Three leading UK technology businesses have launched a new not-for-profit initiative designed to transform how businesses access high-quality industry talent.
Following a successful pilot phase, the three firms – Spyrosoft, Leighton and Opencast – have launched the new Digital Capability Exchange UK, designed to help UK tech companies quickly and flexibly access talent to meet their project delivery demands.
Alongside the founding partners, Digital Capability Exchange UK has now grown to include a further nine member organisations. All have seen early success in matching talent resource to their delivery needs. Following this growth, the exchange will undergo a phased roll-out as it continues to receive interest from tech business leaders from across the UK.
Traditionally in technology consultancy, companies need to forecast their future project needs and the talent that will be required, which can be challenging. This can lead to over-hiring to meet project demand – leading to costly downtime for employees between projects – or under-resourcing, meaning projects can take longer to deliver.
Digital Capability Exchange UK aims to build a trusted network of technology consultancy businesses UK-wide to offer a new approach to resourcing. Once their membership is approved, companies can provide talent for particular project opportunities and seek talent from others for confirmed projects. This creates a smarter, more sustainable way to meet project demands.
The exchange can be used alongside more traditional resourcing models to optimise how talent is deployed across individual companies. As an option in addition to members’ usual resourcing channels, such as direct hiring, Digital Capability Exchange offers technology businesses the ability to easily scale their talent in line with business needs. It allows members to optimise available talent, reduce the costs and time associated with recruitment cycles and provide more opportunities for their own people.
Speaking on the launch of the exchange, Andrew Radcliffe, CEO at leading global technology solution partner, Spyrosoft added: “From our vantage point at Spyrosoft, we’ve seen firsthand the challenge facing every ambitious technology consultancy company: how do you consistently align exceptional talent with the precise demands of projects, exactly when they’re needed? And how do you ensure that your most important resource, people, are motivated and engaged in meaningful work? We established Digital Capability Exchange UK, a not-for-profit talent pooling ecosystem, to address this fundamental issue.
“Importantly, for our teams of brilliant engineers and specialists within the member companies, it eliminates the frustrating experience of ‘sitting on the bench’ between projects. Instead, they gain invaluable exposure and inspiration by contributing to diverse new challenges, keeping engaged and their skills sharp.”
James Bunting, CEO of leading AWS software development company Leighton added: “Digital Capability Exchange UK tackles a challenge every growing software development and technology consultancy company recognises – matching brilliant people to the right work at the right time. As a member of the exchange, growing companies can meet client demands with confidence, knowing exceptional expertise is always on hand from other member companies.
“By creating a flexible, truly scalable, pool of top-tier talent across our member ecosystem we can smooth out the peaks and troughs of project demand, optimise utilisation and lower costs.”
Tom Lawson, Chief Executive of independent tech consultancy Opencast said: “Forecasting and allocating the people we need to work on our client projects is a complex and often challenging task. At Opencast, we work for a range of clients across government, healthcare and purpose-driven businesses and we need to be flexible and able to respond to changes in client demand. It’s vital that we get our people numbers right and remain able to respond to new incoming demand from existing and new clients.
“Recognising that this is an industry-wide challenge, we are delighted to launch Digital Capability Exchange UK. We hope this new not-for-profit initiative will help not just Opencast, but all the partners involved – as well as benefiting our own people, who want to be involved in delivering new and interesting work.”
Digital Capability Exchange UK is currently open to a small group of early members, with plans to expand access later this year. Interested organisations can find out more or register their interest via the website at dcxuk.org.
