10 Most Innovative Tech Partners in the UK

The UK has the largest cloud market in Europe, where VC investments hit a record high of £21 billion in 2020. That’s more than France and Germany combined!1 With over 10,000 software businesses in the UK (and over 100,000 worldwide), finding the right technology partner should be fairly straightforward. Yet many organisations planning to digitally transform will find that some partners fall short of delivering the full package.

Organisations must factor in the expertise of tech partners, the adaptability of their services, and whether their solutions deliver a digital future that enables long-term business growth.

We’ve split up the best tech partners in the UK at the moment into categories based on their specialisations:

• Cloud application modernisers
• Public-sector services
• DevOps innovators

All that said, let’s walk through the top 10 most innovative tech partners in the UK.

Introduction to UK Trade and Innovation

The United Kingdom stands as a formidable player in the realm of global trade, with a robust emphasis on innovation and exports. According to the Office for National Statistics (ONS), the UK’s total exports of goods and services reached an impressive £649 billion in 2022. In real terms, this figure highlights the substantial growth in the UK’s trade activities. EU countries remain the UK’s largest trading partners, accounting for 43.1% of total UK exports. This significant trade relationship underscores the importance of the EU to the UK’s economic landscape.

HMRC data provides further statistical insights into the UK’s export dynamics, particularly in industries such as aircraft parts and mechanical machinery.

The trade balance, which measures the difference between exports and imports, is a critical indicator of economic health. In 2022, the UK faced a trade deficit of £57.8 billion, with imports surpassing exports by this margin. The UK’s international trade is bolstered by its participation in various trade agreements, including the World Trade Organization (WTO) and the EU-UK Trade and Cooperation Agreement. These agreements facilitate smoother trade operations and open up new opportunities for UK businesses on the global stage.

Overview of UK Exports and Imports

The UK’s export portfolio is diverse, spanning a wide range of industries such as pharmaceutical products, sound equipment, and machinery. In 2022, the leading export markets for the UK were Germany, France, and the Netherlands, with the United States being the largest non-EU market. This diversity in export destinations highlights the UK’s ability to cater to various international markets, emphasizing the significance of both goods exports and UK goods exports.

On the import side, the UK also showcases a broad spectrum of trading partners. Germany, China, and the United States top the list of import markets, reflecting the UK’s global trade connections in terms of goods imports and UK imports. Notably, trade with non-EU countries has been on the rise, with nations like Australia, Canada, and Japan becoming increasingly significant trading partners. In 2022, the total value of services exports reached £283 billion, underscoring the importance of the services sector to the UK’s economy.

In Quarter 2 2020, total goods imports from China saw significant growth, highlighting the importance of UK goods imports in categories such as electrical machinery.

UK Trade with EU and Non-EU Countries

Trade with EU countries remains a cornerstone of the UK’s international trade, with the EU accounting for 43.1% of total UK exports in 2022. However, the UK’s trade with non-EU countries is also substantial, with the US, China, and India collectively accounting for 24.5% of total UK exports. This balance between EU and non-EU trade partners highlights the UK’s strategic approach to diversifying its trade relationships. Scotland and Northern Ireland are key components of the UK, contributing significantly to the overall trade dynamics.

The UK also maintains significant trade ties with Commonwealth countries, including Australia, Canada, and South Africa. These relationships are supported by various trade agreements, such as the EU-UK Trade and Cooperation Agreement, which play a crucial role in facilitating trade. The UK’s trade policy aims to increase trade with non-EU countries while maintaining strong ties with EU nations. The Department for International Trade (DIT) is instrumental in promoting UK trade and investment, offering support to UK businesses looking to expand their export activities to other countries. Each partner country plays a vital role in the UK’s trade strategy, emphasizing the importance of these relationships.

Services Trade

The UK’s services trade has been a cornerstone of its economic strength, contributing significantly to international trade. In 2024, total UK services exports reached an impressive £507.8 billion, marking a 108.9% increase since 2014. This growth, averaging 7.7% annually, underscores the UK’s robust services sector. The United States emerged as the largest market for UK services exports, accounting for 26.5% of the total in 2023. Other key destinations included Ireland, Germany, the Netherlands, and France, reflecting the UK’s diverse and far-reaching trade relationships.

On the import side, the UK imported £324.1 billion worth of services from non-EU countries in 2024, a 7.6% increase from the previous year. The EU remained a significant source of services imports, with £183.7 billion worth imported in 2024, up 7.8% from 2023. Key imports from EU countries included management consulting, financial services, and telecommunications services, highlighting the UK’s reliance on high-value, professional services.

The UK’s services trade balance has consistently been in surplus, with total services exports outpacing imports. In 2024, the services trade surplus stood at £183.7 billion, a 10.3% increase from 2023. This surplus is driven by the strong performance of sectors such as financial services, business services, and tourism, which continue to be pillars of the UK’s economy.

