Cirrus named NiCE UK&I AI Partner of the Year

Cirrus has been named as UK&I AI Partner of the Year by NiCE, the global leader in AI-powered platforms, at its 2026 NiCE EMEA Partner Summit in Marrakech, Morocco.

Cirrus, the UK-based contact centre transformation specialist, was recognised for excellence in helping organisations adopt artificial intelligence (AI) and automation within customer service functions, with the judging panel noting its strong performance throughout 2025.

The team secured more CX AI deals for NiCE AI products in the UK and Ireland than any other partner across the year, including the largest CX AI deal in the region, and a high-profile contract with the UK’s largest local authority.

Jason Roos, CEO of Cirrus, told That's Business: “This is a big moment for us, and worthy recognition for our team who’ve worked tirelessly to grow our business. Our blossoming partnership with NiCE has strengthened what we can deliver for customers at a time when many organisations are looking for a trusted pair of hands to help them deploy CX AI with confidence.”

“We take pride in doing things differently and this award reflects the momentum we’ve built as a distinctive offer in the market. It speaks to the success we’ve had with customers, and the strength of our joint story with NiCE. We were up against some really established competition for this award and are really chuffed to have come out on top.”

Darren Rushworth, President, NiCE International, added: “Cirrus has demonstrated exceptional leadership and execution in bringing AI-powered customer experience solutions to market. Their ability to drive meaningful outcomes for customers, combined with a strong commitment to innovation, makes them a truly deserving recipient of the NiCE UK&I AI Partner of the Year award. We are proud to partner with a team that consistently delivers impact and helps organisations unlock the full potential of CX AI.”

Cirrus’ CXone journey with NiCE began in November 2024, and they were named as NiCE Game Changer Partner of the Year for 2025.

They were later awarded Platinum Partner status by NiCE in February 2026 in recognition of their performance within the NiCE 360 SUCCEED Program for 2025.

The Platinum tier represents the highest level of partnership within the NiCE ecosystem and is awarded to organisations that demonstrate sustained delivery quality, customer success, and commitment to long-term value.

Why More Businesses Are Turning to Device as a Service

Buying laptops, phones and workplace tech the old-fashioned way can be painfully expensive. 

Large upfront costs, shipping headaches, endless setup time and replacement delays all add up fast, and IT teams often end up spending more time chasing hardware than driving innovation.

That's why more organisations are looking seriously at Device as a Service (DaaS), and according to a new Total Economic Impact™ study from Forrester Consulting, the financial case is hard to ignore.

Commissioned by devicenow, the study found a global business with 30,000 employees could achieve an impressive 89% return on investment over three years by switching from traditional device purchasing to a DaaS model.

Even better, the projected net present value came in at €16.2 million.

And that's not pocket change.

Goodbye Big Hardware Bills

Traditionally, companies buy devices outright, often paying around €1,000 per device before even thinking about shipping, international transfers and setup costs. Depending on where those devices are going, logistics alone can add another €120 to €500 per unit.

It quickly becomes a budgeting nightmare.

With DaaS, businesses move to a subscription-based model where hardware, support and lifecycle services are bundled into a monthly cost. No giant capital expenditure spikes. No surprise replacement panic. No finance director quietly weeping into a spreadsheet.

Forrester estimates this approach could save organisations €27.1 million over three years in avoided hardware procurement and logistics costs alone.

Freeing Up IT Teams

Ask most IT departments what they would rather do: strategically improve systems or spend hours staging laptops and chasing returns, and the answer is rarely “more laptop admin, please.”

Traditional ownership models mean internal IT teams handle provisioning, setup, support and end-of-life processing for every device. That can mean around 6.5 hours of work per device.

Under a DaaS model, much of that workload shifts to the provider.

The result? Around €4.6 million in IT operational savings over three years, plus more time for IT teams to focus on projects that actually move the business forward.

Less Downtime, Happier Staff

Broken, lost or stolen devices are inevitable. The real problem is how long it takes to replace them.

Under traditional procurement models, replacement can take around eight days. With DaaS, that drops to roughly two.

That faster turnaround cuts employee downtime by around 75%, recovering an estimated €2.7 million in productivity over three years.

In simple terms: fewer frustrated employees, fewer missed deadlines, and fewer “my laptop died” excuses.

As Christin Wehrstedt put it to That's Business: "DaaS helps businesses reduce complexity, stabilise costs and let IT teams focus on higher-value work."

