One of the more interesting outcomes of CGI’s acquisition of Logica is the impact of its approach in the area of innovation. Logica long had a reputation as one of the most creative and technically innovative of the big SIs, but its track record on its exploitation of its IP (intellectual property) was patchy and regionally fragmented. CGI is giving [...]

TCS’s latest financial results (released last week) showed another impressive performance – particularly as some of its peers are showing the strain. Its FY13 revenues were up 14% in USD terms, to $11.6bn, and its final quarter topped $3bn for the first time. We had the opportunity to meet some of TCS’ senior management last week to discuss current business [...]

Thanks to investment adviser Panmure Gordon and financial PR company FTI Consulting, we attended a fascinating discussion event on the future of the UK Tech industry last week. Participants included Government COO, Stephen Kelly; the head of AIM, Marcus Studdard; the CEOs and FDs of some of the UK’s biggest and hottest tech companies – including Richard Longdon of Aveva, [...]

One of the most interesting Big Data software companies I’ve met for some time is WANdisco – which I found a little surprising for a company that’s not from California, but from Sheffield, England. Sheffield is best known as the cradle of the steel industry (and the setting of “The Full Monty,” a movie poignantly depicting the effect of industrial [...]

Today’s announcement by Advanced Computer Software of its £110m acquisition of HgCapital’s Computer Software Holdings unit has some interesting implications for the UK’s domestic software market. First, it signals a widening of Advanced Computer Software’s ambitions. The acquisition adds around 50% to the group’s revenue run-rate, taking it to around £200m. The company’s original strategy was to focus on the [...]

Over the years, business applications provider Infor has been seen in many quarters as a significant market player, but with more focus on financial management than product development. That perception is looking out of date, thanks to a new common architecture and product capabilities and a fresh user interface. But we think Infor’s progress is being hampered by an overly [...]

At the recent Cloud Expo event in London, one of the most interesting themes was that of Big Data and the Cloud. While it is clear that Cloud-based consumer applications are some of the biggest drivers (creators) of Big Data, organisations’ propensity to perform their Big Data analysis in the Cloud is less certain. There are several reasons for this, [...]

CEO Guy Berruyer continues to make his presence felt at Sage, the UK’s biggest software company and its only global top-10 business applications provider. When M Berruyer took over as CEO a couple of years ago, one of his biggest decisions was to exit Sage’s north American healthcare business – a business line which had long been criticised by investors [...]

One of the UK’s more prominent software-as-as-service success stories, Ffastfill, announced today that it has received an offer to buy the company by Pattington, part of Dublin’s Ion Group. Pattington previously acquired another UK company operating in a similar space, Patsystems, so this looks like a consolidation play. Ffastfill’s directors have recommended the offer, which values the company at £106m [...]

A recent announcement by Sage Group, the UK’s largest software company (and top-10 business applications software provider in worldwide terms), went largely unremarked in the media. It concerned a streamlining of the company’s mid-market solutions organization in Europe. The new mid-market group will be led by Christophe Letellier, currently CEO, Sage ERP X3. At first blush this does sound like [...]