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Seeing civil servants get excited about solving challenges within their own organisations is something to be celebrated.
That’s exactly what the Civil Service Data Challenge encourages, as civil servants come together to determine how Government can make better use of data. We have written about the competition on several occasions before. The Challenge is a collaboration between the Cabinet Office, Office for National Statistics, NTT DATA, and the Global Government Forum.
This is the third iteration of the Civil Service Data Challenge and, since it started, the judges have seen a huge variety of challenges that have spurred the entrants to submit everything from simple, yet powerful, ideas, though to those that have been complex and ground-breaking. Past successes in the competition have gone onto be delivered.
And this week was the 2024 final, which I was fortunate to attend. It involved the finalists pitching to a judging panel consisting of seven digital and data leaders: Aydin Sheibani, Chief Data Officer, HMRC; Fiona James, Chief Data Officer & Director of Data, Growth & Operations, ONS; John Quinn, CIO, NHS England; Gina Gill, Chief Strategy Officer, Central Digital and Data Office (CDDO); Simon Bourne, Chief Digital, Data, and Technology Officer, Home Office; Sue Bateman, Chief Data Officer, DEFRA; and Vicki Chauhan, Head of Public Sector, NTT DATA UK&I.
Of the eight ideas long listed – see Civil Service Data Challenge 2024: Eight ideas longlisted | TechMarketView – four made it through to battle it out for the prize money of £50,000, as well as additional development support from key sponsors, NTT DATA, to allow them to take their ideas to development and delivery.
You can watch the highlights video of the event here to get a real sense of the energy in the room. The competition generated huge excitement amongst those in the front line of government services who had come together to resolve the frontline issues they deal with in their everyday jobs. Kudos to the finalists man of whom have had limited – or no – experience of presenting in such an environment but used the competition – and the support of NTT DATA - to develop a range of new skills.
The four ideas, which all look to improve the use of data across the UK public sector, focused on: using a Geospatial Planning tool to support home visits by NHS staff (RouteCare); unlocking unstructured prison data to optimise prison space management (Project Constellation); summarising Government policy for Personal Independence Payment (PIP) caseworkers to allow them to more effectively and efficiently deal with case enquiries (PoSum); and reducing the latency for data sharing between the NHS and DWP to reduce the burden on bereaved citizens, the supplication of workloads across the civil service, and the overpayment of benefits (GENIE – Government Early Notification of Incidents and Events).
And the winner was… Project Constellation!
TechMarketView subcribers can learn more about the winnning concept and the likely benefits to the UK public sector and the public purse, as well as some additional mullings around the need for Government to become better at the sharing of learnings and best practice in UKHotViewsExtra - Civil Service Data Challenge: Winner revealed.
If you are not yet a subscriber - or are unsure if your organisation has a corporate subscription - please ping an email over to Belinda who will be happy to put things right.
Posted by: Georgina O'Toole at 18:26
Tags: learning data public+sector
Despite exceeding market expectations for Q3 top line growth, Adobe’s shares tumbled by more than 9% in after hours trading as a result of a below analyst consensus final quarter revenue forecast. Ahead of the latest quarterlies, the US software vendor had largely restored investor confidence following the aborted takeover earlier this year of rival Figma (see here). The company appears to have been punished harshly for trimming revenue guidance citing both stiff competition and soft demand for its AI-integrated editing tools amid challenging economic conditions.
Adobe’s third quarter results comprised, however, a healthy set of numbers. Turnover and net income for the three months ended 31st August both increased by 11% yoy to $5.41bn and $2.08bn respectively. At the segment level, Digital Media revenue was up 12% against Q323 to $4.0bn and Digital Experience sales rose by 10% yoy to $1.35bn. The former posted record net-new annualised recurring revenue (ARR) of just over $500m. From a geographic perspective, Adobe’s EMEA region saw the strongest growth during the period with turnover improving by c.15% yoy in Q324.
