G-Cloud framework provides multiple times savings on ICT services, says supplier

Phil Dawson, chief executive of Skyscape Cloud Services, said that the G-Cloud programme was "delivering significant cost savings" to the public sector, according to a report by Outsourcer Eye. Skyscrape provides hosting services for the Government's web portal, .gov.uk, and also provides a platform for services offered by the Disclosure and Barring Service to help businesses check whether prospective employees are suitable to work with vulnerable groups.

"While a common criticism of the programme to date is that the reported spend is relatively low, it is important to note that every £1 spent via G-Cloud equates to £10 spent on old world ICT," Dawson said, according to the Outsourcer Eye report. "Indeed, what is now available via the Framework is three to four times cheaper than what it is replacing, and so we should be focusing on the huge amount of money saved rather than money spent."

The G-Cloud system allows public sector bodies to gain access to cloud-based IT services being offered by a selected list of pre-approved suppliers during a set period. Earlier this month the Government Digital Service, which runs the G-Cloud programme, opened the process for applications from suppliers that wish to join the fourth G-Cloud framework (G4).

Government departments buying IT products and services are obliged, under a new policy set by the Cabinet Office earlier this year, to consider solutions offered by cloud providers before they can consider alternatives.

Earlier this month the Cabinet Office announced that it was "on track" to meet its target for SMEs to win 25% of all business outsourced by the Government, either directly or through the supply chain by 2015.

Figures released by the Cabinet Office in February revealed that, at that time, the majority of the Government spend through the G-Cloud programme had been with SMEs.

Phil Dawson of Skyscape said that boosting the business done through the G-Cloud can help the Government meet its SME target.

"Under the wing of GDS and with the fourth iteration of the Framework now underway, we have high hopes that the long term goals of 25 percent of Government contracts going to SMEs can be met, however there is still more to be done to realise these targets," Dawson said, according to the Outsourcer Eye report.

"We believe that education is key moving forward, as the buying community must be aware of the ease with which they are now able to bring their services to market via G-Cloud, either on their own or by partnering with existing providers. Added to which, more should be done to explain the cost savings in real terms, in order to truly communicate the benefits that we are now seeing within the public sector," he said.

The 10% group, which was set up at the behest of the Government to obtain direct feedback from SMEs on issues to do with Government procurement, last month outlined some barriers it said were holding back some SMEs from engaging with the G-Cloud programme.

According to a blog posted by Kate Craig-Wood, co-founder and managing director of Memset and convener of the 10% group, security and accreditation are "serious blockers to SMEs gaining market share".

"New entrants are being stalled by PSN (Public Services Network) not delivering IL3-accredited connection services, and the G-Cloud accreditation processes are a moving target and are very labour-intensive, with nugatory parallel processes for PSN adding to the load," Craig-Wood wrote.

IL3 is a security standard that companies wishing to become listed as suppliers available to be contracted with through the G-Cloud programme need to achieve in order to deal with restricted Government data.

The Government ICT market is currently under scrutiny from the Office of Fair Trading (OFT).  The regulator launched an information gathering exercise earlier this summer in a bid to find out more about competition in the market for the supply of ICT goods and services to the public sector.