G-Cloud Revolutionary Moment For Government Procurement

G-Cloud programme director Tony Singleton has claimed that the introduction of the UK government’s Cloud First policy and the subsequent creation of G-Cloud are “revolutionary.”

Speaking at the THINK Cloud Vendors event in London earlier this week, Singleton praised his team and those who ran the framework before him for developing a “successful” new procurement method.

“It was a new framework, a new way of doing business, largely on suppliers’ terms and conditions, cutting back, back to the bare minimum, reducing various barriers to entry and so on,” he said.

However, Singleton claims that G-Cloud is not just about procurement, he says services are not procured via the framework, instead, they are commissioned.

He added that the goal for public sector bodies is no longer to purchase giant IT projects, instead, they must move to fund business change initiatives.

“In transforming government, we need to disaggregate contracts, we need to take them back down to lowest level for various reasons, we need to make sure we minimise risks and drive out the largest value from all IT contracts we’re going to do,” he claimed.

The G-Cloud And Europe

Singleton also told delegates at THINK Cloud Vendors that G-Cloud puts the UK “streets ahead” of any other nations.

He says many other European countries question whether the framework adheres to EU procurement rules, but insists that is does.

The G-Cloud programme director says options currently being explored include opening up the framework to European suppliers and how it can be used by other countries – noting that talks with Denmark about this are currently in the very early stages.

Success Stories

As well as claiming that G-Cloud as opened government business to a wider market and placed the UK well ahead of other countries, Singleton drew on success stories with the framework.

He claimed that an independent review at the end of 2013 revealed an average efficiency saving of at least 50%, while many case studies have found savings of up to 90%.

“For every pound spent, there is the potential for a pound to be saved,” the Director claimed.

Specifically, Singleton drew upon a Liverpool NHS Trust which stopped running a procurement process to use G-Cloud instead because it was much faster and made more sense financially.

Another example is Wiltshire Council, which took to the framework to find a new case management system, which took just six months to build and then train staff to use it.

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