The outlook for the home of Photoshop and Acrobat, although broadly positive, is not without its challenges. The strong trading headwinds, which have been dampening the sales of software products of late, are set to persist for some months to come. Company hopes of a significant GenAI-led boost to demand, in anticipation of which Abobe continues to invest heavily, is unlikely to happen quickly. In our latest Market Trends & Forecasts , we estimated that activity driven by the latest technology wave will only account for c. 10% of net new SITS expenditure over the next four years with the majority of this backloaded.
Posted by: Duncan Aitchison at 09:55
Tags: results software marketing
Posted by: HotViews Editor at 07:00
Tags: software manufacturing IT
OUT NOW from TechMarketView is the Sustainability Technology Activity Index Q1 2024 – Global Technology Insights report excerpt.
The third instalment of TechMarketView’s Sustainability Technology Activity Index is out today, continuing our sneak peek at the Q1 2024 data (with a full series of reports on the 2024 calendar year – including a deep dive into the UK market, as well as global trends – coming early in 2025).
We’re releasing the individual sections of the Index report as excerpts ahead of UN Climate Week at the end of the month. Today’s instalment, entitled Global Technology Insights, looks at how different technologies are deployed across sustainability use cases.
Our data shows that, whilst cloud platforms bind together most of the tech solutions deployed (with a strong showing for analytics and AI), less-mature emerging tech also plays a key role in particular use cases. Check out the report for more insights and recommendations on which technologies provides the best fit for your sustainability problem (and why).
This report follows on from Monday’s Global Supplier Insights excerpt and Wednesday’s Tech User / Use Case Insights. In next Monday (16th)’s instalment on The UK View, we’ll look at how the UK market compares to the worldwide picture, with the final excerpt (out on Wednesday 18th) outlining ten Market Shaping Trends to watch. Stay tuned next week for more sustainability insights!
SustainabilityViews subscribers can download Sustainability Technology Activity Index Q1 2024 – Global Technology Insights now. If you are not yet a subscriber, or are unsure if your company has a subscription, please contact Belinda Tewson to find out how you can access the research.
Posted by: Craig Wentworth at 07:00
Tags: use cases technologies
Whilst growth within the UK Banking Sector SITS market slowed during 2023, spend continued to rise, albeit at a much slower rate. The sector proved to be the most resilient area of UK Financial Services as expenditure increased by 9% on the prior year and the market grew to £7.8bn. With UK banks facing increased competition and heightened cost pressure, the recent economic downturn has served to reinforce the imperative to streamline operations and improve productivity.
FinancialServicesViews subscribers can learn more by downloading UK Banking SITS Supplier Trends and Forecasts 2024. This new report provides details of TechMarketView's latest analysis of SITS expenditure in the UK Banking sector and includes our market forecasts for 2024 through to 2027. The report also contains our updated UK Banking SITS Supplier Ranking, based on the latest available financial information which this year has a new vendor occupying the top spot.
If you do not currently have access to this report but would like to learn about this or any other of our resources, please contact Deb Seth for more information.
Posted by: Jon C Davies at 07:00
Tags: payments banking financial+services
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.
The speech followed the publication of Lord Darzi's investigation of the state of the NHS in England. The investigation concludes that the NHS is in serious trouble and it’s imperative to turn the situation around. The investigation says many of the measures needed to tackle the current situation are already well known and can be found in parts of the NHS today. Good practice exists, but it is not consistent across the NHS.
While admitting that it will take years to address these problems, the investigation identifies several key themes for how to repair the NHS, including the need for a “major tilt towards technology to unlock productivity”. It says the NHS is still only in the “foothills of digital transformation” and digital maturity across much of the health sector remains low.
The report highlights the need for the NHS to make more of its rich datasets, embrace the AI revolution in healthcare, improve the utilisation of the NHS App, and make it easier for innovative start-ups to scale in the sector.
TechMarketView subscribers, including UKHotViews Premium subscribers, can read more about the plans to reform the NHS and what it means for tech suppliers in our expanded UKHotViewsExtra article here.