Several factors support the UK’s thriving services trade. The country boasts a highly developed financial sector, a strong reputation for professional services, and a skilled workforce. Membership in international organizations like the World Trade Organization (WTO) and the European Union (EU) has also facilitated smoother trade operations and opened new opportunities for UK businesses.

However, the services trade sector has faced challenges, including the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and uncertainties surrounding future trading relationships with the EU and other countries. Despite these hurdles, the UK’s services trade is projected to remain a vital part of the economy, with total services exports expected to reach £550 billion by 2025.

Regionally, the North East of England has been a significant contributor to the UK’s services trade. The region is home to major companies providing financial services, business services, and IT services. Its strategic location, with access to Newcastle International Airport and the Port of Tyne, has further bolstered its trade capabilities.

Government initiatives have also played a crucial role in supporting the UK’s services trade. Funding for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and the development of trade agreements with other countries have been pivotal. Organizations like the Department for International Trade (DIT) and UK Trade and Investment (UKTI) actively promote the UK’s services trade, helping businesses expand their international reach.

In summary, the UK’s services trade has been a significant economic driver, with total services exports reaching £507.8 billion in 2024. The country’s advanced financial sector, professional services reputation, and skilled workforce have all contributed to this growth. Despite facing challenges, the services trade sector is poised to continue its vital role in the UK’s economy, with exports forecasted to reach £550 billion by 2025.

Cloud application modernisers

Legacy systems pose a security risk, particularly when they are no longer supported by the company that created them. Patches and updates have become the norm in this modern, digital world. Without regular maintenance, applications are left vulnerable to breaches, hacks and ransomware.

According to IBM, the cost of data breaches increased by 2.6% this year, bringing it to a global total of just under $4.5m.2 In addition to security risks, failing to modernise applications limits productivity (due to inefficient process flows) and that’s not to mention lack of accurate latency metrics in legacy systems.

ClearPeople

ClearPeople provides a platform software called Atlas, that streamlines digital tools into an accessible hub. Atlas simplifies collaboration and communication between teams working from anywhere and on any device. Atlas supports teams across sectors, including:

• Legal
• Professional services
• Construction, Property and Engineering
• Financial Services and Insurances
• Charity and Public

Atlas is designed to maximise the utility of Microsoft 365, reducing the need for multiple tools and apps. The system is designed with the intent to drive growth via end-to-end collaboration and:

• Eliminate information silos
• Optimise collaboration
• Streamline information in user-friendly formats
• Encourage two-way communication between businesses and customers

Silicon Reef

Silicon Reef empowers connection and productivity between people and promotes a “life of balance”. For cloud migration they rely on intranets such as Microsoft’s 365 and UX/Sharepoint design.

As a Microsoft Gold partner, Silicon Reef helps organisations increase productivity through strategy, development, process and enablement. Sectors they’ve worked in include:

• Drinks & Beverages 
• Construction
• Pharmaceuticals
• Charity and public sector
• Consumer goods 

They aim to boost employee engagement, improve collaboration and productivity, all the while highlighting the importance of wellbeing and work happiness. They achieve this by: 

• Building bespoke SharePoint intranets to boost engagement and improve internal communications.
• Encouraging employees to share input on proposed intranets via research activities such as focus groups and surveys.

DevOps Group

DevOps Group is an Amdocs company focused on cloud engineering, consultancy and training. They want to accelerate cloud and DevOps adoption in a “fast, secure and simple” manner. Although they provide managed cloud-native services, their vision is to provide agile coaching from top to bottom. 

DevOps claim that their clients range from “large financial services to disruptive scale-ups.” Other services include: 

• Cloud Strategy & planning 
• Automated pipelines development 
• Building secure cloud environments for sensitive data 
• Creating safe and seamless cloud migrations during the pandemic

Public-sector management consulting services

The CDDS and Government Commercial Function encourage public-sector organisations to adopt a Cloud-First Policy in new software developments. Different departments within public-sector services each face unique challenges. Therefore, it’s essential that they pick technology solutions that are tailored specifically for them and supplied by qualified cloud experts.

MadeTech

MadeTech partners with public servants to “modernise technology and accelerate digital delivery”. As a technology partner they’ve contributed a digital service delivery across the public sector, including:

• Healthcare
• Education
• Housing
• Public transport

MadeTech’s vision is to empower the public sector through improved digital services that are modernised, user-centric and data-driven. They’ve even built scalable GovWifi for the Government Digital Service and aim to drive data-founded decisions in the transport sector. They’ve also improved communication between housing associations and tenants via an open-source reporting software to book repairs.

BJSS

BJSS’ ethos closely aligns with the Government’s, enabling them to provide what public-sector services need. Over the last decade they’ve delivered several national transformational programmes, which has seen them work with the DBS and Highways England to name a few.

