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NatWest has signed a major new deal with artificial intelligence pioneer, OpenAI, to help further enhance the UK bank's customer support processes via the application of AI. As a result of the deal, NatWest will be able to utilise the full suite of OpenAI applications alongside its technology advisory services and will also gain early access to the vendor's emerging product pipeline.
Like many large UK financial services organisations, NatWest has been using AI for some time but believes that making greater use of the technology is key to its ability to improve many of its operational processes. The bank has indicated that it also hopes that the application of AI-based automation will enable it to better combat fraud whilst simultaneously reducing its overall cost-base.
NatWest has indicated that it currently has around 275 AI projects in the pipeline and aims to leverage OpenAI to enhance its IBM-developed customer-facing chatbot, Cora, as well as its internal virtual assistant, AskArchie (see: NatWest and IBM enhance CX with GenAI). NatWest believes that making greater use of AI to support its digital assistants will facilitate the provision of more effective self-service options for customers exploring their personal financial choices. For its part, IBM was the original developer of many of the chatbots and virtual assistants used by the major UK banks. The application of GenAI technology is the latest step in expanding the capabilities of these tools.
Data from UK Finance indicates that, in the first half of 2024 alone, payments fraud in the UK accounted for more than £570m, with criminals employing ever more innovative methods to trick customers. Currently, most bank customers report suspected fraud by phone, but NatWest is hoping that going forward, GenAI will streamline and accelerate this key link in the chain against financial crime. By streamlining the process of reporting suspected fraud using Cora, NatWest aims to secure vulnerable accounts faster and free up call handlers to deal with other customer needs.
Posted by: Jon C Davies at 09:33
Tags: banking
How do you feel the UK tech scene is performing?
TechMarketView wants to hear again from UKHotViews readers about how you view the current state of the UK tech scene.
Last September, TechMarketView launched the results of its inaugural Tech Confidence Index (TCI) (Autumn 2024 edition), a six-monthly survey acting as a bellwether for the state and prospects of the UK tech sector. This first edition of TCI included the results from more than 250 business leaders serving all major Software & IT Services (SITS) sectors and end user industries.
Earlier this month, we commenced the second edition of the TCI survey (Spring 2025 edition) continuing to track the confidence of the UK tech scene to help both SITS suppliers and end users understand market sentiment whilst planning and preparing for the period ahead. The report is also available to download to all who are interested without the need to have a TechMarketView subscription in place.
One of TechMarketView’s biggest strengths remains our ‘community’ of more than 20,000 technology industry professionals who read the daily UKHotViews newsletter. In the past, we have gauged opinions via our extensive conversations with CXOs within the industry. However, we would like to make sure we are casting the net wider and ‘taking the temperature’ of the UK tech market in a more consistent way, enabling us to monitor changes over time. As such, we would really appreciate your input by clicking on the link below and sharing your opinion with us.
Please share a few minutes of your time, as the quality of the data will depend on the number and variety of the responses we gather.
PLEASE CLICK HERE TO COMPLETE SHORT SURVEY
Posted by: Marc Hardwick at 08:50
The UK Building Society sector has proved a happy hunting ground for TCS in recent years and where its BaNCS suite of products have become a platform of choice among lenders.
TCS has a strong track record of signing up top UK Financial Services providers across all segments of the market, ranking first in our recently published ‘Top 20 ranking’ of UK Financial Services SITS (download a copy here). TCS, has real heritage within the Building Society sector and a great deal of experience of working with societies, and this forms a core part of its financial services business in the UK. Over the years TCS has built up considerable domain expertise and retains a number of long-established relationships such as with the likes of Nationwide, The Coventry Building Society and Mansfield Building Society.
TCS's newly announced partnership with Cumberland Building Society represents another good win in the UK building society sector's digital transformation journey. By implementing TCS BaNCS for Core Banking alongside Digital Home Lending and Quartz for Compliance solutions, Cumberland aims to modernise its infrastructure while maintaining a customer-centric ethos.
This deal is part of the broader industry trend of building societies embracing digital transformation to remain competitive. With £3.2bn in assets under management, Cumberland's decision to overhaul its core systems demonstrates how mid-sized financial institutions are increasingly prioritising technological resilience.
Posted by: Marc Hardwick at 08:33
Tags: contract banking Digital transformation
Building on the increasing momentum evident in its prior two quarters (see here), Accenture chalked up a top end of guidance revenue performance in Q225. Company turnover for the three months ended 28th February increased by 8.5% at constant currency to $16.66bn. GAAP operating margin of 13.5% for the period was down 20 bps against the adjusted Q224 number.