If you aren't a subscriber—or aren't sure if your organisation has a corporate subscription—please contact Deb Seth to find out more
Posted by: Dale Peters at 15:47
Tags: nhs strategy policy government healthcare digital+transformation
I had the pleasure of spending some time this week with Hitachi Digital Services at their new Liverpool Street HQ for the firm’s EMEA analyst and advisor conference.
I have got to know Hitachi Digital Services, its CEO Roger Lvin and EMEA VP Duncan Mears, pretty well over the last year or so, particularly since the business spun out of storage giant Hitachi Ventara last September (see Hitachi Vantara spins out Digital Services business). Hitachi Digital Services has developed a well-defined proposition targeting the mid-market and is differentiated around its engineering heritage and strengths in both asset heavy sectors such as manufacturing, energy and rail, as well asset light areas such as retail and financial services. Whilst much of the capabilities on show yesterday (strengths in ERP, GenAI, Cloud migration, sustainability, Industry 4.0 and data) were not news to me, I still learnt a lot, particularly from the case studies and use cases on show.
Put simply, Hitachi Digital Services is working on some very impactful stuff, including some impressive case studies based here in the UK, much of which has gone somewhat under the radar. For example, Organisations within the NHS have become a real focus for the firm, with Salford Royal NHS Foundation Trust a key client. Work here has included supporting the Trust’s command centre systems and in building large, complicated data systems towards improving digitisation within hospitals. Specifically, this is geared to helping deliver a better patient experience by engineering care pathways, improving hospital operating capacity and operating costs via better resource and asset utilisation. We also heard an impressive case study from partner Verizon Business group around the work that they are collectively delivering on ‘virtual wards’.
Another good example was the work with London-based consortium Optimise Prime that operates in partnership with the likes of Royal Mail, Uber, Centrica, UK Power and Scottish and Southern electricity networks. This is currently one of largest case studies on the UK energy grid, looking at how the consumption and stress that electric vehicles will place on the grid should be best accommodated and mitigated. In what is one of the world’s largest EV trials, Hitachi Digital Services has been collecting and analysing data for distribution network operators and fleet operators to both prepare for, and encourage, the growth of commercial electric vehicles. Finally, I was also surprised/impressed to learn about the firm’s footprint in the European Insurance market – an area of real traction for the Group and again much of it under the radar.
Posted by: Marc Hardwick at 11:09
Tags: conference
Checkit, the Cambridge-HQ'd software provider that helps organisations manage operations in a hybrid working environment, has made a positive start to its current financial year. Company turnover in H1 (the six months ended 31st July) increased by 16% yoy to £6.7m, albeit annual recurring revenue (ARR) grew by just 9% to £13.8m. The latter metric was in part impeded by the non-renewal of low margin non-core business as Checkit continues its transformation into a SaaS provider (see here). Total Group bookings for the period rose by 38% to £1.2m.
H125 also saw the AIM-listed firm make further progress towards its objective of becoming profitable during the financial year ending 31st January 2027. The first half adjusted LBITDA improved by 24% yoy to £1.4m reflecting a continuing focus on cost management and efficiency. Checkit had cash balances of £7m at the end of July, down by £2m since the beginning of the FY. These reserves are viewed by company management as sufficient to sustain the business until its bottom-line turns black.
June saw Checkit launch and then abandon a bid to buy process management app supplier Crimson Tide in the face of a more generous (and subsequently withdrawn) rival offer from Ideagen (see here). The Board will, however, continue to explore acquisition opportunities to complement the organic growth strategy.
Despite continuing uncertainties surrounding the outlook for trading conditions, Checkit remains confident that it will meet market revenue and LBITDA expectations for FY25. The company focuses on generating better data and implementing smarter processes to enable its clients to make more informed decisions about their people, products, and bottom-line profitability. It is a productivity-centric play which should resonate well with current enterprise priorities.
