Industry news

On September 12th 2024, the Cabinet Office announced that the scheduled 'go-live' date for the 2023 Procurement Act was to be pushed back.

Instead of commencing on October 28th 2024, the Act will now come into effect on February 24th 2025 - a roughly 4 month delay.

In a Written Parliamentary Statement submitted on Tuesday 12th September, the Parliamentary Secretary to the Cabinet Office, Georgia Gould MP, explained that the Act's go-live date needed to be pushed back to provide time for the government to update the National Procurement Policy Statement (NPPS).

Read the full article on Tussell here.

Shared Services Connected Ltd (SSCL) has announced a partnership with conversational AI supplier PolyAI, as it launches Customer Experience Management, a new offering seeking to “revolutionise” traditional contact centre services with next-generation AI technology.

SSCL was fully acquired by parent company Sopra Steria in 2023, having previously been a joint venture founded by Sopra Steria and the Cabinet Office. The company provides a range of business support services for the largest UK government departments and agencies, including the Ministry of Defence, and police forces. Sopra Steria had a mixed H1 amid challenging market conditions, with the election acting as a drag on its SSCL Business Process Services operation.

Read the full article on TechMarketView here.

Capgemini has landed deal worth up to £10.8m with the Department of Work and Pensions (DWP) to support its Management Information (MI) Foundations and Transformation initiative. The 21-month call of contract, which contains an option to extend for a further five months, will focus on delivering improvements to DWP’s core MI application, as well as its migration to a new AWS platform.

DWP has become one of the more significant UK Public Secor accounts for Capgemini, which continues to top TMV’s Central Government SITS Supplier Rankings.

Read the full article on TechMarketView here.

Customer management outsourcer Firstsource has strengthened its position in the UK with the acquisition of Scottish-headquartered contact centre business Ascensos.

Ascensos has extensive operations in Scotland with business centres in Motherwell, Clydebank and Stranraer and has moved nearshore into Romania and Turkey, and more recently into South Africa and Trinidad. According to Companies House it generated operating profits of £0.7m on turnover of £64.1m in 2023 (FY 2022 £63m).

CGI has won a substantial contract with the Department of Justice, Northern Ireland Courts and Tribunals Service (NICTS), which will run for a total of 20 years with a value of £85m.

The company will be NICTS’ delivery partner for its business and IT modernisation program, Themis (part of NCITS’ Vision 2030 Portfolio). The vision is of a digital-first, paper-light environment allowing for greater transparency, faster case delivery and increased accessibility through virtual services. Under the ‘build and run’ contract, CGI will collaborate with the existing Themis team to implement a five -year roadmap involving a new IT solution incrementally replacing legacy systems.

Read the full article on TechMarketView here.

Artificial intelligence (AI) and environmental, social and governance are some of the industry’s favourite terms to throw around. AI promises to make a huge impact on every aspect of financial services, while ESG principles are important to abide by to ensure firms look after the planet and their people.

In its global report, ‘Financial Futures: Disruption in global financial services‘, DLA Piper found that eight in ten respondents are optimistic about future industry growth prospects for the financial services industry, with UK (93 per cent) and US organisations (90 per cent) reporting the highest confidence. While banks appear to be the most optimistic (88 per cent), respondents from global fintechs feel the least positive about the future (72 per cent).

Read the full article on The FinTech News here.

The UK stands to gain more than £700 billion from the impacts of generative AI, according to a new study, with close to half of all working hours in line to be disrupted by the technology. However, according to a new study from Accenture, some 8 million still lack basic digital skills, meaning they could be left behind during a potential realignment of the employment market.

Since generative AI has burst onto the scene, Accenture has worked on over 700 projects for clients exploring the technology’s potential. While it is still unclear what that potential is – beyond broad statements about improved efficiency, reduced costs, and more accurate, faster analysis of data – this has positioned Accenture well when it comes to reading the proverbial tea-leaves, and forecasting what kind of a future economy GenAI might help to build.

Read the full article on Consultancy.uk here.

Tata Consultancy Services has announced a new deal with Mansfield Building Society to enhance member and intermediary experiences. The digital transformation will boost the building society’s customer service function, while supporting its ambitious growth plans.

A survey of customer service entities by McKinsey & Company shows that leaders are broadly agreed on the need to get digital right. Over half of respondents told the strategy consulting giant that the share of inbound contacts that take place through digital channels will exceed 40% in the next three years.

Read the full article on Consultancy.uk here.

London and Singapore-based Zevero has raised $7m (£5.3m) in a seed funding round led by Spital Capital, with participation from East Ventures.

Zevero’s AI-powered carbon accounting platform focuses on measuring emissions across supply chains in the fast-moving consumer goods sector, providing tools to help clients both meet their regulatory reporting obligations and also take steps to reduce their carbon impact.

Read the full article on TechMarketView here.

Strategic agility is the ability of a company to reinvent itself over time, changing its market focus, offerings and business model as needed in order to remain competitive and win in tough markets. Corporate history is full of examples of companies that failed to change when needed, either by ignoring or failing to notice market signals, or being unable to implement transformation.

Microsoft shifted from an operating systems company to enterprise and cloud services, then consumer electronics and, more recently via substantial investments, towards incorporating AI into its key offerings.

Read the full article on Management Today here.