JOSEPH GABRIEL LAGONSIN

News Editor

Vertesia and Florence Consulting Group have formed a strategic partnership in Europe focused on rolling out AI systems for large organisations.

The partnership combines Vertesia’s AI software with Florence Consulting Group’s integration and delivery capabilities to help businesses move AI projects into live operations.

Italy-based Florence Consulting Group works with large organisations in sectors including financial services, infrastructure, manufacturing, automotive, pharmaceuticals, the public sector and retail. It has offices in Florence, Milan, Rome, Cosenza and Madrid, and employs nearly 200 professionals.

Under the agreement, the companies will focus on document-heavy and data-intensive workflows that span core business systems. The work will cover AI strategy, integration and deployment across cloud, on-premise and hybrid environments.

The aim is to address a common problem in corporate AI programmes, where projects remain limited to chatbots or proof-of-concept work rather than being integrated into business processes.

“Organisations have spent years investing in AI, but many initiatives remain stuck at the stage of simple chatbots or proofs of concept,” said Niccolò Francini, chief executive of Florence Consulting Group.

“Our partnership with Vertesia allows us to provide enterprises with the best foundation for integrating AI into core processes and decision-making to make agentic AI truly operational,” Francini said.

Platform update

The announcement coincides with a product update from Vertesia, which has released more than 50 new skills and more than 50 new tools for its platform.

The additions are intended to expand the range of tasks AI agents can handle within business workflows. Vertesia describes its platform as software for intelligent content processing, context-aware workflows and automated task execution with governance and compliance controls.

In Europe, demand for AI systems that can be deployed within existing regulatory and operational requirements has become a central issue for technology suppliers and their consulting partners. Companies are under pressure to show returns on AI spending while maintaining oversight of data use, security and internal controls.

This has helped drive more partnerships between service providers and software firms. Platform vendors are seeking local delivery partners with established relationships with large enterprise customers, while system integrators want access to specialist AI software that can be embedded into broader transformation programmes.

Tim Hood, senior vice president for EMEA at Vertesia, said the partnership reflects the complexity of deploying AI in large organisations.

“AI transformation in the enterprise is not a product decision; it is a program,” Hood said.

“It requires partners who understand complex architectures, long-term client relationships, and what it takes to make technology work in production. FCG is exactly that. Modern enterprises need AI-native solutions built for complexity, not bolted on after the fact, and we are proud to partner with a team that shares that standard,” he said.

Florence Consulting Group says it has more than 10 years of experience in enterprise IT consulting and works across cloud and digital transformation, data and AI, digital process automation, cyber security, networking and DevOps.

For Vertesia, the deal adds a European consulting and systems integration partner with an established position in Italy and operations in Spain. For Florence Consulting Group, it provides access to a platform aimed at customers that want AI embedded in core processes rather than used as a standalone assistant.

The joint work will target secure, compliant and governable AI deployments in production environments for enterprise customers across Europe.

ICS.AI has appointed Andy Logan as Head of Education Sales, expanding its education team in the UK and overseas.

He joins as the business looks to deepen its work with universities and colleges facing financial and operational strain. Logan will work with Dr Crispin Bloomfield, Education Sector Leader, who joined last year.

The appointment brings in a senior executive with more than 25 years of experience across technology, education and enterprise markets. Logan has worked on projects designed to improve operational resilience and help organisations respond to cyber and technology risks.

ICS.AI has built a presence in further and higher education through work with institutions including King’s College London, Nottingham Trent University and Coleg y Cymoedd. That focus has grown in importance as education providers look for ways to manage costs while maintaining services.

Sector focus

Bloomfield linked the hire to growing pressure on the sector, citing financial forecasts for higher education providers in England.

“Education is under multi-faceted pressure, at all levels of study. For example, 45% of higher education providers in England forecast a deficit in 2025/26 (up 2% on the previous year). Almost universally the pressures are becoming more acute. ICS.AI provides a unique combination of AI strategy, proven AI transformation methodology and leading platform and products. This puts the company in a strong position to support institutions and to enable them to realise the potential of AI to deliver positive outcomes and sustained financial benefits. Andy joining us comes at just the right time to support those institutions looking to realise the potential,” said Dr Crispin Bloomfield, Education Sector Leader at ICS.AI.

ICS.AI pointed to its work at Coleg y Cymoedd as an example of its education business. In that project, it said, the company changed the college’s student recruitment process with an AI-based recruitment assistant.