Posted by: Duncan Aitchison at 09:31
Tags: results software operations productivity
Technology Secretary, Peter Kyle, has announced today that the government will classify data centres as Critical National Infrastructure (CNI).
This is the first CNI designation in many years, following the move to change the status of the Space and Defence sectors back in 2015.
It is also an eminently sensible move that should prove beneficial on many levels for UK organisations, citizens, and businesses. By elevating data centres to the same level as water, energy, and emergency services systems, they will receive greater government support when a major incident occurs – or in the prevention of such incidents. Cast your mind back to July and the huge global outage that impacted everything from shops, to airports, and GP surgeries. A dedicated team of senior government officials will monitor threats and coordinate access to emergency services when needed.
Not only that, but this additional government support should provide businesses with greater confidence that operating in the UK – or starting up a business in the UK – should now be safer and more protected.
Also announced today is a proposed £3.75bn investment in “Europe’s largest data centre” in Hertfordshire by DC01UK. The aim is that this will create more than 700 local jobs. And, yesterday, AWS announced that it will plough an extra £8bn into its UK data centre infrastructure.
Improved safety and greater investment are all good things for both our sector and the broader economy.
Posted by: Kate Hanaghan at 09:30
Tags: investment government CNI
London-based fintech, Form3, has successfully closed its $60m funding round as it looks to support its strong growth. The Series C funding was provided by a variety of investors including US payments giant Visa and British Patient Capital.
Founded in 2016 by ex-Barclays Head of Cash Management, Michael Mueller, UK-based Form3 facilitates real-time account to account payments using open banking APIs. The vendor has enjoyed exponential growth within the UK Banking sector and its system is in use at a number of Tier 1 banks and building societies.
In 2023, leading UK building society, Nationwide, selected Form3 to help transform its digital payments infrastructure (see: Accenture and Form3 to transform Nationwide payments). The project was designed to help Nationwide accelerate and streamline its payments processes whilst improving cost-efficiency and interoperability and helping the society to adopt the ISO20022 payments messaging standard.
Backed by a number of major financial services institutions including, Visa, Lloyds Banking Group and Nationwide, Form3 has enjoyed widespread adoption amongst the fintech community and also works with the likes of PayPal, Virgin Money, TUI, EE and Ticketmaster. The vendor is looking to use the latest cash injection to help drive its growth within its key markets (UK, Europe and the US), as well as supporting the development of new products and services.
Posted by: Jon C Davies at 08:39
Tags: payments financial+services
Back in January we heard from Manchester HQ’ed Cybersecurity and software supplier NCC Group, that despite declining revenue the future outlook for the group looked positive (NCC Group reports H1 decline but future outlook positive). This morning’s trading update appears to support this analysis with NCC pointing to having experienced a better-than-expected performance in its Cyber Security division during a historically quieter trading period.
This has resulted in increased expectations for the period, with overall revenue expected to be in the region of £104m, representing c.4% growth versus the equivalent period in 2023, and Group adjusted operating profit expected to be approximately £6m (previous expectations had been for revenue to be in the region of c.£100m and adjusted operating profit of c.£3.5m).
It appears that NCC is bearing the fruit of its Next Chapter strategy, with a global delivery and operations centre opened in Manila last year. Cost cutting by customers (especially in the US) had driven a need to deliver more cost-effective services, including remote delivery, with NCC’s delivery being too local and rigid in the past. The business has also built out its consulting team and enhanced its Managed Services offering as it seeks more consultative and collaborative relationships with clients.
The Group is scheduled to publish its results for the 16-month period ending 30th September on the 10th of December when we will report in more detail.
Posted by: Marc Hardwick at 08:20
Tags: cyber trading+update
Tags: strategy consulting engagement 2025 back2school
Field service management software specialist Totalmobile has extended its partnership with Nottinghamshire County Council with a 3+1 year, £1.8m contract for Totalmobile Optimise, Mobilise, and the introduction of the company’s Carelink digital social care record software and Unity Analytics solutions into Adult Social Care Reablement teams.