A sequential increase of c.17% in Gen AI related bookings to $1.4bn did not lift the total value of customer contracts signed in the second quarter. This metric was down 3% yoy (flat at constant currnecy) to $20.91bn. As we noted in our recent UK SITS Market Outlook Update (see here), success in the Gen AI services arena is, for now at least, coming largely at the expense of sales of more traditional lines of business.
For the second quarter in a row, all of the Accenture’s industry and geographic markets reported yoy rises in turnover. From a vertical sector perspective, the best performances for the period came from the Financial Services and Health & Public Service divisions. Q225 revenues in these units increased by 12% and 10% respectively compared to the same period in the prior FY.
The Americas again proved the most resilient of Accenture’s regions with the pace of yoy expansion in this country grouping maintaining a double-digit growth rate through the first half on the financial year. Closer to home, the company’s EMEA territory gathered further momentum to post an 8% yoy improvement in Q2 sales (Q125: 6%).
Looking ahead, Accenture raised the bottom end of full year revenue constant currency growth guidance to 5%-7% from the 4%-7% provided in December. Operating margin for FY25 is expected to improve by between 10-20 bps over the prior year’s adjusted figure to between 15.6%-15.7%.
The broadly solid set of Q2 numbers did not prevent Accenture’s share price taking a 7% hit in trading following the announcement. The potential impact US Government cuts to consulting expenditure on the company’s Federal Services unit, which in FY24 generated around 8% of firm-wide revenue but was reported to be facing a slowdown, has worried investors.
Posted by: Duncan Aitchison at 17:46
Tags: results IT+services
AI medical imaging SME Brainomix has raised £14m in a Series C investment round led by existing investors Parkwalk Advisors and the Boehringer Ingelheim Venture Fund (BIVF) and new investor Hostplus (via the IP Group Hostplus Innovation Fund). The round was also supported by LifeSci Capital.
The University of Oxford spinout was founded in 2010, raising £1.2m in 2014, £1.5m in 2016, £7m in 2018, and £16m in 2021. It initially focused on the application of AI to provide real-time interpretation of brain scans to help guide treatment and transfer decisions for stroke patients. Since then, it has expanded beyond stroke into new therapeutic indications, including for lung fibrosis and cancer.
Brainomix now operates in more than 20 countries globally. Its Brainomix 360 Stroke platform, which automates validated imaging biomarkers to improve both diagnosis and treatment decisions, is used extensively in the NHS. It is also expanding in the USA, where it has secured ten US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) clearances and entered a strategic partnership with Boehringer Ingelheim to improve the care of patients with fibrosing lung disease.
The new investment will enable the company to accelerate growth in the USA, support the expansion of its portfolio of AI-powered technology into new areas, and expand its Oxford-based operations and global commercial team.
AI has the potential to transform NHS patient care and its use in stroke diagnosis is well established. As part of a national optimal stroke imaging pathway, NHS England implemented a rapid national rollout of AI to stroke services. Last year it was announced that every stroke centre in England (107 sites in total) is now utilising the technology.
The new funding and the UK government’s ‘major tilt towards technology’ in the NHS, coupled with Brainomix’s experience of improving stroke diagnosis and treatment, should provide the company with plenty of opportunity for growth.
Posted by: Dale Peters at 09:39
Tags: nhs funding startup investment AI healthcare healthtech diagnosis
NTT DATA UK&I has published its latest perspectives on the Banking sector, highlighting a number of the forces that are set to influence future prospects. NTT’s Banking Trends 2025: Key Shifts and Strategies for the Future highlighted three particular dynamics that are impacting the UK market: the pursuit of resilience; tackling financial exclusion; and the potential of GenAI technologies.
With cyber risks increasing and UK banks the subject of ever greater public scrutiny, NTT’s CTO, for Banking and Financial Markets UK, Sumant Kumar, commented “banks must embed resilience and security at the heart of their systems and services.” Kumar went on to underline that GenAI would have a key role to play in helping banks to improve resilience and security, highlighting that 53% of banks regard GenAI as a highly effective tool in this area. He stated that “NTT DATA is enthusiastic about AI technologies, but we are utterly committed to deploying them ethically, safely, and in ways that protect both our clients and the wider public."
