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Converting aims into action is the crunch test for strategic transformation. Any supplier with tools and approaches that make the digital journey easier is in a promising position as businesses ramp up their digital enablement plans to deliver on initiatives such as better customer experience.
The latest research from the Enterprise Software & Application Services (ESAS) stream examines the challenges around digital execution and the approach ActiveOps takes in helping organisations practice it. With its expertise in service operations production management, it is one of the suppliers aiming to help enterprises execute on digital change by addressing the impact on the operations side of business activity. While it has its challenges, the company has touchpoints in several areas: filling some of the gaps between major system components, a contribution to the data driven business agenda and hooks into automation/robotic process automation. That puts it into an interesting position as a provider with a direct route to market and also as a partner to business process and application services suppliers looking to improve their own operations and the quality of their services.
Eligible subscribers can download ‘ActiveOps: an enabler for digital transformation execution’ here.
If you would like information about how to subscribe, please email Deborah Seth.
Posted by HotViews Editor at '23:19' - Tagged: software bpa digital appplication
Thyssenkrupp is a €39bn diversified industrial group with 156,000 people across 80 countries. The Group is organised into six business areas: Components Technology, Industrial Solutions, Materials Services, Steel Europe, Steel Americas, and Elevator Technology. In this new InfrastructureViews research note by Kate Hanaghan we take a look at the latter to understand how it is applying the Internet of Things (IoT) to address its critical business challenges.
For a company that supplies and maintains lifts, the key challenge is always going to be ensuring the safety and availability of the machinery/equipment. If a lift breaks down, it will almost immediately make the manufacturer unpopular with the customer and lift users, such is the impact of an out of order lift. More importantly, any serious mechanical issues need to be identified before they result in an accident. While accidents are thankfully rare, a malfunctioning lift is more common than you might imagine.
IoT and cloud-based analytics are at the heart of a solution that is set to be rolled out across tens of thousands of lifts this year. We take a look at the work Thyssenkrupp has undertaken with Microsoft Azure and CGI to transform both its maintenance processes and how its engineers work. Subscribers to InfrastructureViews can read the piece here: Thyssenkrupp Elevator: Using IoT to take lifts to the next level.
If you would like to become a subscriber, please contact Deb Seth for more information.
Posted by HotViews Editor at '09:29' - Tagged: cloud Azure CGI
As the title of our UKHotViews article highlighted - Atos UK: a year of two halves – the performance of Atos UK business improved as 2016 progressed. We were keen to understand more about the performance of the business, so spoke with Atos UK&I CEO, Adrian Gregory.
TechMarketView subscribers can read more to understand what’s going on under the covers and how the business is evolving so that it is becoming more heavily weighted towards Atos’ Digital Transformation Factory. The UKHotViews article – Atos UK: an evolving business – is available now. If you are not yet a subscriber, please contact Deb Seth, to find out more.
Posted by Georgina O'Toole at '09:30'
TechMarketView is celebrating the fact that more than 100 innovative UK tech SMEs have now taken part in our ‘Little British Battler’ (or LBB) Programme. The programme has been running for five years and in that time, we’ve met some truly inspiring companies that really are punching above their weight.
To celebrate this milestone, we’re holding a drinks reception at the OXO Tower in London on the evening of Wednesday 29 March in association with Oracle NetSuite.
We’re expecting around 200 leaders from the UK tech sector to come along, with our LBBs, our clients and other friends of TechMarketView well represented. It promises to be a fantastic evening of informal networking over drinks and canapes.
The details are as follows:
When: Wednesday 29 March, 6.30pm-9pm (approx.)
Where: OXO2, Level Two, Oxo Tower Wharf, Bargehouse Street, South Bank, London, SE19PH
Dress: Business attire
It’s an invitation only event and spaces are limited, however we are making available just 25 tickets for sale on a first come, first served basis for £250+VAT.
If you would like to purchase one of these tickets for the LBB100 Drinks Reception please click here to book via tx2events, who are managing the event for us.
Posted by HotViews Editor at '08:57' - Tagged: events lbb
There is no denying that the adoption of digital services in the public sector, and related to that, an improved use of data, is now seen as crucial to many of the UK Government’s objectives around better public service delivery: both its effectiveness and its efficiency. The Government Transformation Strategy (see UK Government Transformation Strategy: More steps in the right direction) made clear that without digital as the bedrock of transformational initiatives, very little could be achieved.
However, for the implementation of digital services to be successful and for Government to be able to use data effectively, the public sector must increase citizen trust. If it doesn’t, citizens will be unwilling to go further in adopting digital ways of interacting and will become increasingly reluctant to share their data.
