Digital Marketplace “Has No Set Deadline”

The new government Digital Marketplace does not have a set “go live” date, reveals user researcher Mark Branigan in a new blog post.

In March, the government announced that the G-Cloud procurement network and the Digital Services Framework would be combined to form one Digital Marketplace.

An alpha version of the store is now online and previous blog posts have indicated that the new service would be going live this month – however, it has now been suggested otherwise.

“One of the most common questions we’re asked when we’re doing user research for the Digital Marketplace is ‘When is this going live’,” writes Branigan.

“This is a hard question to answer because it’s much more important to create a service that is fit for purpose than to meet a deadline,” he claims.

The researcher adds that the alpha stage of the project was made public specifically so potential users could get involved with development before it was officially live.

“I always remind participants that one we’ve spoken to each other in the lab, that’s not the end of the process and their continued feedback is important,” claims Branigan.

He urges users to “keep the conversation going” about the Marketplace and provide feedback to “help us to gone it into the best service it can be.”

Supplier And Buyer Opinions Wanted

Branigan also claims that just over 50 users have now been spoken to, many of which were suppliers, including ones already using G-Cloud and those interested in joining the framework.

“Digital Marketplace will become the single place to find the services you need to help support and build digital services,” he says.

“It’s important to us that buyers are at ease with the experience as it continues to evolve,” he concludes.

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