Sopra Steria and Step5 Group partner in digital transformation
European consultancy Sopra Steria has announced a long-term strategic partnership with digital transformation specialist Step5 Group. The alliance will reinforce their position as leaders in large-scale digital transformation – helping to optimise the transformation journeys for current and futures businesses.
Step5 was established in 2010, and by 2015 it had hit £1 million in turnover. The digital transformation consultancy specialises in delivering complex change programmes and in recovering programmes that are failing to meet their objectives, and currently boasts more than £1 billion in programme budgets managed. It had expanded its team to over 60 consultants by 2019, and clients now include large private and public sector organisations such as the Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy, Sopra Steria, and BNP Paribas Personal Finance UK.
The rapid growth of Step5 has attracted investment from TXM Group – a multi-faceted professional services network headquartered in Milton Keynes – something which the firm hopes will broaden the breadth and depth of its offering to central government and multinational businesses around the world. Now, as the firm looks to build on that momentum, Step5 has joined a partnership with European consultancy Sopra Steria.
Howard Dickel, CEO, Step5 Group, stated, “This is a meeting of minds as we bring together two teams who are experts in their industry and have delivered some of the most ambitious transformation projects for public and private sector alike. This partnership will deliver for our respective businesses as well as for our clients, enabling us to stay at the leading edge, ensuring that every digital transformation programme is a success.”
Central to the Sopra Steria and Step5 partnership will be a longer-term programme to develop the capabilities of both organisations, with a focus on skills coaching and knowledge sharing to foster a more collaborative culture. This will be supported by a proactive recruitment process to identify and develop the skills of those moving into or already within the industry.
To that end, the new strategic partnership extends a relationship that over the past seven years has seen Step5 Group support Sopra Steria on significant transformation projects for clients. Step5 will subsequently support Sopra Steria on multiple transformation projects, including the Ministry of Defence’s £300 million Future Service Delivery Contract, as well as SSCL’s migration to Oracle cloud infrastructure. From early 2021 the two businesses will also work together on major bids and subsequent large scale transformation programmes.
John Neilson, CEO UK and Asia at Sopra Steria, said of the news, “This reflects our ongoing investment to ensure clients experience the highest quality of consultancy and first-class service delivery, while we maintain the flexibility and innovation for which we are recognised. This exciting partnership with Step5 will enable us to build on this ambition, with a team of industry leaders and an unmatched track record in both public and private sectors.”
Sopra Steria is a European information technology consultancy which was established in September 2014 with the merger of Sopra Group and Groupe Steria. The primary business areas of the company include consulting services, systems integration and solutions, integration of ERP solutions, and implementation of application solutions.
In 2020, Sopra Steria won a number of important digital transformation contracts in the public and private sector. These included helping the UK digitise its passport service, and assisting charity ELATT with tackling job displacement resulting from the coronavirus pandemic.