In publishing its latest perspectives on the major Banking trends, NTT Data stressed that, “a commitment to financial inclusion and a more affluent, harmonious society” is at the heart of the company’s core values. In this regard, better personalisation and an improved UX can help tailor services, products and advice around the needs of those who might otherwise be financially excluded. Meanwhile, data analytics can provide investors, financial service providers, and their clients with insights that support environmental, social and governance goals.
NTT DATA’s perspectives emphasise just how quickly AI adoption is increasing amongst UK Financial Services organisations and confirms our own analysis that, many within the sector are looking to significantly accelerate their use of this technology. To this end, there is something of a sense of urgency around GenAI in particular as organisations pursue early mover advantage in an effort to avoid falling behind their competitors (see: AI in Financial Services – Where the Rubber Hits the Road).
Posted by: Jon C Davies at 09:38
Made Tech has secured a new contract with the Department for Business and Trade (DBT) to enhance the department's data platform and analytical capabilities. This win builds on a four-year partnership and aligns with Made Tech's strategic focus on driving better decisions through data and automation (see TechMarketView Market Readiness Index 2022 | TechMarketView).
The contract will see Made Tech supporting DBT's CRM adoption and improving data quality to generate richer insights for trade policy development. This builds on previous work where Made Tech conducted a comprehensive review of DBT's self-built Data Hub CRM system, that provides the department with a single view of companies they work with and supports UK businesses seeking new export markets.
In that earlier engagement, Made Tech delivered strategic and economic analysis, comparing options including maintaining the existing Data Hub, transitioning to commercial platforms like Salesforce or Microsoft Dynamics, or developing a hybrid approach. This work culminated in a detailed report presented to DBT's executive committee that set out options to improve user experiences.
Skills development is another key component of the latest contract, with Made Tech delivering knowledge-sharing initiatives to ensure DBT teams maximise value from their data investments. This approach aligns with Made Tech's strategic mission of enabling technology skills within the public sector.
The win follows Made Tech's impressive H1 FY25 performance, where sales bookings more than tripled to £42.0m compared to £12.6m in H1 FY24 (see Made Tech H1: Building momentum and strengthening leadership | TechMarketView). The company's contracted backlog has grown 44% to £80.8m, providing strong revenue visibility.
For DBT, which supported £862 billion in UK exports last year, the enhanced data capabilities will strengthen its ability to identify opportunities for UK businesses internationally and attract global investment – critical priorities in a post-Brexit economic landscape.
The contract strengthens Made Tech’s position in the public sector technology market. Data infrastructure and platforms represent a promising growth area as government departments increasingly prioritise data-driven decision-making.
Posted by: Georgina O'Toole at 09:27
Tags: crm data public+sector central+government contract award
In the last two days, three global IT services heavyweights have announced new vertical industry focused, agentic AI-centric, NVIDIA-powered initiatives. The latest moves by Accenture, Capgemini and Wipro all seek to target the burgeoning demand for reasoning AI.
Accenture is expanding its AI Refinery (see here) with a new AI agent builder designed to allow business users to quickly construct and customise advanced reasoning AI agents without coding. The company is developing over 50 industry-specific AI agent solutions with a goal of 100 by the end of the year. Built using NVIDIA AI Enterprise, these offerings will cover industries including telecommunications, financial services and insurance.
Capgemini is to introduce customised agentic solutions to meet the diverse needs of specific industries ranging from healthcare and financial services to manufacturing and telco. By leveraging NVIDIA NIM and a dedicated agentic gallery, Capgemini aims to streamline deployment and reduce complexity to deliver faster time-to-value and agile implementation of AI agents for enterprise clients. Together with NVIDIA, Capgemini is building over 100 bespoke AI agent-driven solutions tailored to various industry use cases.
Focused on developing and implementing country specific solutions to enhance citizen experiences, Wipro has launched Sovereign AI. This comprises new agentic AI services which leverage Wipro Enterprise GenAI (WeGA) Studio and NVIDIA AI Enterprise software to deliver a wide range of applications across Banking & Financial services, Emergency services, Healthcare services and Education services. The solutions will enable the unlocking of customised large language models (LLM) for local languages, starting with Thai and expanding to other languages in India and South Asian countries, including Arabic that can deliver more accurate and culturally relevant AI interactions.