Nottinghamshire has used Totalmobile since 2018, and this deal – made under G-Cloud 13 framework – is designed to help care workers be more responsive and efficient, and make Social Care operations more accessible to end users of the services. It’s another expansion success for Totalmobile, which won a 5+2+2 year contract worth £2.8m for a mobile workforce management solution with longtime customer Fife Council last month (see Totalmobile to roll out dynamic scheduling at Fife Council).
Carelink will allow the council to share reablement care and support plan documentation and visit records with NHS partners via the Notts Care portal. The council also estimates that 55 minutes will be saved per person who completes reablement (as Carelink – running on social care workers smartphones and tablets – removes the need to transport documents from people’s homes to scan and upload)… resulting in 2,560 extra available reablement hours per year (translating into an additional 67 people completing reablement). The addition of Unity Analytics will provide it with deeper insights into service performance – helping it to better optimise resources.
Posted by: Craig Wentworth at 10:38
Tags: mobile social care extension
Bournemouth-based, Twenty7tec, has received new funding worth £16.5m for its mortgage and wealth management technology proposition. The latest cash injection was provided by the fintech’s backers, BGF. Alongside the investment, BGF has also installed Angela Williams as Non-Executive Chairperson whilst Duncan Wade has joined the Twenty7tec board.
Founded in 2014, Twenty7tec provides a variety of integrated solutions targeted at financial advisers and mortgage brokers via its FINPLAN platform. The company’s mortgage solution is designed to help streamline the home loans process, from origination to completion, whilst Twenty7tec also provides a digital marketing solution and a CRM solution. According to the vendor, its platform currently has more than 16k users.
FINPLAN effectively became Twenty7tec’s integrated brand following the vendor’s 2022 acquisition of mortgage, protection and wealth management CRM solution provider Bluecoat Software. The deal was a significant move for Twenty7tec with the vendor subsequently investing heavily in developing FINPLAN alongside its existing product offerings. Having seemingly got a taste for inorganic growth, Twenty7tec further enhanced its overall proposition via the subsequent acquisitions of digital lead generation platform, Meet Parker, and mortgage affordability technology vendor, BrokerSense in 2023.
The highly competitive mortgage market is fundamental to the Wealth Management/Advisory sector in the UK. Just as elsewhere, customer expectations are changing due to demographics and the advent of new consumer facing technologies. Fast growing Twenty7tec appears to have built a comprehensive and rounded proposition and should be well-placed to capitalise on opportunities thrown up by the partial fragmentation of the advisory platform space.
Posted by: Jon C Davies at 09:47
Tags: mortgages financial+services Wealth+management
The Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the National Crime Agency (NCA) intended to improve the UK’s cyber resilience. Working with the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC), the ICO (the UK’s information rights regulator) and NCA (which leads the UK’s fight to cut serious and organised crime) aim to improve sources of knowledge and support available to organisations in the face of a growing threat from cyber crime.
The MoU reaffirms commitments to encourage organisations to engage with the NCA on cyber security matters and seeks to reassure them that information shared in confidence with the NCA will not be shared with the ICO without consent. This follows encouragement from NCSC for organisations not to hush up cyber incidents in the hope they can avoid investigation or public disclosure.
There are also concerns that many organisations aren’t contacting all the relevant authorities when they fall victim to a cyber attack. However, this is not always straightforward, with some attacks requiring separate reports to NCSC, the ICO, Action Fraud, and the Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation (OFSI).
Improving information sharing is vital if organisations are going to learn from and defend against cyber attacks. The MoU states that the ICO will share information on cyber incidents on an “anonymised, systemic and aggregated” basis, and on a specific basis where appropriate, with the NCA.
The MoU states that when both the ICO and NCA are engaged in an incident, they will endeavour to deconflict to minimise disruption to an organisation’s efforts to contain and mitigate harm. It also reiterates the importance of both the NCA and ICO promoting learning, providing guidance and improving cyber standards.