According to ICS.AI, the collaboration produced record enrolment numbers and a financial impact of £5.9 million. It did not provide further detail on how that figure was calculated.

Leadership hire

Logan said institutions were under growing pressure as they tried to balance budgets, standards and security requirements.

“Education is at a critical inflection point, where institutions are under increasing pressure to do more with less while maintaining quality and security. ICS.AI is uniquely positioned to help organisations navigate these challenges with practical and impactful AI solutions. I’m looking forward to working alongside Crispin and the wider team to deliver meaningful change across the sector,” said Logan.

His remit suggests ICS.AI sees education as a growth area beyond its existing public sector customer base. The company describes itself as a profitable AI business focused on public sector organisations including councils and universities.

Martin Neale, chief executive officer and founder, framed the appointment as part of a broader expansion of the education operation.

“Andy’s depth of experience and understanding of both the education and technology landscapes makes him an exceptional addition to our team. As we continue to scale our education capabilities in the UK and internationally, his expertise will be instrumental in helping institutions unlock the full potential of AI and achieve measurable outcomes,” said Neale.

SOFIAH NICHOLE SALIVIO

News Editor

e2e-assure has published research showing that nearly one in three organisations rely on IT detection platforms adapted for operational technology. The study surveyed 250 cybersecurity decision-makers across manufacturing, utilities, transport, government and defence.

The findings highlight a gap between the tools many organisations use to monitor industrial environments and the demands of OT and industrial control systems. Some 32 per cent of respondents said they rely on detection platforms built for IT and later adapted for OT, while only 15 per cent have deployed passive visibility tools designed specifically for industrial control systems.

This shortfall comes amid disruption from cyber incidents. Among those surveyed, 63 per cent said incidents in the past year had caused direct operational downtime or affected critical OT or ICS systems.

Coordination gaps

The study also highlights weaknesses in how organisations manage security across converged IT and OT environments. It found that 28 per cent still depend on manual or ad hoc coordination between IT and OT security teams, while 37 per cent use a shared platform across both environments.

These figures suggest many businesses have yet to establish a joined-up approach to incident handling in operational settings, where response times and system visibility can directly affect production and services.

Richard Groome, OT Cybersecurity Specialist at e2e-assure, said: “Most adapted IT platforms struggle in OT because they’re still thinking like IT tools. They can identify anomalies, but they often have no understanding of their business impact. OT downtime isn’t just a network problem; it’s a process problem. If you can’t interpret what an alert means for a running plant or production line, you’re not preventing downtime, you’re just creating noise.”

The research argues that extending established IT security platforms into OT environments can leave teams with large volumes of data but limited understanding of its operational meaning. In practice, that can make it harder to assess whether an alert threatens a live process, production line or critical service.

Connectivity is adding further pressure. The survey found that 70 per cent of organisations have fully or largely integrated cloud-connected environments into their IT and OT security strategies, increasing the complexity of managing exposure across systems designed with different priorities.

Groome said: “The volume of data being ingested is often not understood or actionable, meaning incidents may still be missed. More connected does not automatically mean more secure, particularly where exposure increases faster than coordinated response capability.”

Rising costs

The financial impact of OT disruption also featured in the findings. Previously shared research found that 23 per cent of the most severe OT downtime incidents cost more than £1 million, while 6 per cent exceeded £5 million.

That cost backdrop appears to be influencing spending priorities. The survey found that 63 per cent of leaders are increasing budgets for workforce training and role clarity, making this the most commonly prioritised area for additional investment.

The focus on training suggests some organisations see the problem as extending beyond technology procurement. Where IT and OT teams follow different processes or lack a shared picture of incidents, the issue may lie as much in internal coordination and decision-making as in the monitoring tools themselves.

Supply chain risk is also emerging as a greater concern in OT security programmes following recent breaches, according to the study. That reflects the dependence of many industrial and public sector operators on external vendors, software providers and maintenance partners that connect into operational environments.

The research was conducted by Censuswide among cybersecurity decision-makers at organisations with between 250 and 10,000 employees. Respondents came from sectors including food manufacturing, automotive, aerospace, energy, utilities, telecoms, retail, pharmaceuticals, central government, local government and life sciences.

Across those sectors, the findings indicate that many organisations are still trying to bridge the divide between conventional IT security practices and the operational realities of industrial systems. With only a minority using OT-specific visibility tools and more than a quarter still relying on manual coordination between teams, the data points to persistent operational blind spots as cyber incidents continue to disrupt critical systems.