What is the Digital Services Store?
The Digital Services Store helps government buyers find teams and individuals who can deliver digital services in an agile way. All suppliers on the Digital Services Store have already been accepted on to the Digital Services framework.
How is this related to the Digital Marketplace?
Currently there is no relationship between the Digital Marketplace and the Digital Services Store. The content of the Digital Services Store will be migrated to the Digital Marketplace in the new year. We can’t confirm exact timelines at present but we expect this work to be completed in Q1 of 2015.
How is this work related to the next iteration of the Digital Services framework?
As with any government framework, the Digital Services framework needs to be iterated and this work continues independently of the development of tools such as the Digital Services Store or the Digital Marketplace.
What is happening in the meantime?
The Digital Services Store has a number of usability issues which we aim to address in the coming weeks. For example, many people struggle to gain access to the store and the filtering can be confusing. There are also a number of differences between what data is available and to whom on the two different stores. For example, the Digital Marketplace provides complete openness and transparency so buyers can clearly understand what’s available and how much it costs without having to create a login. The Digital Services Store restricts access so that only buyers can only see what’s available once they’ve logged in.
What have we done this week?
This week, we’ve released some changes which should improve performance of the store itself, and we’ve addressed an issue that was causing system emails to end up in people’s junk mail. We’ve also completed a request for a gov.uk startpage and have finalised the content required for our own performance platform page. We’ve also started looking at the way our analytics are structured so we can combine that data with user research to improve the way the store works.
How do I get involved?
Sign up to user research. We’ll be conducting regular user research and we need your help.