G-Cloud sales topped $53.5 million last month, a steady improvement, up from £44.7 million in September
The latest iteration of the UK government’s procurement framework for cloud services, G-Cloud 4, is scheduled to go live this week with just over 13,000 services and just under 1,000 suppliers listed in the CloudStore, many of which are SMEs. Cabinet Office Minister Francis Maude said the latest figures demonstrate the effectiveness of G-Cloud in shifting the balance between small businesses and the large SIs.
The Cabinet Office said the latest procurement round attracted a record number of submissions from suppliers to have their services included in the CloudStore, the digital store set up by the UK government as part of its cloud strategy to give public sector organisations access to these services.
“Our reforms to government technology are designed to ensure the best possible service for users at the lowest cost for taxpayers. To make this possible we need a truly competitive marketplace. SMEs are a source of innovation and a crucial engine for growth,” Maude said. “We will continue to knock down the barriers that have prevented them from winning public sector work in the past.”
Cabinet Office Minister Francis Maude said the latest figures from the G-Cloud programme suggest the government’s strategy to level the playing field between large IT suppliers and SMEs in public sector IT procurement is working.
According to the Cabinet Office there are 999 suppliers on the G-Cloud 4 framework, which simplified instructions on how to apply as suppliers to the new G-Cloud framework and how to carry forward services from previous frameworks, and introduced a new GDS Service Submission Portal that eliminates the possibility of non-submission of documents required for regulatory approval. That’s up from the 700 suppliers included in the previous procurement. And 84 per cent of the 1,186 services on offer in the CloudStore are delivered by SMEs.
“G-Cloud is a simpler, faster and cheaper way for the public sector to buy digital services. It allows companies of all sizes to benefit from our digital by default approach to government. I’m delighted that so many SMEs have won representation in this new iteration,” Maude said.
“We will continue to embed our Cloud First principle in government and recommend it across the wider public sector,” he added.
Sales from the CloudStore broke through the £50 million mark this month to reach £53.5 million as of October 18, and the percentage of sales going to SMEs also reached new heights – 58 per cent of total sales by value, up from 56 per cent, which also meshes well with the UK government’s aim to award 25 per cent of all central government spending to SMEs by 2015, both directly and through the supply chain. Figures published by the Cabinet Office in August show that direct SME spend increased from £3bn (6.5 per cent) in 2009 to 2010 to £4.5 billion (10.5 per cent) in 2012 to 2013.
G-Cloud has not been without its sceptics. Many – including the former G-Cloud director – have suggested that a lack of education on cloud services within the public service, coupled with a strong IT supplier oligopoly might stall the government’s ‘Cloud First’ strategy. But the latest sales figures suggest G-Cloud is moving in the right direction, as a growing portion of the sales are going to SMEs – one of the key goals of the G-Cloud project from the outset.
“We are constantly working to improve G-Cloud and the CloudStore, making it more straightforward and less expensive for suppliers wanting to join the marketplace and for public sector customers to purchase the technology they need,” said Tony Singleton, head of the G-Cloud programme. “For G4, we have fed in valuable intelligence and opinions from buyers and suppliers. But the job of lowering barriers to participation and making the process as easy and open as possible goes on,” he added.