Capita Consulting Partners with low-code platform OutSystems

18 May 2020 Consultancy.uk

Capita Consulting has adopted the low-code platform OutSystems. The strategic partnership will see Capita leverage the platform internally and as a foundation for solutions they offer their government, financial services, and healthcare, insurance, and utilities clients.

Since issuing a shock profit warning in early 2018, professional services firm Capita has been working to radically transform its business. The firm announced a return to profit in Spring 2019 having stabilised its operations via a year-long turnaround project led by new CEO Jon Lewis – before kicking on from that with the launch of a new consulting brand at the end of the year.

The shift in tack, which saw Capita refocus from IT services toward an increase in higher end-margin consulting work, was hoped to see Capita consultants brought into executive suites, rather than its contractors taking orders from a client’s IT team. In order to enable more efficient design and implementation of solutions to client challenges Capita Consulting has now announced a new partnership to place low-code services at the heart of its work.

Capita Consulting Partners with low-code platform OutSystems

A low-code automation platform is software that provides an environment programmers use to create application software through graphical user interfaces and configuration instead of traditional computer programming. To lay people, that might still sound intimidatingly complex, but to put it in simpler terms, low-code platforms provide figurative building blocks, with which clients can construct a customised application at pace, and without having to re-invent the wheel each time a new project begins.

Capita Consulting’s new partnership with low-code platform OutSystems is aimed at underpinning the consulting group’s ability to rapidly build, deploy, manage and maintain applications on behalf of customers. In this climate of rapid and escalating change, this is hoped to supply Capita’s clients with the ability to respond and adapt their business to suit their customers’ needs.

Ismail Amla, Chief Growth Officer, Capita Consulting said, “The world, now more than ever, needs to leverage the power of technology to respond in delivering solutions to help society. In an environment where online is truly the only way to go and speed of response can make all the difference, Capita Consulting is excited to leverage a proven low-code platform to rapidly deliver real business results for our clients.”

OutSystems’ low-code platform has already been used to deliver an internal application to mobile devices that will support the well-being of Capita’s employees during the Covid-19 crisis. This was built in two days – compared to a three to four-week process using more traditional development methods – and is now being enhanced for Capita Consulting’s clients to use within their own organisations.

Further applications are also in development, including one designed to help water providers and other utilities companies better support their critical and vulnerable customers. Another in the pipeline will enable housing associations and universities to monitor the spread of symptoms across campuses and enable their welfare teams to better support their tenants and students, through financial, mental health, and well-being modules that will be released to mobile devices in a matter of days.

Garry Larner, UK Regional Director, OutSystems, said, “What OutSystems offers is not only the ability to deliver software and applications faster and more efficiently than ever before, but to be able to help them create new services and engage with customers in new ways. We’re currently working closely with the Capita Consulting team to develop and co-design short lead-time projects, as well as looking at longer-term engagements with some of its larger clients.”