Designing an AI-native operating model for a UK building services marketplace

Client

HSS ProService is a UK-wide digital marketplace and managed service provider for construction equipment, tools, building materials and related site services. Building on HSS Hire’s heritage dating back to 1957, its platform provides access to more than 50,000 products and services through over 650 verified suppliers and 3,000 supplier locations nationwide. It enables organisations to centrally manage purchasing, hire, equipment usage, costs, invoicing and sustainability reporting.

Background

Having completed its separation from the traditional hire business, the company identified AI and automation as a core strategic pillar and set its ambition on designing an operating model that was AI-native from the outset, rather than retrofitted to existing processes.

The existing operating model had been built around hire rather than marketplace, making incremental improvement an insufficient response to the scale of change required. As the business scaled, operational complexity had built up naturally across the order lifecycle, with multiple handoffs between teams and manual coordination points the business wanted to improve for both buyers and sellers. The challenge was to establish a clear, evidence-based path from ambition to delivery.

Solution

Audacia was engaged to lead a structured discovery programme designed to move at pace across parallel workstreams. Working closely with stakeholders across the business, the consulting team began with a feasibility and readiness assessment, evaluating the existing technology estate, process complexity, and organisational capability. Technology, data, and capability assessments ran concurrently, producing a consolidated view of constraints, dependencies, and readiness within the first two weeks.

Building on these foundations, Audacia facilitated structured ideation workshops across all five stages of HSS ProService's value chain: Buyer and Seller Acquisition, Order Taking, Fulfilment, Order Management, and Post Contract Activity. Rather than cataloguing existing pain points, sessions were designed to explore how processes could be reimagined with AI as a core capability, not added to them. This produced a long-list of use cases which were then evaluated against value potential, delivery complexity, time to impact, and sequencing dependencies.

Audacia then developed the technology approach for each prioritised use case, assessing build, buy, and configure options through a structured evaluation methodology grounded in real data. Cost considerations, integration requirements, and a path toward building internal AI capability over time were central to each recommendation. Alongside this, Audacia designed the technical architecture defining how each use case would fit together as a coherent, scalable whole rather than a collection of isolated initiatives. This fed into a 12-month technology roadmap, a phased governance framework, and a costed business case to support investment decisions and delivery planning.

Results

The engagement also addressed the operating model design in depth, including a target method framework covering adoption, augmentation, and automation, alongside a proposed delivery approach to support scalable, use-case-driven change. The output was a clear foundation from which HSS ProService could move forward with confidence: