The CEO of a fast-growing IT consultancy that recently earned its B Corp stripes says he wants to prove you “can do good, as well as do well”.
Having employed just three staff in 2019, UBDS Group’s headcount hit 175 at the end of 2024.
Talking to IT Channel Oxygen, CEO Diptesh Patel characterised UBDS’ successful certification as a B Corp in November as “a great achievement to close off the year”.
The notoriously exacting social and environmental sustainability certification is held by only a handful of UK IT consultancies and MSPs, including Qodea, Zenzero, Optimising IT, Redquid, IT Naturally and Natilik – the latter of which IT Channel Oxygen visited last May to get its B Corp progress report.
“It’s a good way to prove companies can do good as well as do well,” Patel said, revealing that B Corp took 14 months to obtain from the point of application.
“I’m not into greenwashing”
Despite being in an exclusive club, UBDS doesn’t lead on B Corp, Patel said, explaining that it instead embeds the principles of the accreditation into its culture.
He gave the example of a solution the HPE, Microsoft, AWS, Zscaler and CloudFlare partner is currently proposing for a large rail project.
“We looked at it and said ‘how can we deliver this solution across 360-odd sites in a sustainable and environmentally friendly way?’,” Patel said.
“We designed a project plan that would use the railway system itself to keep Co2 down. That’s the kind of initiative that really excites me. I’m not into greenwashing or using this as just another label.”
B Corp is not just about the environment, but also supporting the economy and society, Patel pointed out, stressing that UBDS operates a ‘Foodie Friday’ policy in which staff at its London HQ source lunch only from local suppliers.
“This group is about entrepreneurs”
Having been a three-person IT consultancy as recently as 2019, UBDS’ revenues grew to around £21m in calendar 2024 (up from £13.6m a year previously), Patel indicated.
During the year, it acquired cybersecurity specialist 3B Data Security and launched Rayo, a joint venture in the AWS services space.
This adds to its core digital lifecycle business, which was recently rebranded from UBDS to UBDS Digital.
“This group is about entrepreneurs. I’m an entrepreneur,” Patel said.
“Someone said to me the other week ‘it sounds like you’ve done 25 years of a career in five years’, and that’s a really good way to put it. I would love to help other entrepreneurs apply that, and so that’s what we did.
“Benn Morris and Louise Morris really wanted to grow [3B], and I was excited about helping them grow and imparting some of my experience – and it’s the same with Rayo.”
At the same time, privately held UBDS has changed the way it operates, switching from a business which leans heavily on contractors to one centred on full-time employees. Its total headcount now stands at around 175.
“We made a conscious decision to back ourselves as an organisation,” Patel explained.
“Our reputation was growing, so we looked at what we could do to build an employee-based workforce.”
Doing AI “well”
Despite branding 2024 a “super great year”, Patel said 2025 will be more about “consistency and stability”.
Patel highlighted delivering AI in an ethical and responsible manner as another priority for the year ahead, stressing that UBDS has just become one of a select group of organisations globally to achieve ISO 42001 (which relates to managing AI systems).
“We don’t want to be another organisation that just goes and sells AI because it’s new,” he said.
“Everyone talks about AI, but how do you do it well, rather than just turning it on? And that’s one thing I’d love to be able to support our clients with.”
Because B Corp is based on a scoring system, rather than simply passing or failing, Patel also sees room for improvement here.
“It’s not a case that we ticked the boxes and that’s that. We got certified, and now it’s helping us to also say what could we do better. There are three or four other things that could help us to be an even better organisation, and I love that about the process,” he said.
Is B Corp too tough?
“I think it’s a good thing it takes longer. There are only [2,300] B Corps in the UK because it takes time and commitment – and that’s what our colleagues were prepared to do,” he said.
Doug Woodburn is editor of IT Channel Oxygen
