France’s Atos eyes UK public sector with investment in secure UK infrastructure

Atos has built additional delivery infrastructure in the UK, making a series of investments aimed at reassuring customers that their data is stored and processed using military-grade security.

Building infrastructure in the UK that will leverage artificial intelligence (AI) capabilities will support the company's plan to grow its business in the UK public sector.

Newly appointed chief executive of Atos UK. Michael Herronwho joined Atos from CGI, knows the public sector well as a former civil servant. He worked for the Ministry of Defense (MoD) before being transferred to IT services provider ICL, where he worked on government contracts for 14 years.

“There are a lot of opportunities in government,” Herron told Computer Weekly. “While we don’t see massive growth in the market, it is there and there is work to be done.”

According to Tassell, Atos currently has 37 active UK public sector contracts worth £1.3 billion through contracts with the Ministry of Defence, HMRC, the Home Office and the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra), as well as the government-owned National Savings and Investment Bank (NSIB). Since 2012, the company has won a total of 401 contracts worth £12 billion.

The NSIB contract is Atos' largest in the UK public sector, worth £475 million over three years, where the company provides IT outsourcing services. The company recently won a major deal with Defra to provide digital workplace services. It provides HMRC testing and application development services and support to the Home Office.

Herron said public sector support is one of the reasons the company has launched infrastructure in the UK that meets the highest levels of safety and government accreditation.

The three “sovereign” centers, as Athos describes them, represent the center of orchestration, as well as the centers of digital agents and digital capabilities.

This is in addition to the UK's existing infrastructure, which includes List object X in Andover, accredited by the UK Government to the highest level of security.

Herron said the centers are based in the UK, are accredited to British regulations and standards and are staffed by UK security-cleared staff. He said the tie-up went beyond simply building centers in the UK to reassure customers. “It's different from when people talk on the shore [centres]Herron said.

He also believes his experience is ideal as Atos looks to increase government contracts. “I became CEO at the right time because [between the] I spent about 14 years in defense, and today geopolitical uncertainty is growing,” he said. “There is a lot of talk about data sovereignty; Cyberattacks happen every day, and I feel we can build the capabilities we need.”

The rapid adoption of artificial intelligence (AI) means that “sovereign AI capabilities are critical” for businesses in the government, defense and critical national infrastructure sectors, Herron said.

Atos isn't just targeting the UK public sector. Companies such as India's Tata Consultancy Services are expanding their work in the UK public sector. Conversation with Computer Weekly Regarding TCS's UK public sector plans last year, Amit Kapur, its UK head of business, said there was “potential, gap and action” with “good synergies”.

Similarly, India-headquartered Infosys recently won a £1.2 billion deal with the National Health Service, increasing its UK government work 160-fold. Before the latest deal with the NHS, Infosys had won just 36 contracts totaling £87.2 million since 2012, Tassell said.