MPs Say G-Cloud Is Driving Innovation

A survey of 153 MPs and 104 members of the House of Lords claims to have found that they believe the G-Cloud framework drives innovation.

The research, commissioned by cloud services SME Skyscape, says 82% of MPs surveyed agreed that the initiative drives innovation, as did 77% of Peers.

Meanwhile, 75% of MPs and 46% of peers believe that G-Cloud has enabled the UK to make significant savings in its ICT expenditure.

However, discrepancies in opinions began to arise when participants were asked whether the framework had been successful in promoting competition among suppliers.

Over half (54%) of Peers said the programme gives SMEs easy access to the market, but just 27% of MPs agreed with this and 34% actively disagreed.

“Our own research demonstrates that there is widespread recognition that cloud computing and the G-Cloud programme are driving innovation and dramatically improving efficiency within government, which ultimately delivers better value for money for the UK tax payer,” claimed Skyscape CEO Simon Hansford.

“However, there is still more work to do in educating and communicating the successes of the Framework.

“The fact that 34% of MPs disagree that F-Cloud has enabled SMEs to more easily access the public sector market is concerning and contradicts the latest figures from GDS, which revealed that 53% of total sales by value have been with SMEs.

“As a small business that has won significant public sector contracts through G-Cloud, we believe that better education regarding the many success stories of buyers and suppliers is needed,” he added.

Opening The Market To SMEs G-Cloud’s “Biggest Success”

According to G-Cloud programme director Tony Singleton, one of the biggest successes of the framework has been to reduce the barrier to entry for SMEs wanting government business.

Speaking at the THINK Cloud Vendors event in London earlier this week, Singleton claimed that prior to G-Cloud’s existence, smaller businesses had no opportunities to work with government.

“One of the big successes, I think, of G-Cloud is the way it has opened up or reduced the barrier to entry,” the Director said.

“If you go back four or five years, there just would have been no opportunity to work with government at all,” he added.

Businesses Must Continue To Market Themselves

However, both Singleton and Crown Commercial Service (CCS) Commercial Director of Technology Sarah Hurrell who also attended THINK Cloud Vendors, said it isn’t just up to the government to promote G-Cloud – suppliers must also remember to market themselves.

During the day, many speakers emphasised that providers on the framework are not going to gain business simply by putting their services in the programme – usual marketing efforts are still required.

© 24N.biz