Which sounds a lot better than arguing over who forgot to order the replacement chargers.

You can download the full study: https://devicenow.com/forrester-tei

That's Health: Access to Work Is Missing the Point for People Wit...

That's Health: Access to Work Is Missing the Point for People Wit...: Managing Director Sally Callow A UK community interest company is raising urgent concerns about the kind of workplace support being offered ...

Why Industrial Heat Pumps Are Becoming Big Business

For years, industrial heating has been one of the biggest hidden contributors to carbon emissions. 

Behind factories, paper mills, chemical plants and large-scale heating networks, vast amounts of energy are still being generated using fossil fuels.

In fact, over 70% of industrial process heat worldwide still relies on traditional carbon-heavy sources.

That, however, is starting to change.

Innomotics is pushing hard into one of the most important areas of industrial decarbonisation: industrial heat pumps.

Unlike the small domestic heat pumps homeowners are becoming familiar with, industrial heat pumps operate on a much larger scale. They recover ambient heat or waste heat from existing processes and upgrade it into usable high-temperature heat — in some cases up to 150°C. That means businesses can recycle energy they would otherwise lose, dramatically improving efficiency while cutting emissions.

The commercial argument is just as strong as the environmental one.

Heat pumps can deliver several times more thermal output than the electrical energy they consume, making them one of the most efficient heating technologies available. When powered by renewable electricity, carbon emissions can be reduced to near zero. At the same time, operators benefit from lower running costs, reduced maintenance, and system availability as high as 99.9%.

That combination of green credentials and financial savings is exactly why major industrial players are paying attention.

One standout example is in the Netherlands, where the country’s largest heat pump system recovers heat daily from 65 million litres of treated wastewater. 

Powered by Innomotics drive systems, the project supplies district heating to around 20,000 households, covers roughly 15% of regional heat demand, and cuts CO₂ emissions by around 30,000 tonnes every year.

In Germany, the company is also supplying key technology for what is being described as the world’s most powerful industrial heat pump at BASF’s Ludwigshafen site. The system is expected to generate up to 500,000 tonnes of steam annually, a major step forward for industrial electrification.

Further projects in France and Finland are proving the same point: waste heat is no longer waste if you have the right infrastructure to capture it.

As Michael Reichle, CEO of Innomotics, puts it, industrial heat pumps are becoming “a key technology for the energy transition,” helping businesses become both more efficient and more sustainable.

In short, decarbonisation is no longer just an environmental issue, it is rapidly becoming a competitive business advantage. And for industry, heat pumps may be one of the smartest investments of the decade.

http://www.innomotics.com

WDM and Metricell Collaborate to Deliver PAS 2161-Compliant Road Condition Surveying

W.D.M. Limited (WDM), a global leader in highway surveying and asset management solutions, has announced a new collaboration with SmartVision, a cutting-edge AI insight technology developed by Metricell. 

The partnership brings together strategic highway surveying expertise and a proprietary neural network designed to operate on real-time data, to support local authorities with PAS 2161 compliant road condition monitoring reporting.

By combining WDM’s long-established leadership in highway surveying and asset management solutions, with the pioneering SmartVision AI platform, the two organisations will deliver innovative, scalable surveying services. 

This collaborative solution will meet the requirements of the new PAS 2161 road condition monitoring standard, helping highway authorities transition confidently to the new national approach whilst retaining the granular objective data collected by WDM’s Road Assessment Vehicles (RAV) which operate to the SCANNER specification.

The introduction of PAS 2161 marks a significant change in how road condition data is collected and reported across English Local Authorities. 

Through this collaboration, WDM and SmartVision will provide customers with a comprehensive solution that combines engineering expertise with cutting-edge technology, merging detailed survey expertise with AI Innovation.

WDM demonstrates decades of experience in highway surveying and strategic road management planning. Utilising its modular software platform, Highways Infrastructure Asset Management System, the company has long supported highway authorities with data-driven insights that inform maintenance prioritisation, resource allocation and safety improvements across road networks.

SmartVision’s advanced artificial intelligence capabilities uses computer vision models to analyse road surface conditions and infrastructure assets from captured imagery, delivering the analysed data through the SmartVision platform. The system can automatically detect and classify defects and features across the highway network, providing scalable and efficient inspection capabilities.

By combining these complementary strengths, the collaboration enables an effective approach to PAS 2161 data collection, which pairs engineering principles and survey strategy with automated analytics and digital inspection tools.

As local authorities adapt to the new national standard, reliable and consistent road condition data will be vital to support decision-making and reporting requirements, as well as targeting the most essential works and justifying cost.

The WDM / SmartVision collaboration supports Local Authorities through the transition to PAS 2161 enabling access to PAS 2161 compliant survey data supported by both specialist highway engineering knowledge and advanced AI analysis. 

This approach helps ensure that condition assessments remain accurate, repeatable, and scalable across networks while maintaining confidence in results used to inform national statistics and maintenance planning.

Beyond compliance, the partnership reflects a wider focus, ensuring that road condition data delivers genuine value for asset management programmes, enabling highways authorities to access a wide range of additional RCM data from a single survey.

High-quality survey data provides far more than a snapshot of road condition. When collected and interpreted correctly, it becomes a foundation for wider infrastructure insight, supporting the monitoring of additional highway assets, improving maintenance planning, and enabling authorities to move towards more proactive and predictive network management.

By combining WDM’s survey expertise with SmartVision’s AI powered analytics, the collaboration aims to provide local authorities with detailed, more actionable datasets. Ultimately, it is the quality and integrity of this data that enables highway authorities to plan effective maintenance strategies, optimise budgets, and deliver safer, more resilient road networks to benefit the communities they serve.

Developed in the UK, SmartVision’s advanced AI model has been trained on over 11 million images to accurately identify more than 120 road condition criteria. 

Combined with a powerful data platform, the solution enables local councils, highway authorities and insurance providers to take a proactive, data-driven approach to maintaining a resilient transport network and improving road safety.

https://www.wdm.co.uk

Martin Harrington expands NavVis’ UK business as Managing Director

NavVis, a leading provider of reality capture technology for digitally recording physical indoor and outdoor environments, is strengthening its international market position and is focusing on the continuous expansion of customer acquisition and support in the United Kingdom. 

NavVis has already a strong position in the UK, serving some of the most respected brands and will grow the market further with Martin Harrington as the new Managing Director for the UK business. 

As an experienced sales and customer relations specialist he previously was Head of Sales for NavVis UK. In his new role he will be responsible for driving the next phase of growth in a market that is strategically important for NavVis.

Since entering the market four years ago, NavVis has successfully established itself in the United Kingdom. 

Thanks to steadily increasing demand, growing market maturity, and targeted investments, NavVis now serves more than 100 British customers, including well-known companies from the construction, manufacturing, infrastructure, and surveying sectors. In addition to NavVis’ international resources, the UK team will continue to expand in line with rapid growth.

Martin Harrington, an experienced, highly respected industry expert and thought leader, is now at the helm of the UK organization; he has been instrumental in building the UK business from the ground up since 2022. Prior to joining NavVis, Harrington worked at Leica Geosystems as a Technical Sales Specialist starting in 2018 and previously as a Senior Land Surveyor at Glanville Consultants. 

Before that, the archaeology graduate and trained geomatics specialist worked in surveying at Wardell Armstrong and Plowman Craven.

Harrington’s focus is on leveraging the current momentum, further expanding the company’s presence, and ensuring long-term customer success. 

This is a challenging task, as the UK market is considered similarly demanding to the German market, where companies typically make decisions only after careful evaluation. Trust, compelling use cases from well-known companies, and “experienceable technology” are therefore key success factors.

“You simply have to experience NavVis technology through presentations, demos, and real-world applications with existing customers,” Harrington told That's Business. 

“That’s how trust is built. By demonstrating innovation and performance live in practical scenarios, we go beyond theoretical promises.”

NavVis technology is used across a wide range of industries and offers potential for numerous applications along the entire value chain – from data capture to the use of digital twins. “Our goal is clear: we want to take a leading role in the UK and consistently continue on this successful path,” Harrington emphasizes.

https://www.navvis.com

Commercial Landlords Risk Voiding Insurance by Neglecting Solar Panel Maintenance

Commercial property owners and tenants across the UK are warned that failure to properly maintain solar photovoltaic (PV) systems could not only increase fire risk but also invalidate insurance policies, potentially leading to devastating financial consequences.

Rayotec Limited, a UK-based engineering specialist with over 35 years of experience in electrical safety and renewable technologies, has raised concerns amid clear evidence solar panel fires in UK commercial buildings are on the rise. Incidents are increasingly being linked to improper installation, poor maintenance, and faulty components, particularly inverters and DC isolators.