This latest clutch of announcements is further proof, if proof were needed, that market emphasis is shifting towards Agentic AI. As we noted in our recent coverage of NVIDIA’s Q425 results (see here), the integration of advanced reasoning capabilities and autonomous decision making is redefining enterprise software. We are still only at the early stages of adoption, the acceleration of which will attract much of the service provider community’s energies in the months ahead.
Posted by: Duncan Aitchison at 08:58
Tags: AI IT+services AgenticAI
Posted by: HotViews Editor at 07:00
Europol has published its annual European Union Serious and Organised Crime Threat Assessment (EU-SOCTA) report. It highlights the destabilising and corrosive influence criminal networks are having on society and how, driven by the exploitation of new technologies, the threat they pose is evolving at an unprecedented pace.
The report discusses how serious and organised crime is being nurtured in the online domain and is being driven by the convergence of profit-driven criminal networks and hybrid threat actors with geopolitical motives. The cybercrime landscape is a key area where the line between profit-orientation and ideological motivation is increasingly blurred. The alliance between these groups allows nation states to support persistent and cumulative small-scale acts of destabilisation (“the woodpecker modus operandi”), using criminal networks for deniability and political or economic gain.
The impact of online platforms on the process of trafficking in human beings and migrant smuggling is also examined. These tools are allowing criminal networks to identify and recruit victims, reach a wider customer base, manage communications and payment (including using cryptocurrencies), and avoid any physical contact with victims or clients. It is also helping to drive the expansion of financial crime, including investment fraud, digital asset theft, online fencing, and laundering.
Artificial intelligence (AI) is fundamentally reshaping the serious and organised crime landscape by acting as a catalyst for crime and by improving criminal efficiency. Criminal networks are increasingly turning towards Generative AI, which has dramatically reduced barriers to entry for digital crimes. The report details how AI is now being used to craft messages in multiple languages, more accurately target victims, create malware, produce synthetic media (e.g., voice cloning and deep fakes), and generate child sexual abuse material (CSAM), significantly increasing the volume of CSAM available online. The automation capability of AI has also transformed the efficiency of criminal networks (e.g., automated phishing attacks) helping to extend their reach and reduce resource and technical skill requirements.
AI will also help leverage more sophisticated and scalable cyber-attacks through attack automation, social engineering, vulnerabilities identification, and by-passing security solutions. The report also details how data theft will become even more prominent as the utilisation of AI in these attacks increases.
The report highlights how the threat landscape will continue to evolve, with developments in quantum computing, 3D printing, the metaverse, 6G, unmanned systems, and brain-computer interfaces. It calls for greater cooperation between law enforcement authorities (including improved data sharing), an enhanced focus on asset recovery, development of consistent regulations, and advanced detection tools.
Technology companies find themselves at the intersection of these evolving threats—as developers of the tools and services that can help counter the activities of criminal networks, creating the platforms that are being misused for criminal activities, and as a target of serious and organised crime themselves. The need for suppliers to collaborate with law enforcement agencies to counter the growing threat is clear, but it is a nuanced discussion that must balance robust security measures with privacy protections. As criminal networks increasingly leverage AI and emerging technologies, technology companies face the dual responsibility of preventing the misuse of their products whilst preserving legitimate functionality and user trust.
Posted by: Dale Peters at 10:05
Tags: police law+enforcement public+safety Europe cybercrime
All good things must come to an end.
I’ve told the story of the Holway Boring Awards many times. From the misquote in the FT in 1992 on Admiral’s results as me saying they were ‘Boring’ rather than ‘boringly consistent’ to giving the Award to companies like Triad Group Plc, Capita and Sage when they had achieved 10 years of uninterrupted EPS growth. All those companies lost their Award soon after their long serving CEOs stepped down.
But there was one Boring Award holder left – Computacenter. Not just 10 years but a quite exceptional 19 years of uninterrupted earning growth. Just like all the others, achieved under the leadership of a long serving CEO – Mike Norris.
But, however much I was prepared to bend the rules, it was pretty inevitable that Computacenter would suffer an earnings reversal in its FY24 accounts. See the, as usual, excellent writeup by Kate Hanaghan in yesterday’s HotViews.
Although Computacenter has lost its much-coveted Boring Award it has gained a new accolade. Their shares are up 11% yesterday making it a 22% rise YTD. That puts them atop the Leaderboard in the Holway Portfolio. So actually, Computacenter might be becoming rather exciting!
But all praise to Mike Norris and Computacenter. I doubt we will ever see a 19 year unbroken earnings record again. Indeed, at this rate, I doubt I will ever be able to give anyone a Boring Award again in my lifetime (well I am getting rather old now!).
