have sought to understand the reason why and to implement policies to ‘get the country moving’.

In other words, productivity is not a new issue. And you’d be well within your rights to question why we think the pursuit of productivity will be such a defining feature of the next 12 months.

Read more on TechMarketView here.