We haven't had chance to blog recently, as we've been busy making sure things went smoothly for the G-Cloud 4 framework. But we want to start giving you more regular updates on the progress we're making since G-Cloud came over to the Government Digital Service. With this is mind, now's a good time to tell you about what we're hoping to achieve over the next couple of months.
The story so far
G-Cloud was set up to be a new platform for the public sector to buy ICT [contracts - products and supporting services], specifically cloud services, in a simpler, clearer and faster way. The CloudStore is the front-end that allows buyers to browse through a wide range of suppliers who offer services including; Software as a Service (SaaS), Platform as a Service (Paas), Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS), and Specialised Cloud Services (SCS). The store has been through several iterations as needs have grown and this won't stop.
It's getting bigger
Over the last 18 months the number of suppliers and services has increased, along with the awareness of the store. To date there are over 800 suppliers (83% of this being SMEs), 7000+ services, and an impressive £44.7M in sales (with 63% of the contracts to SMEs). While that's a great start, we're hoping to see these figures rise even more as we build on what we've learned.
G-Cloud 4
On Monday the G-Cloud 4 submission period closed, on time, and we had a great response. It will be a month before the framework goes live and we can tell you how it's gone. But it's been really positive to see suppliers coming back as well as new suppliers looking to join us.
What's next?
Since G-Cloud moved over to GDS, it's secured a permanent budget and we've got a great team in place. We want now to take some time to review how things have gone, get some more user feedback and understand how we can continue to improve sales and engagement with buyers and suppliers.
Keep an eye on the blog for updates and how to get involved.
7 comments
Comment by G-Cloud, what’s next? It’s all about users. – G-Cloud | Public Sector Blogs posted on
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Comment by Mike Chapman posted on
Having just submitted our first application to join as a supplier, I have a number of feedback points, but will restrict myself to only making one. Next time, might I suggest that you have just one portal for submission. Having two is a redundancy that can only create confusion and, to my mind, had no logic to its use.
Comment by Peter Middleton posted on
Thanks Mike - if eSourcing could support the G-Cloud then we wouldn't need a second portal - but it wasn't designed to cope with the amount of data the G-Cloud submissions produce. It is something that we will try to achieve with time though.
Comment by Ajay Kachhwaha posted on
G-Cloud Team,
G-Cloud has come a long way, and far better than what it started out as during the first iteration.
Agreed, G-Cloud could do with a few more improvements, especially as the demand is increasing and more and more offerings are being made available.
One specific thing that comes to mind is "Keywords", sometimes when searching for offerings, the results show 90% irrelevant searches and the reason for this is the search criteria.
Hopefully this will be one of the things GDS will be looking into improving.
Thanks
Comment by Peter Middleton posted on
Thanks Ajay - yes we are certainly looking at how to support keywords more effectively and we'll be in touch after G-Cloud 4 goes live about this. Peter
Comment by Lawrence Mount posted on
As a representative of one of the larger Government Departments I would like to engage with the team as it seeks to improve the G-Store interface and the information about the services in each iteration. Presently, it falls short of providing accurate and intuitive access to what is on offer and this has the potential for lesser qualified individuals to make mistakes.
Comment by Peter Middleton posted on
Hi Larry - we'd be very happy to discuss this with you, if you'd like to get in touch on enquiries@gcloud.cabinet-office.gov.uk
Thanks Peter