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Advanced Case Study

Business, Professional & Financial Services
Advanced is one of the UK’s largest software and services companies, working with organisations of all sizes to solve their challenges through powerful technology. Its solutions touch the lives of millions of people – whether they are calling NHS 111, travelling on a smart motorway, catching a train to work, donating to charity or booking tickets to an event.
Gordon Wilson.

Built around a people-first culture, the company has helped employees with a range of skills to progress their careers – whether in software engineering, IT support, sales and marketing, or account management.

Since opening its brand new headquarters at Birmingham’s iconic development, The Mailbox, in 2017, Advanced has made 378 new external hires in the region. 82% of these were entry-level roles, highlighting the region’s appeal as a destination for those looking to kickstart a career in the technology industry.

Gordon Wilson, CEO at Advanced, said:

“Birmingham remains a key hub for attracting and growing future IT talent. People don’t have to travel to London to get a job in this sector. There are plenty of businesses like Advanced that are investing in what is the UK’s largest regional urban economy.”

Why the West Midlands?

Home to over 15,000 tech and digital firms, the West Midlands is a leading UK tech hub outside London.

Alongside Advanced, big-name brands among the local tech landscape include IT services and solutions company SCC, and India’s leading digital IT transformation company, Microland. The region is also emerging as a hotspot for tech-led functions from major global brands, such as media company The Economist Group and investment bank Goldman Sachs – both of which have chosen Birmingham to set up new offices dedicated to advancing new technologies.

And as well as enticing big-name multinational companies, the region is a leading location for tech-driven enterprise, with Birmingham crowned the UK’s regional startup capital for 2020, recording over 18,000 business births.

The region is also well-established as an attractive place to pursue a technology career. Its 12 universities contain 50 tech-related centres of excellence and turn out over 66,000 graduates each year, many of whom join the 87,000-strong pool of tech professionals already employed in the sector locally.

This reliable pipeline of talent is also fueled by a burgeoning network of digital skills training schemes and boot camps, designed to open up careers in tech to local communities and promote greater inclusivity across the sector. This includes vital initiatives from TechTalent Academy, Generation and the School of Code, all dedicated to coaching aspiring tech professionals in key fields such as coding, AWS, software development, data engineering and online customer services support.

For Advanced, having access to such a diverse and multicultural talent pool has been integral to growth, allowing the company to attract and retain the most talented people from all backgrounds and cultures, creating an inclusive workplace for all – a key priority for the business.

Gordon adds:

“People are at the heart of our organisation. We hire people based on their talent and potential, and Birmingham gives us the access we need to help us grow as a business. For us, Birmingham will remain an attractive technology hub and, while many of our staff are working from home as a result of the pandemic, we plan to continue to invest in the region outside of lockdown. This could be through creating hot desks to larger meeting spaces to encourage collaboration.”