While the overall risk of fire remains relatively low, recent high-profile incidents and insurer warnings suggest the risk is growing as systems age and environmental pressures increase.

Rising Risk in a Rapidly Expanding Sector

With solar installations accelerating across warehouses, retail parks, offices, and industrial units, many landlords and tenants are unaware that ongoing maintenance is not optional—it is essential. Unlike traditional electrical systems, rooftop solar arrays are continuously energised during daylight hours, making faults harder to isolate and increasing the risk of fire if left unchecked.

“Solar is a fantastic technology, but it is not ‘fit and forget’,” Reza Sabba for Rayotec Limited told THat;s Business.

“We’re seeing cases where systems installed years ago have never been inspected since commissioning. That’s a serious risk—not just to the building, but to the businesses operating inside.”

Experts are also warning that ageing systems, poor ventilation, debris build-up, and damage caused by extreme weather are all contributing to a heightened risk profile across the UK’s commercial rooftop solar estate.

Key Causes of Commercial Solar Fires

Industry research and insurer data highlight several recurring causes:

Improper Installation: A study by the BRE National Solar Centre found that 36% of solar-related fire incidents were linked to poor installation practices, including loose electrical connections and damaged cabling.

Inverter Failures: Solar inverters operate under high electrical load and can become a primary ignition source if they overheat, lack adequate ventilation, or accumulate dust.

DC Isolators: Widely recognised as a significant fire risk, faulty or degraded DC isolators are responsible for a substantial proportion of system failures.

Maintenance Failures: Lack of routine inspection allows small faults—such as cable degradation or debris accumulation—to escalate into serious hazards.

Real-World Incidents Highlight the Danger

Recent UK incidents underline the potential consequences of neglect:

In 2024, a fire at a Lidl warehouse in Peterborough caused significant damage and disruption, prompting wider safety reviews.

Shanklea Primary School in Cramlington also experienced a solar-related fire, prompting inspections of similar public-sector buildings.

Earlier incidents, including warehouse and retail fires across the West Midlands, Kent, and Essex, have been linked to faults in solar PV systems, particularly involving isolators and cabling.

Fire services have repeatedly noted the additional risks solar systems pose during incidents, as panels remain live during daylight hours, complicating firefighting efforts.

Insurance Implications: A Hidden Threat

Most commercial insurance policies now include strict conditions regarding electrical safety and maintenance. Solar PV systems fall under these requirements, yet many policyholders fail to recognise this.

Insurers are increasingly demanding higher safety standards, including documented maintenance regimes.

“If you cannot demonstrate that your solar installation has been regularly inspected and maintained in line with industry standards, your insurer may argue that you’ve not met your obligations,” Rayotec warns. “That can mean partial payouts, or none at all.”

Standards such as periodic inspection under BS 7671 and post-weather event checks are becoming essential expectations.

Landlords and Tenants Both at Risk

Responsibility for solar panel maintenance is often unclear in lease agreements, creating dangerous gaps in accountability. Landlords may assume tenants are managing the system, while tenants believe it remains the landlord’s obligation.

“This grey area is where problems start,” said Rayotec. “We strongly advise both parties to clearly define responsibilities and ensure regular inspections are carried out by qualified specialists.”

Simple Steps to Reduce Risk

Rayotec Limited recommends the following actions for commercial property stakeholders:

Schedule regular inspections of solar PV systems, including electrical testing by a qualified company

Use accredited installers, such as those certified under the Microgeneration Certification Scheme (MCS)

Conduct additional inspections following extreme weather events

Ensure inverters and isolators are properly ventilated and free from debris

Keep detailed maintenance records for insurance compliance

Review lease agreements to clarify responsibility for solar assets

Act immediately on any signs of system faults, such as inverter errors or visible damage

A Call to Action

As solar adoption continues to grow, so too does the importance of proper lifecycle management. Rayotec Limited urges landlords, managing agents, and tenants to treat solar maintenance with the same seriousness as any other critical electrical infrastructure.

“Neglecting your solar system doesn’t just risk a fault, it risks a fire, business interruption, and potentially your insurance protection,” the company concluded. “The cost of prevention is minimal compared to the cost of failure.”

Rayotec Limited is a UK-based engineering company with over 35 years of experience in electrical safety, compliance, and renewable energy systems. 

The company specialises in inspection, testing, and maintenance services for commercial and industrial clients in London, the South East, and the Midlands. Learn more about commercial solar PV safety, maintenance, and compliance at https://www.rayotec.com/solar/solar-pv