Making interactions between the Government and citizens more seamless is of paramount importance to them. Their technology solutions range from engineering to end-to-end digital transformations. Plus, they also offer:

• Cloud migration
• Innovation through human-centric design
• Cyber security
• Managed services
• End-to-end legacy modernisation projects

Methods

Methods are a technological partner committed to having a positive social impact in both the public and private sectors. They describe themselves as a leading supplier of digital transformation and consultancy services.

They’ve worked with:

• Central Government 
• Criminal Justice & Policing 
• Defence
• Education
• Healthcare Services 

Methods are experts in AWS, Azure and Google Cloud. They believe modern business strategies need models built on cloud interoperability and integration, and seek a holistic view of end-to-end service provisions in their chosen sectors. All this helps them ensure cloud transformation is done right the first time. 

DevOps innovators

The mass integration of applications in day-to-day operations requires new methods of continuous, consistent deliverability and quality. DevOps is a set of practices that allows engineers to manage your applications, its updates and any improvements it requires more efficiently. DevOps innovators streamline your organisation’s software development processes.

Capgemini

Capgemini believes in driving transformation in technology, focused in four main areas:

• Strategy and transformation
• Applications and technology
• Engineering
• Operations

A continuous drive for innovation and high performance lays a pathway to sustainable growth, better ways of working and living. Capgemini builds relationships that nurture collaboration with clients from a whole host of sectors. This includes everything from aerospace and defence to telecoms and life sciences.

They pride themselves on asking tough questions to find the right answers.

Transparity

Transparity focuses on three core values: Transformation, partnership and clarity. Their technology solutions are focused on combatting four challenges often faced by their customers with DevOps:

• Slow deployment of updates
• Siloed teams
• Lower customer satisfaction
• Constantly fighting fires

Therefore, it should come as no surprise that their services cater to businesses at every stage of the DevOps pipeline. From kickstart to established DevOps, their CloudOps Pathfinder, CloudOps Transformation and Maturity Assessment help customers identify required practices and changes.

ISETech

ISETech empowers organisations by providing scalable IT initiatives and solutions for strategic business objectives. Services are tailored to help customers achieve more effective DevOps processes and even CRM consulting.

Their DevOps Consulting Services deliver fit-for-purpose Cloud infrastructures. Customisation is also a regular feature at all stages of development. Their experience with Google Cloud, AWS, Salesforce Cloud, Jelastic Cloud and Microsoft Azure makes them versatile, and they offer project management after launch.

DevOps Group

DevOps Group is an Amdocs company focused on cloud engineering, consultancy and training. They want to accelerate cloud and DevOps adoption in a “fast, secure and simple” manner. Although they provide managed cloud-native services, their vision is to provide agile coaching from top to bottom.

DevOps claim that their clients range from “large financial services to disruptive scale-ups.” Other services include:

• Cloud Strategy & planning
• Automated pipelines development
• Building secure cloud environments for sensitive data
• Creating safe and seamless cloud migrations during the pandemic

Customer-first enterprise level solutions technology partner

All of the essential technological solutions described above also need a tech partner that’s willing to put their customers first. That’s where we come in. Talk Think Do prioritises customers and your key stakeholders at every stage of the process. From the discovery phase to the live launch of applications, our solutions are structured to help tackle problems head on.

Our customer-first approach ensures that your needs are consistently met. Regardless of the challenges that spring up. We’re with you every step of the way, offering top-tier customer service and support well after the application’s launch.

Suggested Reading: How our customer-first approach helped keep the doors open for all 145 centres of Explore Learning, a private tutoring provider in the UK.

Talk Think Do 

Here at Talk Think Do, we focus on three services to help your business develop innovation and accelerate growth. These are:

• Application innovation
• Legacy application modernisation
• Managed application support

We manage applications in a cloud-native environment, whether they’re legacy systems or completely new, as the result of a digital overhaul of business operations. As a Microsoft Gold partner, we believe Microsoft Azure is the optimal cloud platform, capable of delivering our strategic approaches to your challenges on a long-term basis.

Our customer-first approach dictates the way we build your applications. Unlike many other tech partners, our intention is to give our clients irrevocable ownership of perpetual source code licences. This means you own the unique product we develop for you, rather than renting it. 

Cloud migration is also part of our core services. After all, the UK technology landscape has quickly become dominated by a cloud-first policy for many businesses. In 2017, the Cloud Industry Forum found that 88% of organisations hosted cloud-based services.3 Today, adoption rates are rising in other sectors and smaller businesses. As cliche as it is to say, the cloud is the future. 

What brings all of our core services together is our commitment to prioritise consistent communication with you. Our solely-UK based, permanent on-shore team paves the way for our 24/7 managed application support service.

Conclusion

Ultimately, picking the right technology partner depends on circumstances, sector and your goals. While it’s a decision that calls for serious contemplation, always consider whether:

1. The tech partner prioritises you as a customer
2. They demonstrate specific expertise in cloud migration
3. They’re capable of developing cloud-native solutions to your challenges

Contact us today to book a discovery call and begin the first phase of your digital transformation. 

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