Out-Law News 1 min. read

Government plans to measure cost savings from G-Cloud procurements


The Government is looking at ways to quantify the savings in procuring IT products and services through the 'G-Cloud' framework.

Tony Singleton, chief operating officer at the Government Digital Service, said that he thinks public authorities can save up to 80% in procuring through the 'G-Cloud' relative to traditional procurement channels, according to a report by technology news website V3.

Singleton said, however, that the Government intends to find a way to quantify the savings in future.

"We don’t know exactly how much cheaper it is at the moment, but we are going to be doing something about that,” he said, according to the V3 report.

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 Government's 'cloud first' policy requires Government departments to consider IT solutions offered through the cloud before they consider alternatives. The 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 linked to the G-Cloud.

There is no such 'cloud first' policy mandated for other public bodies to follow, but the G-Cloud framework remains open for all public bodies to use. However, Singleton admitted that as few as 20% of local authorities may be aware of its existence, according to the V3 report.

According to the latest published figures, sales made via the G-Cloud framework total £78 million, with nearly £15m of sales being recorded in November alone last year. More than half (61%) of the contracts awarded have gone to SMEs and they make up 56% of the total value of contracts awarded.

Public bodies outside central Government departments account for 37% of G-Cloud sales.

"We want to start working with partners across local authorities so we can get everyone to understand what G-Cloud is so we can start to make savings in local government as well as central government," Singleton said, according to the V3 report.

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