Although there is nothing particularly new in this agreement, the MoU does build on the existing relationship between the ICO and NCA, and if this leads to improved information, support and guidance for organisations it will be welcomed. Collaboration will be vital in order to defend against the growing threat from state-sponsored actors and AI-enabled crime.
You can find out more about trends in the cyber security market in TechMarketView’s recent UK Cybersecurity Suppliers, Trends and Forecast report.
Posted by: Dale Peters at 09:46
Tags: regulation collaboration cyber cybersecurity mou law+enforcement public+safety cybercrime
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).
Tanuja Randery, MD for EMEA at AWS, highlighted AI as being among the factors driving demand for cloud services. As TechMarketView clients will be aware, while investment in AI and GenAI per se has been very limited (mainly to advisory and pilots), buyers have been reassessing the supporting technologies – not least cloud. Indeed, TechMarketView has coined the phrase the “GenAI Dividend”, which refers to the additional money that organisations are spending on optimising their digital and data foundations so they can leverage new emerging technologies as they come to market. AWS’s move to invest more in the infrastructure therefore makes sense.
To learn more about AWS and the competitive landscape, see UK Supplier Rankings 2024. Or use our extensive HotViews archive.
Get up to speed quickly with the market in the UK so far this year with our latest View from the Chief Analyst.
Tags: cloud investment AI
NTT DATA has become Arsenal Football Club’s first Official Digital Transformation Partner. The multi-year agreement aims to redefine how Arsenal’s more than 600 million global supporters engage with the club, which comprises men’s, women’s, and several junior teams.
The collaboration will focus on deepening the connection between Arsenal and its supporters no matter where in the world they are. NTT DATA will provide data analytics tools, machine learning and real-time integrations enabling Arsenal to create enriched, personalised content experiences for fans. Supporters will also be provided with exclusive insights, promotions and offers from the club and its partners.
NTT Data has an impressive track record in the sports sector, serving as the technology partner for major sporting events globally including the likes of The British Open and the NTT INDYCAR SERIES. Three weeks ago, the company announced that it had extended its existing relationship with the Woking-based high performance automotive and motor sports group McLaren, becoming an official partner of the firm’s F1 Academy Team (see here). The IT services company’s involvement with Arsenal promises to be good news for Gooners everywhere.
Posted by: Duncan Aitchison at 08:45
Tags: contract AI data experience sports
OUT NOW from TechMarketView is the Sustainability Technology Activity Index Q1 2024 – Global Tech User / Use Case Insights report excerpt.
TechMarketView launches the second instalment of the Sustainability Technology Activity Index for Q1 2024 today, continuing our sneak peek at the quarter’s data (a full series of reports on the 2024 calendar year – including a deep dive into the UK market, as well as global trends – will be published early in 2025).
We’re releasing the individual sections of the Index report as excerpts ahead of UN Climate Week at the end of the month. Today’s instalment, entitled Global Tech User / Use Case Insights, focuses on sustainability use cases, with analysis of the technology mix and supplier rankings in each.
ESG Reporting and Nature Monitoring & Management use cases lead the pack in terms of the most activity worldwide, but initiatives impacting on core operations (across Strategy & Planning, Supply Chain Optimisation, Industrial Process Innovation, and Green IT programmes) make up nearly half (46%) of all activities. Tech user orginisations should look therefore to embed “sustainability literacy” across the business, balancing long-term commitments to environmental goals with overall business performance. Check out the report for more insights and recommendations for tech users.
This report follows on from Monday’s Global Supplier Insights excerpt. In the forthcoming Global Technology Insights instalment (released on Friday 13th September) we’ll look at how different technologies are deployed across the use cases covered in today’s report; The UK View (Monday 16th) examines how the UK market compares to the worldwide picture; and the final excerpt (out on Wednesday 18th) outlines ten Market Shaping Trends to watch.