Posted by: Richard Holway at 10:00
Another nice day for VAR shares with Softcat trading up almost 13% on the back of a strong performance and an upgraded outlook.
Gross Invoiced Income (GII – a key metric for resellers) was up 19.3% in the six months to end January 2025. Operating profit was up 12.1%. The firm achieved another record first half profit and is now expecting to deliver low double-digit operating profit growth in FY25 – up from high single-digit. Also encouraging is Softcat’s progress against its strategic goals of winning more new customers (+1.4% yoy) and selling more to the existing base.
Softcat puts its strong performance down to the breadth of what it can offer customers and its diverse customer base. This means that even when the broader UK economy is under pressure, this diversification can still support growth. That said, there was particularly strong investment from customers in the security, networking and data centre infrastructure segments.
Rather interestingly, Softcat indicates it is open to making acquisitions in the AI/data insights space to complement its organic investments to date. It could certainly justify it given its ongoing strong financial performance!
Yesterday, fellow UK VAR, Computacenter, also saw its shares pop on the back of positive performance news.
Posted by: Kate Hanaghan at 09:55
Tags: results
Cambridge-headquartered, AIM-listed geospatial software provider and data integrator 1Spatial has reported significant progress in its strategic transformation towards higher-margin recurring software revenue for the year ended 31st January 2025 (progress we reported on at the halfway point in the year – see 1Spatial gets its ducks in a row), despite facing challenges from delayed contracts.
In a trading update released today, the company stated that term licence and SaaS revenue jumped over 35% to £11.5m (FY24: £8.5m), exceeding expectations in software sales. Recurring revenue reached approximately £21.0m (representing 62% of total revenue, up from 56% in the previous year).
Overall group revenue grew modestly to £33.4m (FY24: £32.3m), impacted by a greater than expected decrease in services revenue, however (primarily attributed to delays in a large Belgian contract announced in February 2024, though delivery has now commenced).
Despite these headwinds, Adjusted EBITDA for FY25 is expected to be at least £5.6m (FY24: £5.5m), with the impact of lower services revenue offset by the improved business mix of higher-margin software revenues and cost reductions.
The company ended the year with net borrowings of £1.1m, compared to a net cash position of £1.1m a year earlier – primarily due to working capital expansion (expected to reverse in FY26), and a financial bond for the Belgian contract.
CEO Claire Milverton noted positive momentum for FY26, highlighting the company's (UK-focused) 1Streetworks SaaS solution – with a third significant contract expected to be announced in Q1 (following a number of trials with utilities, private sector contractors, and traffic management players during FY25 – see 1Spatial working to deliver on SaaS potential). With new sales resources and leadership in place, the board remains confident about future progress as 1Spatial continues its strategic evolution into a higher-margin software business.
Posted by: Craig Wentworth at 09:53
Tags: results geospatial trading update
Telematics and data insight provider, Trakm8’s hopes of a second half return to yoy top line growth have not materialised. In the trading update posted by the AIM-listed business this morning, the Board states that it now expects turnover for FY 2025 to be c.10% lower than that those reported for the financial year ended 31 March 2024, with a consequential impact on profitability.
Three months ago, the company was confident of improving revenue compared to the £16.1m generated in the prior FY (see here). The latest announcement implies that H225 sales will be down by some 18% yoy putting Trakm8 on course for a seven-figure loss for the second year in a row.
In its commentary on the H125 results published last December, the company reported that it had downgraded the full year forecast for its Insurance and Automotive business. This accounts for around a quarter of firm-wide revenue. There was optimism, however, that this shortfall would be offset by Trakm8’s larger Fleet and Optimisation arm. It was described as trading well with a strong pipeline of opportunities, including a significant route planning and optimisation software deal. The latest trading update states that the latter “will not now be forthcoming”.
It's been a tough couple of years for the Midlands-based business during which its annual revenue has declined by almost 30%. At the time of writing, Trakm8’s share price had fallen by a further c.16% in early trading following the latest announcement. This leaves the company worth just a quarter of it was at the end of March 2023. It is to be hoped that the company will be have better news to report on the outlook come the publication of its FY25 results in the summer.
Posted by: Duncan Aitchison at 09:02
Tags: software insurance telematics logistics trading update
RM plc made further progress in FY24 (year ended 30th November 2024) as it continues to transform its operations and provide a platform for growth following the closure of its Consortium business, which ceased trading in December 2023 (see EdTech focused RM to close Consortium business).
