Industry news

AI start-up Oxford Dynamics has secured an Enterprise Agreement Lite with the UK Ministry of Defence, worth up to £2m for its generative AI technology to assist with the searching, interrogation and summarising of complex data. This is the first AI-focused EA Lite contract of its type to be awarded by the MoD to a company, demonstrating the desire to use the innovative technology from UK start-ups to solve government challenges.

Oxford Dynamics was founded in 2020 by Shefali Sharma, Dr Edward Jackson and Mike Lawton, bringing together a blend of serial tech entrepreneurial and space industry expertise and unique AI research. 

Read the full article on TechMarketView here.

Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), a leading IT firm in India, is leveraging generative artificial intelligence (AI) to boost productivity in the rapidly expanding field of engineering research and design.

According to Sreenivasa Chakravarti, vice president of Internet of Things and digital engineering at TCS, this technological advancement signifies a major shift in the industry.

In an interview with Reuters, Chakravarti highlighted that generative AI has enabled TCS to cut product development cycles for its engineering clients by up to 20%.

Read the full article on Outsource Accelerator here.

One of the world's largest banks, the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC), has been hit by a ransomware attack.

According to The Register, cyber group Hunters International has claimed responsibility, saying they have stolen over 5.2 million files from the bank's London branch.

Hunters International, a relatively new ransomware-as-a-service operation, has threatened to release the stolen data if ICBC does not meet their demands by today's deadline.

The leaked data reportedly amounts to 6.6 TB of sensitive information. At the time of writing, ICBC has not issued a public statement regarding the ransomware attack.

OpenAI has announced the release of o1, the first AI model in a new series designed to excel at complex reasoning tasks.

The highly anticipated model, codenamed "Strawberry," demonstrates "exceptional capabilities in fields like science, coding, and math," according to the company.

"We've developed a new series of AI models designed to spend more time thinking before they respond," OpenAI explained.

"They can reason through complex tasks and solve harder problems than previous models in science, coding, and math."

Business Process Operations specialist Serco continues with its ambition on moving up the value chain with the launch of a new consulting business called +impact.

Serco’s new consulting brand is geared towards not only providing advisory but linking into the running of operations – as such Serco is looking to deliver the initial phases of a project right through to implementation and the running of operations. Much of this expertise already exists within Serco but has been lost in how the firm has gone to market. +impact should therefore help Serco engage at a more senior level and move up the food chain from operations into the C-Suite.

Read the full article on TechMarketView here.

Accenture has been awarded a contract worth up to £40.8m by the Department of Work and Pensions (DWP) for the support of its Intelligent Automation Garage initiative. The call off agreement, which is for an initial term of two years with extension provisions for a further twelve months, is for the provision of digital, data and technology specialist resources.

Launched in 2017, the Garage is a collaborative facility which employs agile working methods to test and explore innovative ideas across a range of modern technologies, including Robotic Process Automation and Chatbots. Accenture’s work will span the production of deliverables and outcomes for both The Garage Delivery Factory and Live Service Teams.

Read the full article on TechMarketView here.

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.