SustainabilityViews subscribers can download Sustainability Technology Activity Index Q1 2024 – Global Tech User / Use Case Insights now. If you are not yet a subscriber, or are unsure if your company has a subscription, please contact Belinda Tewson to find out how you can access the research.
Tags: use cases core operations
Oracle delivered a strong Q1 performance driven by cloud services growth, but the big news was the announcement of a strategic partnership with Amazon Web Services (AWS).
Q1 2025 results show quarterly revenues (three months ended 31 August 2024) were up 7% year-on-year (8% in constant currency) to $13.3bn (Q1 2024: $12.5bn). Cloud services revenue was up 21% (22% in constant currency) to $5.6bn, driven by 45% growth (46% in constant currency) in Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI) to $2.2bn. Cloud Application (SaaS) revenue came in at $3.5bn, up 10% in both USD and constant currency. Fusion Cloud ERP was up 16% to $0.9bn and NetSuite Cloud ERP was up 20% to $0.9bn.
Operating income for the period was up 21% (22% in constant currency) to $4.0bn (Q1 2024: $3.3bn), representing an improvement in operating margin from 26% in Q1 2024 to 30% this quarter.
The new strategic partnership between Oracle and AWS, announced as part of Oracle CloudWorld, will see the two companies put aside their longstanding differences and respond to customer demand for a multicloud solution. Oracle announced Oracle Database@Azure in 2023 and Oracle Database@Google Cloud in June this year, but the deal with AWS will soon mean organisations will be able to use Oracle’s database technology from within any of the three hyperscalers’ cloud solutions.
Oracle Database@AWS will enable access to Oracle Autonomous Database and Oracle Exadata Database Service, offering an integrated experience between OCI and AWS, and allowing Oracle customers to connect to applications running on Amazon EC2, AWS Analytics services, or AWS’s AI and machine learning services. The integrated solution is expected to go live this December.
It makes sense for the two companies to draw a line under their previous hostilities. AWS will join Microsoft and Google in offering closer integration with Oracle’s solutions. It offers more cloud migration options for Oracle customers as well as providing improvements to flexibility, performance, security and resilience.
Oracle’s share price was up 12.5% in after-hours trading in response to the better-than-expected Q1 performance and AWS partnership. Management remains “very confident and committed” to double digit revenue growth over the full year, with cloud infrastructure revenue expected to grow faster than last year.
Posted by: Dale Peters at 10:03
Tags: results erp cloud database partnership
Though not the size of contract we would usually comment on, the one-year, £475k, contract handed to specialist consultancy, Mobilise Cloud Services, by the Home Office is worthy of comment as it underlines a key UK Central Government market trend – and indeed, a wider market trend - that we have been talking about for some time.
Organisational investment in public cloud services has often been scatter-gun and ill-thought through, as prioritisation has been given to the speedy implementation of digital initiatives. This is true across the public and private sectors. Perhaps, unsurprisingly, at a time when Whitehall budgetary pressures are intensifying, the many millions of pounds spent on public cloud services – predominantly with the likes of Amazon Web Services and Microsoft – are being scrutinised.
The Home Office is taking action to ensure that it has better visibility and a better understanding of its expenditure, usage, and return on investment. The picture is currently one of siloed areas of the organisation operating and managing cloud spending in very different ways. It is establishing a central FinOps capability to support the management of its public cloud spending and optimise its future use.
Mobilise Cloud Services will be called upon to give independent advice to the department as it develops a FinOps managed service and continues to build internal departmental skills and capabilities. Cloud and datacentre licensing specialists, Synyega, will act as a subcontractor on the deal.
The Home Office is working to a three-year transformation map. Notably, the contract announcement states, “as this function is built at pace, it will have far-reaching impacts”, so to ‘get it right’ first time is imperative.
Posted by: Georgina O'Toole at 10:01
Tags: cloud AWS Azure PublicCloud budget digitalchaos public+sector central+government FinOps
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