G4 cloud framework launches with nearly 1,000 suppliers

The Cabinet Office said it received a record number of applications from suppliers looking to be listed on the 'G-Cloud 4' framework, and that a record 999 companies had been selected.

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.

The Cabinet Office has reported that total sales made via the three previous G-Cloud frameworks amount to £53.5 million, with 58% of public bodies' money going to SMEs.

The Cabinet Office announced in May that Government departments buying IT products and services would be obliged to consider solutions offered through the cloud before they can consider alternatives. Under the 'cloud first' policy, Government departments can only deviate from using cloud-based IT solutions where they can show that alternative offerings offer "better value for money" than the products and services available through the 'CloudStore', an online marketplace for cloud IT services.

"Our reforms to government technology are designed to ensure the best possible service for users at the lowest cost for taxpayers," Cabinet Minister Francis Maude said. "To make this possible we need a truly competitive marketplace. SMEs are a source of innovation and a crucial engine for growth. We will continue to knock down the barriers that have prevented them from winning public sector work in the past."

"We will continue to embed our Cloud First principle in government and recommend it across the wider public sector," he added.

G-Cloud director Tony Singleton said that efforts had been made and would continue to lower the cost to suppliers bidding for inclusion on the G-Cloud frameworks.

"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," Singleton said. "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."

Earlier this month IT and telecoms contract specialist Clive Seddon of Pinsent Masons, the law firm behind Out-Law.com, said that complex procurement rules and the length of time that passes between the tendering for bids and the signing of contracts are among the factors that put off some suppliers from engaging in public sector IT procurements.

Seddon was commenting after the OFT announced that it had launched a market study into the supply of public sector ICT goods and services. It follows an information gathering exercise the OFT undertook with market stakeholders earlier this year which the OFT said raised some issues that "merit further analysis".

The OFT said that its study would particularly focus on the public sector market for the supply of "commercial off-the-shelf software" as well as the outsourcing market for the building and maintenance of public sector IT infrastructure and applications. It is expected to complete its market study and publicise the findings in March 2014.

The market for the supply of public sector IT goods and services is estimated at being worth £13.8 billion. The OFT previously said that the top 20 software and IT service providers currently earn about £10.4 billion in annual revenues from UK public sector bodies.

The Cabinet Office has previously set out a target of ensuring that SMEs win 25% of the business being outsourced by the Government, either directly or through the supply chain. According to data published by the Cabinet Office in the summer, 10.5% of all Government procurement expenditure in 2012-13, £4.5 billion, made its way directly to SMEs. The figure was up from £3bn spent by central Government departments on services offered by SMEs in 2009, it said.