Revenue from continuing operations (largely reflecting the closure of Consortium) declined by 5.5% to £166.1m (FY23: £175.9m). Reported revenue in FY23, which included Consortium, was £195.2m. Adjusted operating profit improved from £0.3m as reported in FY23 to £8.6m; however, when compared to the restated FY23 figures, this metric declined slightly from £9.3m. It was a similar picture for adjusted EBITDA, which at £13.1m was up markedly on last year’s reported £7.0m, but down slightly on the restated figure of £15.0m. At the divisional level, RM TTS (curriculum resources) revenues decreased by 4.5% to £72.4m (FY23: £75.9m) and adjusted operating profit was £5.4m (FY23: £5.9m). Although UK revenue in this division was up 2.8% to £53.7m, non-UK revenue fell by 20.7% to £18.7m; however, this is expected to improve in FY25. RM Technology (school IT) revenues decreased by 6.4% to £54.0m (FY23: £57.7m), but adjusted operating profit increased to £3.6m (FY23: £0.7m).
The highlight of the year was undoubtedly its RM Assessment division, where its contracted order book more than doubled to £95.7m at the end of FY24 (FY23: £40.8m). This includes extensions to its longstanding partnerships with Cambridge University Press & Assessment and The International Baccalaureate, as well as deals with the Institute of Chartered Accountants, Ghana (ICAG) and Pädagogische Hochschule St. Gallen (PHSG) in Switzerland. Revenue in this part of the business decreased by 6.2% to £39.7m (FY23: £42.3m), but this was due to the reduction in legacy project contracts with the Department for Education. Revenue from underlying recurring contracts increased by 10.0% and revenue from its Digital Assessment platform was up 12%.
The company achieved £10.6m of further annualised cost savings and efficiencies during the year. Although management expect to continue to look for efficiencies, it is not expected to make further large-scale savings. The company remains a highly leveraged business, with adjusted net debt increasing during the year by £6.1m to £51.7m; reducing this figure is a key priority for management in FY25.
It has been a year of transformation for RM. There is still work to be done (not least reducing net debt); however, we expect to see positive progress and a return to revenue growth in FY25.
Posted by: Dale Peters at 10:42
Tags: results education schools assessment edtech
Computacenter’s share price popped c.11% at time of writing on the back of the release of its FY24 numbers.
Gross invoiced income (GII) from Group Technology Sourcing (product resale) was roughly flat at constant currency, coming in at £8.27bn. Services revenue was up 2.12% to £1.63bn.
However, the North America business is on fire, with Technology Sourcing GII up 8.1% and Services revenue +27.1%. Furthermore, the Group order book points to a promising FY25.
Computacenter’s Services business is an entity of two halves, with Professional Services growing 11.9% but Managed Services (covering workplace, networking, infrastructure and cloud) shrinking 5.3% (with a slower rate of decline in the second half). This was due to the timing of certain contract losses coupled with the time taken to onboard new contracts. Notably, margin was impacted by two large “underperforming” contracts (one in Germany and one in the UK).
More broadly, Computacenter said the performance in the UK was “disappointing” with Technology Sourcing GII down 9.3% and the market “softer than expected” – especially with regards to hardware sales. Services revenue was up 2.5% (to £452.8m) but gross margin was squeezed 73 basis points largely due to that aforementioned contract. But there were bright spots, with the firm renewing some “very substantial” contracts – including one worth c.£1bn covering both resale and services.
While FY24 did not bring the 20th year of consecutive EPS growth CEO, Mike Norris, was hoping for, the firm finished FY24 in positive territory. Committed product order backlog at the end of the year was “significantly ahead” of the firm’s position a year prior. More broadly, Computacenter expects to “make progress” in this current FY.
Posted by: Kate Hanaghan at 10:00
UK-based crypto trading startup, ABEX (Algorithmic Best Execution), has secured a cash injection of £6m for its algorithmic trading proposition aimed at digital asset markets. The funding round was led by MMC Ventures.
ABEX has used machine learning technology to develop a proprietary trading algorithm and ultra-low-latency, high-frequency trading engine. The ABEX trading engine, is built in C++ and the fintech claims that its performance matches that of the leading market makers. The approach taken by ABEX has been designed to optimise execution costs and protect users from trading at unfavourable pricing without compromising market opportunities.