In this research note, Georgina O’Toole argues that the public sector is facing a far more difficult challenge than the private sector. Public Sector digital services: building citizen trust looks at the extent of mistrust in digital public services, the array of issues Government must tackle and the multiple actions that need to be taken. For now, the Cabinet Office is focused on building the foundations but, looking ahead, a more holistic approach must be taken to encourage a change in citizen behaviours.
If you are a subscriber to PublicSectorViews, you can download the research now. If you are not yet a subscriber and would like to access this research (and much more besides), please contact Deb Seth to find out more.
Posted by Georgina O'Toole at '17:48' - Tagged: publicsector security digital data
Our Opportunities Bulletin as become one of the mainstays of our PublicSectorViews service, becoming a must-read alongside our core UK public sector SITS Market Trends & Forecast and UK Public Sector SITS Supplier Landscape reports. In this our tenth edition, we look at opportunities in three sectors: health, central government and education. As usual, we have picked these opportunities because we think they represent interesting trends in the market, of which suppliers should be aware.
In our first article TechMarketView Director, Tola Sargeant, considers the flurry of activity in the market, related to the digital future of the NHS, that has followed the publication of the National Advisory Group report on Health Information Technology in England.
Then, TechMarketView Director, Georgina O’Toole, delves into the data ambitions of the Office for National Statistics (ONS) – with an emphasis on its Data Science Campus (see image) - and considers the benefits for suppliers of becoming involved in the programme.
And finally, Principal Analyst, Dale Peters, investigates the Welsh Government’s Prior Information Notice (PIN) for a school management information systems (MIS) framework, and looks at how this is reflective of broader procurement trends across the education market.
PublicSectorViews subscribers can read our analysis by downloading February's Public Sector Opportunities Bulletin now. If you can't get access, find out how to rectify the matter by contacting Deb Seth within our Client Services team - she will be more than happy to help.
Posted by HotViews Editor at '09:41' - Tagged: publicsector centralgovernment education health
The new Trump administration has rather set the cat amongst the pigeons with proposals to tighten up the rules for skilled workers to enter the US on an H1-B visa. Nevertheless, management at the leading Indian pure-plays (IPPs) seem sanguine about the potential impact on their business should the proposals be enacted – but even so, current financial performance trends look ominous.
Subscribers to the TechMarketView Foundation Service can read our analysis of these developments in the new edition of OffshoreViews, along with our views on recent traumatic events at Cognizant and Infosys. Plus there’s our graphical snapshots of all the Top 6 IPPs and results summaries of six mid-tier players.
It’s the best way to keep up with the Indian offshore services scene. Press the link to download OffshoreViews Q4 2016 Review, or contact our Client Services team (info@techmarketview.com) for further information.
Posted by HotViews Editor at '06:00' - Tagged: offshore
Blackstone is to become a majority shareholder in Cloudreach, the cloud software and migration company headquartered in the UK. Terms have not been disclosed.
Cloudreach uses the tag line “Not if. When.”, which we think applies nicely to its position as an acquisition target. We have no doubt the company has been approached many times by interested trade buyers, but our sense is that CEO Pontus Noren was not about to sell out to another player.
With the Blackstone backing, Cloudreach intends to accelerate its growth. Indeed, the company acknowledges that “to play a significant role in this next stage of market maturity requires significant financial resources”.
In FY15 (the latest set of publicly available data), revenue exploded from £8.4m in the previous year to £24.5m. This came on the back of an investment made by a “third party” in May 2014 ($3.5m of convertible loans). It’s not clear who that investor was, but the injection of cash looks to have been critical.
Cloudreach’s competitive landscape is interesting. There are of course the large SIs that partner with AWS, Azure and Google, but also various other smaller players. Indeed, KCOM is often mentioned in the same breath as Cloudreach as the ‘front runners’ of AWS migration in the UK. But even these two combined have revenue that we estimate is way under £50m - a drop in the ocean in the grand scheme of IT spend in the UK. There is not only a lack of acquisition targets with significant revenue in the UK, but also a lack of professionals with the appropriate cloud/digital skills. Indeed, this is something AWS has looked to address via its re:Start programme, see: AWS re:Start programme: A force for good for UK digital skills?
Read more analysis on the Cloudreach acquisition, here: Cloudreach acquisition reflects important market changes.
Posted by Kate Hanaghan at '09:56' - Tagged: acquisition cloud AWS
TechMarketView is continuing its coverage of the Fintech scene with a review of events at Finovate Europe earlier this month. Although recent reports (from Innovate Finance) suggest that VC investment in UK Fintech has fallen by as much as a third over the past year, the attendance and demonstrations at Finovate last week showed that the sector as a whole is still in good health. Indeed, the level of global investment in Fintech was up over 10% in 2016. As we noted in our Predictions report earlier this year, we expect Fintech companies to play an important role in accelerating the rate of change for the established financial services players in the UK as well as for the sector generally. Finovate 2017 provided the ideal opportunity to see what is on the horizon.
