Mphasis has extended its collaboration with Social Security Scotland, securing a £35.4 million contract to manage and maintain the agency's core benefits management platform.

The agreement ensures continuity of services for approximately 2 million citizens across Scotland, covering benefit applications, eligibility decisions, and payments.

Deal highlights

The following table summarises the key parameters of the partnership expansion:

Partnership expansion

The renewed engagement underscores Mphasis' continued presence in the public sector technology services space. Under this contract, Mphasis will provide support and maintenance for the executive agency's core benefits case management platform. The scope of work focuses on maintaining a stable, resilient, and high-quality service, ensuring uninterrupted access to vital benefits such as disability support and heating assistance.

Ashish Devalekar, Executive Vice President and Head of Europe at Mphasis, stated that the project aligns with the company's broader public sector focus. He emphasized the commitment to maintaining continuity and improving operational efficiency for government organizations running secure digital services.

Social Security Scotland is one of the largest executive agencies of the Scottish Government. Its Social Program Management (SPM) case management system is critical for administering a wide range of social security payments. This agreement helps mitigate risks linked to operational inefficiency and disruption through major incidents.

Mphasis has partnered with Copa Airlines to launch a global quantum computing challenge focused on advancing innovation in airline operations.

Partnership overview

The collaboration between Mphasis and Copa Airlines centres on a global quantum computing challenge designed to explore and accelerate the application of quantum technologies within the airline industry. The initiative brings together the technology expertise of Mphasis with Copa Airlines' operational domain knowledge to identify and develop solutions that could transform how airline operations are managed.

Focus on disruption management

The challenge specifically targeted the passenger re-accommodation problem, a critical process involving the reassignment of passengers to alternate flights during schedule disruptions due to demand shifts, seasonal routes, or cancellations. While traditionally solved using classical computing, this competition sought to reimagine the problem using quantum computing to improve speed and accuracy at scale.

Challenge structure and participation

The competition was conducted in two phases. Phase 1 included 22 teams from Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs), evaluated jointly by Mphasis experts and IIT-Madras faculty, from which six teams were selected. In Phase 2, these six teams competed with three teams from the University of Calgary and the University of Lethbridge using real data from Copa Airlines and quantum infrastructure provided by Classiq, Multiverse Computing, and qBraid.

Participants developed end-to-end solution pipelines, including:

• Identification of impacted flight segments and passengers
• Passenger scoring and prioritization based on Customer Value Management (CVM) data
• Ranking of alternate flight options
• Optimal reassignment of passengers using quantum and classical optimization techniques
• Benchmarking and performance evaluation of the proposed solutions

Mphasis, along with IIT-Madras and Quantum City, shortlisted three solutions for presentation to Copa Airlines leadership. The winning teams received a cash prize and joint recognition from both organisations.

Strategic collaboration

Mphasis' Airlines Vertical and NEXT Labs, the company's R&D and innovation arm, collaborated with Copa Airlines to define the problem, identify data requirements, and establish infrastructure. The partnership positions both organisations at the intersection of emerging technology and aviation, aiming to bridge the gap between academic research and real-world enterprise implementation.

Recent developments

Recently, the company also launched two quantum-powered offerings: QOptiDecision™ for quantum-enhanced optimization leveraging hybrid quantum-classical algorithms, and qCryptsec™ for quantum-safe cybersecurity.