By Deborah Jepson |
August 8, 2025
Key takeaways from the Digital Procurement Opportunities 2025 conference
Delivering digital services to the public sector
It was fantastic to meet so many new people at the recent Digital Procurement Opportunities 2025 event held on 25 July at The National Archives in London.
This half day session, organised by UK central government, shares details regarding upcoming digital procurement opportunities, offers the opportunity to meet the digital service teams, as well as explaining the skills and expertise they require to help deliver digital services to The National Archives.
Our very own Marc Stephenson, Director and Information Architect here at Metataxis, attended this event and shares his reflections on the session:
“I recently attended the ‘Digital Procurement Opportunities’ event at The National Archives (TNA). This was an open event for external suppliers to see what kinds of projects the TNA is looking to do in the future, and hence give suppliers a head-up on what and when they might submit proposals for that work. I was joined by about 50 other people from a range of suppliers offering software development, marketing, and of course information management. Metataxis has done several projects for TNA over the years, and so I was interested to see what new opportunities might be available in the future. I’m starting to see more of these informal, informational procurement events. This is a good thing. It fosters a more collaborative, exploratory way of selecting suppliers.
TNA is an unusual and interesting organisation, with very particular challenges. After all, where else can you find out cold war secrets and a 500-year argument about paying taxes?!
In additional to all things archive, TNA has many active initiatives, such as Lawmaker and Legislation.gov.uk. These are sophisticated systems for creating and understanding UK legislation. Hugely valuable resources for all those needing to understand UK law, be they professional lawyers, or disgruntled neighbours!
TNA is (like everyone else) seriously exploring the use of knowledge graphs and the application of AI. Interestingly they state that they are ‘looking for experts with mature AI skills, to cut through the hype.’ No AI opportunities required.
I’ll be looking forward to seeing specific tender requests in the near future. They are guaranteed to be interesting projects.”
Marc Stephenson, Director at Metataxis, reveals:
“It was interesting to hear all about their development plans – in particular the replacement of legacy systems and processes with refreshed Information Architecture frameworks, along with the introduction of data modelling and enhanced taxonomies. John Sheridan, Digital Director at The National Archives, discussed ways of moving more of their services to the cloud and the importance of AI. We are looking forward to being part of this supplier network and supporting the UK government shape digital services in the future.”