This report is available to subscribers of FinancialServicesViews, here.
Posted by Peter Roe at '10:09' - Tagged: financialservices payments banking
We have long considered that Fidessa is building a strong position in the financial markets. The 2016 results showed consistent progress despite considerable uncertainty, with further proof of the success of the company’s service-based platform strategy.
Following the company’s analysts’ meeting yesterday we have written a more detailed commentary on the results, in the UKHotVIewsExtra available to TechMarketView subscribers, here. We also outline the expectations for the current year and comment on the company’s considered investment strategy which shows that the management are building on solid foundations, brick by brick.
Posted by Peter Roe at '09:45' - Tagged: trading partnerships software financialservices platform
Yesterday at the Reform Annual Conference 2017, Ben Gummer MP, Minister for the Cabinet Office, launched the long-awaited Government Transformation Strategy. PublicSectorViews Research Director, Georgina O’Toole, was in attendance. In this research note, she gives her views on the strategy, what it will achieve and the potential opportunities for suppliers.
PublicSectorViews subscribers can download the research note now. If you are not yet a subscriber, please contact Deb Seth to find out how to access this and other detailed insight into the UK public sector SITS market.
Posted by HotViews Editor at '22:14' - Tagged: publicsector strategy digital transformation
Earlier this week we reported on RM plc’s FY16 results and their proposed acquisition of Connect Group Plc’s education supplies business (see RM acquires Connect Group’s education business for £56.5m). This is a big deal for RM, so in this report we delve a little deeper into what it means for the business and what RM’s performance tell us about the school market in general.
If you are a PublicSectorViews subscriber, you can download the report now.
Posted by Dale Peters at '09:16' - Tagged: publicsector acquisition education research schools rm
The UK defence software and IT services market (SITS) market is evolving. All the leading providers are faced with a changing market environment - changes to the MoD culture, to its organisation, to its ICT procurement approach and to its security requirements - and are, therefore, aligning their approaches.
With this in mind, TechMarketView's PublicSectorViews team has been meeting with the UK defence teams of the leading SITS providers to the sector. This is one in a series of research notes profiling those players. In this second report we look at Fujitsu, which jumped two places in our UK defence SITS rankings in our UK public sector SITS supplier landscape report 2016-17, and which we expect to achieve another year of solid growth in its current financial year.
If you are a PublicSectorViews subscriber, you can download the profile now. If you are not yet a subscriber, please contact Deb Seth to find out more. And look out for the profiles of other leading defence SITS providers over the coming weeks!
Posted by Georgina O'Toole at '21:11' - Tagged: publicsector defence strategy suppliers
Cloud hosting has become a critical tool for organisations that require a highly reliable and flexible online presence. Nextbase UK is an example of that. The company has been in business since 1999, starting out as a supplier of portable entertainment systems such as DVD players. Since moving into the growing market for vehicle mounted dashboard cameras (dash cams), Nextbase has established itself as a leading player in the UK with significant market share.
In a competitive industry, the firm uses its website extensively to showcase new products and services, drive buyers to retail sites, and engage directly with its community of customers who are able to upload dash cam footage to the site.
With the IT budget held by the Head of Marketing, the need for a trusted advisor with regards to IT was imperative. In this End User Insight piece, we take a look at the business challenges Nextbase faces and why the most suitable hosting partner (www.hyve.com) was anything but a global hyperscale player.
Subscribers to our Infrastructure Services and Cloud research stream, InfrastructureViews, can read the piece here: How cloud hosting is powering Nextbase's dash cam business
To become a subscriber, please contact Deb Seth.
Posted by HotViews Editor at '08:49' - Tagged: cloud hosting enduser
Microgen’s pre-close update for Calendar 2016 reported on “excellent progress” in the second half of the year. The Aptitude Software business enjoyed a rapid increase in new contract signings in the second half, bringing the year’s total to 10, and adding 40% to the on-going recurring revenue base. Microgen’s other division, Financial Systems, could also celebrate some positive trends, with the successful integration of May’s acquisition of Infoscreen and the continued growth of the company’s business in the Trust and Fund Administration (T&FA) market. T&FA business now accounts for over half of the revenues in the Financial Systems Division. Net cash has risen strongly to £13.6m, from £5.4m last year.
The brief Trading Update points out the real progress made in executing the business strategy that was outlined in a detailed briefing when TechMarketView met the Microgen management in May. It also sets the business up for a further period of strong performance in 2017.
We recently had the opportunity to talk with Microgen’s CFO about the company’s operations and outlook. As a result, subscribers to TechMarketView can learn more about this interesting company in our more detailed UKHotViewsExtra comment.
Posted by Peter Roe at '10:08' - Tagged: partnerships software financialservices legacy
