In spite of efforts by the UK government to encourage smaller IT firms to bid for contracts, HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) has signed a multi-year contract with Capgemini worth £500m to deliver contact centre as a service (CCaaS).
Duncan Aitchison, research director at TechMarketView, noted that the contract shows the IT service provider’s two-decade-long relationship with HMRC is set to continue for a further 10 years.
Last August, as part of its Enterprise Customer Relationship Management programme, HMRC put out a tender for a provider of software as a service (SaaS) customer relationship management to replace its existing system. At the time, HMRC said it would also be tendering for what it called “an intelligent client function” along with system and service integrators and supplementary software capabilities.
Capgemini’s role in the contract is support implementation, system design, workflow integration, ongoing support and continuous optimisation to enable greater adaptability.
To achieve this, it will be working in collaboration with Nice, a provider of CCaaS, and Route 101, a Nice implementation partner. The overall goal is to deliver a system that expands self-service options and uses technologies such as AI to make it easier for customers to get the information and support they need.
Nice is categorised as a leader in Gartner’s Magic quadrant for contact center as a service report, where other companies in the top quadrant include Genesys, Amazon Web Services, Five9 and Talkdesk.
In the report, Gartner noted that its clients are increasingly voicing frustration regarding Nice’s AI project deployment times, which, according to Gartner’s analysis, often exceed initial expectations. “Clients considering deploying Nice AI capabilities should work closely with their account team to validate the proposed functionality, availability of deployment resources and readiness of their own data environment to meet deployment commitments,” the analyst warned.
HMRC has recognised the need to make its contact centre more streamlined. In February 2025, the National Audit Office reported that HMRC spent £4.3bn between 2023 and 2024 to collect £829bn of tax.
According to the HMRC, the new system is cloud-native, and will deliver improved operations and efficiency gains to meet key outcomes including enhanced digital experiences, smarter automation, and more seamless customer interactions.
Seamless customer interaction is something businesses have asked for. The Chartered Institute of Taxation’s survey of members found that the inefficiency of HMRC is causing problems in businesses. Technical officer Lindsay Scott said: “Our survey highlighted examples of prolonged and difficult interactions with HMRC customer services to ask for HMRC errors to be corrected. The introduction of a complex cases service could help to provide an avenue for resolution of these difficult cases, reducing costs and the negative impact that these errors have on taxpayers and their businesses.”
The contract, which is set to begin in August, will see HMRC use the Nice CXone AI-powered customer experience platform, deployed on a purpose-built UK sovereign cloud, to orchestrate intelligent self-service. HMRC said the platform will enable it to streamline complex citizen journeys, and empower contact centre operations with real-time, AI-driven insights while supporting strict compliance with UK data security requirements.
Rob Walker, managing director at Capgemini in the UK, said: “This new agreement reflects the strength of our long-standing commitment to HMRC innovation and our ability to deliver complex, large-scale, AI-powered transformation programmes that create tangible value for citizens. In collaboration with HMRC, Nice and Route 101, we are building a value partnership that goes beyond technology delivery – one that is focused on long-term outcomes, innovation and continuous improvement for millions of users across the UK.”
In May, HMRC signed a 10-year, £175m contract with Quantexa, which provides a data unification platform to support the modernisation of HMRC’s core data infrastructure. According to Quantexa, this will give HMRC a clearer, connected view of its data to improve performance, help identify tax at risk, and strengthen control. It also lays the groundwork for advanced AI capabilities and supports wider transformation efforts such as more seamless customer service.