Founded in 2022 by former software engineer, Ekan Kayar, ABEX is targeting institutional investors involved in digital asset markets. The startup is one of the few entities of its kind registered with the FCA to execute crypto trades in the UK. ABEX intends to use its latest funding to further develop its product and expand into principal trading and eventually derivatives.
Interest in crypto trading is continuing to grow and there is increasing global demand for technology solutions in this area. Against this backdrop, in October 2024, fintech unicorn Stripe, agreed to acquire stablecoin platform, Bridge, in a deal worth around $1.1bn (see: Stripe pays $1.1bn for Bridge).
Posted by: Jon C Davies at 09:09
Tags: Crypto financial+markets
CGI, in collaboration with Starlink re-seller Onwave, has successfully delivered ultra-fast rural broadband connectivity to selected sites across Buckinghamshire (following a similar rollout across remote areas of Norfolk in 2024).
The service takes a hybrid approach, relying on Low Earth Orbit satellites for backhaul and a free-to-use public wireless service for endpoint connectivity, and complements the government’s Project Gigabit initiative to bring reliable high-speed internet to hard-to-reach communities.
Local authorities talk a lot about digital transformation, improved citizen digital experiences, and the digital front door for both their residents and local business services – it’s a key plank of their modernisation agendas (see UK Public Sector Predictions 2025).
However, those councils with a significant rural population, especially spread across hard-to-connect geographies, often face challenges when it comes to the even distribution of this much-heralded digital delivery; especially as they strive to ensure that no community gets left behind. Innovative hybrid solutions like CGI’s and Onwave’s in Buckinghamshire (and Norfolk) are a good example of how different technologies can be deployed in combination to provide a more affordable solution (compared with the cost – in time and money – of laying of physical fibre-optic cables) to help close the urban/rural digital divide.
Posted by: Craig Wentworth at 09:02
Tags: broadband connectivity satellite Local Government Project Gigabit Low Earth Orbit LEO rural
Leatherhead-headquartered reseller Bytes Technology Group (BTG) has delivered another strong performance in FY25. Today’s trading update from the company reports that full year gross invoiced income (GII) comfortably exceeded £2 billion for the first time. For the twelve months ending 28th February, the FTSE 250 listed firm has once again achieved double-digit growth in its key financial metrics: GII; gross profit; and operating profit. The results include two full months of trading under the recently updated incentive plan with Microsoft, sales of whose software and services account for approaching half of the company’s total gross profit.
The period saw BTG’s operating profit increase by a mid-to-high-teens percentage. This was underpinned by an acceleration in gross profit growth in H2 to deliver a full year improvement of around 12% yoy to c.£163m. Cash conversion remained healthy during the last fiscal to generate a balance of over £110m at year end up from £89m at the close of FY24 (see here).
The Group enjoyed high demand for software, AI and IT services from both corporate and public sector clients in FY25. BTG’s key tech focus areas are cloud adoption/workload migrations, storage, cybersecurity, virtualisation technologies and Microsoft Copilot. CEO, Sam Mudd, who took over the helm at BTG just over a year ago (see here), believes that the Group is “primed to capture the significant growth opportunities ahead”. Hopefully, there’ll be a more detailed update on the company’s prospects for the current year available when its FY25 results are published in May.
Posted by: Duncan Aitchison at 08:42
Tags: software reseller VAR trading update
With the Procurement Act 2023 now finally in effect, and the government having recently announced a revision to the Social Value Model, TechMarketView has revisited its coverage social value – this time looking across the wider Public Sector.
For Software and IT Services (SITS) suppliers bidding into Public Sector contracts, social value requirements have become a crucial competitive differentiator. However, our research reveals significant opportunity being missed through generic approaches that fail to leverage core technical capabilities effectively.
Our analysis of the approaches of our Top 10 suppliers to the sector (examining their strategies, implementation and measurement approaches, and the outcomes they achieve) reveals a market moving towards maturity, though with some variation in sophistication and effectiveness. Find out how early market engagement, cross-sector coordination, the development of an effective partner ecosystem – amongst other measures – can help drive successful social value delivery.
PublicSectorViews subscribers can download Social value in the Public Sector 2025 today; however, if you are not yet a subscriber or are unsure if your organisation has a corporate subscription, please contact Belinda Tewson to find out more.
Posted by: Craig Wentworth at 09:59
Tags: procurement social value impact
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