Cutting edge sustainable tech: the Servita supplier story
Source: gov.uk (2025-05-18)

Servita specialises in helping organisations transform so they can thrive at the forefront of science and technology.

When Servita set up in the UK in 2016, it had a team of around 30. Now it’s 180 and counting.

Servita specialises in helping organisations transform through technology so they can overcome entrenched ways of working and operations.

UK managing director Rich Story said: “Keeping ourselves and our customers at the forefront of science and technology, whilst remembering it is people that remain at the centre of transformation, is our modus operandi.”

Servita’s key capabilities including user-centred design, where the company has strong links to the Government Digital Service, and expertise in advanced, highly secure, high performance and sustainable cloud-hosted solutions. Sustainable cloud and carbon net zero are part of Servita’s core technical architecture principles.

Artificial intelligence, machine learning and natural language processing are also strong competencies and people in the team have published research papers with Harvard University on natural language and semantic programming.

Servita has been active in the Vivace community since 2020.

Explaining what attracted the company to the Accelerated Capability Environment (ACE), Story said: “A community of suppliers that gets access to novel problems at the heart of government, facilitated by an organisation that seeks to create an environment to innovate whilst keeping a firm eye on time, cost and outcomes – it really chimed with us.”

One early major project was working as part of the ACE core team on the UK government’s Covid response, helping drive an innovation agenda as part of strategic objectives. Story said: “Despite the backdrop it was one of the best things I’ve been part of during my career.”

For a health commission, Servita delivered a digital tool capable of measuring and reporting digital deficit, so an organisation could understand where it stands digitally in relation to industry standards, and how much it would cost to get to where it needs to be.

Servita also remains an integral part of ACE’s wider NHS work, where it built and currently maintains a national data information exchange that links all of the secondary care landscape in England to the NHS App.

Story said: “We love the efficiency in tendering and speed to impact for delivery. ACE looks to deliver outcomes in 12-15 weeks which is good for government and the taxpayer.

“Most of all we love the types of projects ACE give us access to. As a business it’s led to us having some of our best case references and it’s critical for us to be able to give our staff access to projects that really make a difference as it gives us an identity and sense of pride.”

He added: “Our mission statement is to keep ourselves and our partners at the cutting edge of science and technology with a focus on sustainable solutions for good and delivery excellence.

“I can honestly say that ACE and Vivace have enabled us to stay true to this by virtue of the novel and important problem spaces that they give us access to. ACE has introduced us to new customers and also to other like-minded suppliers that we have forged valuable relationships with.

“These things have all been significant in shaping our business.”