United Kingdom Region: Embracing Digital Technologies to Forge a New Era

Amid turbulent economies, the UK region aims to position itself as the global technology hub by investing heavily in emerging technologies and developing startup ecosystems. Regions outside London, such as Manchester, Edinburgh, and Belfast, are becoming the new technology and startup acceleration hubs to support digital transformation in the UK region. Growing demand for enhancing cybersecurity posture, enabling ESG goals, and revolutionizing customer experience is pushing UK enterprises to partner with leading service providers to use emerging technologies for developing innovative solutions and optimizing costs. To support its digital innovation aspirations and deal with the ongoing talent crunch in the region, the UK government is investing in upskilling, recruiting, and attracting digital talent.

Both demand-side and supply-side trends are covered in our United Kingdom (UK) Digital Services 2023–2024 Market Insights™ and United Kingdom (UK) Digital Services 2023–2024 RadarView™, respectively. These reports present a comprehensive study of digital service providers in the United Kingdom region, including top trends, analysis, and recommendations. It takes a close look at the leaders, innovators, disruptors, and challengers in this market.

We evaluated 43 service providers across three dimensions: practice maturity, investments and innovation, and ecosystem development. Of the 43 providers, we recognized 26 that brought the most value to the market during the past 12 months.

The reports recognize service providers across four categories:

• • Leaders: Accenture, Capgemini, Cognizant, HCLTech, IBM, Infosys, TCS, and Wipro
  • Innovators: Atos, CGI, DXC, NTT DATA, Tech Mahindra, and UST
  • Disruptors: Capita, Coforge, Fujitsu, Kainos, Sopra Steria, Virtusa, and Zensar
  • Challengers: Computacenter, Hitachi Digital Services, LTIMindtree, Unisys, and Version 1

Figure 1 below from the full report illustrates these categories:

“The UK region is at the forefront of technology innovation and building startup ecosystem,” said Srinivas Krishna, Avasant partner. “UK government is focusing its investments on cybersecurity, AI, and quantum to build a resilient digital economy and foster innovation in the region.”

The reports provide several findings, including the following:

• • Driven by robust tech funding, startup hubs are emerging outside London in areas such as Manchester, Edinburgh, Belfast, and Cardiff. These regional hubs are becoming hotspots for digital innovation and ambitious cybersecurity, AI, analytics, and crypto startups.
  • Regional initiatives such as the UK’s National Cyber Strategy and Online Safety Bill are strengthening the cyber ecosystem in the region.
  • In its pursuit to establish the UK as a leading global technology hub, the entire region is rapidly implementing AI initiatives. The primary emphasis involves substantial investments in AI research and development by establishing AI CoEs and collaborating with major tech companies.
  • UK enterprises are taking positive steps in the ESG space to create a long-term sustainable impact in the region. They are investing in data analytics and the usage of AR and AI while utilizing carbon capture technology to create a sustainable UK.
  • UK enterprises are revolutionizing customer experience using generative AI, automation, and analytics to attract new businesses and regional investments while improving customer loyalty.
  • The UK government and enterprises are dealing with the ongoing talent crunch in the region by investing in reskilling and upskilling local talent and attracting global talent.

“Service providers are establishing labs and innovation centers to support the UK enterprises in technology innovation,” said Praveen Kona, associate research director at Avasant. “They are leveraging technologies such as AI and analytics to help UK companies elevate customer experience, achieve ESG goals, and improve their cybersecurity capabilities.”

The RadarView also features detailed profiles of 26 service providers, along with their solutions, offerings, and experience in assisting UK-based enterprises in their digital transformation journeys.

This Research Byte is a brief overview of the United Kingdom (UK) Digital Services 2023–2024 Market Insights™ and United Kingdom (UK) Digital Services 2023–2024 RadarView™ (click for pricing).