Seeking innovative tech start-ups

Civica’s Head of Strategy Douglas Ibrahim on how the company’s new Innovation Partners programme will accelerate innovation in public sector tech

This January, we launched our Civica Innovation Partners initiative, in association with TechMarketView’s Innovation Partner Programme; an incredibly exciting new project for Civica and the realisation of a long held ambition for us as a leading technology business.

It’s clear that there are an increasing number of smaller technology businesses out there with truly innovative ideas. The question for us was how we could link those solutions with our activities in expanding the use of our software and digital solutions alongside our own teams to improve the delivery of public services and the experience of people and communities. It’s a challenge that the Government also recognises, as highlighted by the recently launched NHS long term plan.

We decided to adopt a partnering approach. But with the pace of change and expectation accelerating, to speed up the process we decided that working with leading technology market analysts TechMarketView, and using their expertise and reach within the UK technology sector, was likely to be a much more effective method.

I’m delighted to say that, two weeks in, we’ve been proved right! We’ve had some great applications so far and it’s also generated a lot of excitement both within the Civica Group and among our wide customer base across both the public and private sectors. We’ve received applications from a variety of companies, with a range of solutions that match our own cloud-based strategy and our aspirations regarding artificial intelligence (AI) and automation in particular. Despite not yet meeting the applicants, I can already see that successful partnerships with some of them will enable us to deliver better solutions to our customers while supporting growth within the UK technology sector.

The deadline for applications is Friday 8th February. If this sounds of interest to your business, click here for more details and how to apply. Watch out for more progress updates and new partnership announcements later in Spring 2019.