We published the Digital Marketplace strategy in March 2015. It’s made up of 7 action points that outline our commitments for developing and growing the Digital Marketplace as a commissioning platform.
We published our first quarterly update on the Digital Marketplace strategy in July. This post details our progress during the last quarter (August to October).
Action 1:
Continue to develop the Digital Marketplace to be a compliant and digital by default commissioning platform that both central government and the wider public sector can use to buy what they need.
Update
We have:
- simplified the application process for suppliers so that submissions go through a single system on the Digital Marketplace. We used this for the first time with G-Cloud 7 (G7). We spoke about this on our blog post Applying to G-Cloud 7 on the Digital Marketplace. The next procurement to benefit from this will be the redesigned Digital Services framework, Digital Outcomes and Specialists
Action 2:
Increase awareness of the Digital Marketplace across the public sector and improve support provided to commercial teams so that frameworks available under the Digital Marketplace are used properly.
Update
We have:
- joined up with the Crown Commercial Service (CCS) and techUK to host 14 events in 7 cities. We held separate buyer and supplier sessions in London, Cambridge, Bristol, Birmingham, Leeds, Newcastle and Manchester to show people how to buy what they need using the Digital Marketplace, and educate suppliers on how to sell to government. Of the 355 suppliers and 165 buyers who attended the sessions, 42% of them gave feedback:
- 88% of buyers said the event has encouraged them to buy via the Digital Marketplace in the future
- 84% of suppliers said they were likely to apply to the next iterations of frameworks
- published 2 new case studies:
Action 3:
Make more IT and digital frameworks available through the Digital Marketplace so that the public sector has one place to go to buy what is needed to build world-class digital services.
Update
We have:
- added the second iteration of the Digital Services framework (DS2) to the Digital Marketplace
- put in place 9 memorandum of agreements and 4 service requests for the Crown Hosting Service
Action 4:
In collaboration with CCS, ensure that new digital and IT frameworks meet the GDS design principles so that they are simpler, clearer and faster to use.
Update
We have:
- redesigned the Digital Outcomes and Specialists framework so that it’s simpler and clearer. We’ve:
- changed the name from the Digital Services framework to Digital Outcomes and Specialists
- held 2 supplier engagement events and shared the findings from the supplier feedback
- reduced the standard Invitation to Tender (ITT) pack by 50%
- combined 3 separate ITT documents into one and applied plain English
- reduced the size of the framework agreement and call off contract by over 50% (from 52,000 to 24,000 words)
- separated boilerplate terms from the rest which we will host online
- simplified the application process for G-Cloud 7 as in Action 1
- held supplier engagement events in London and Edinburgh for the Digital Training and Support Services framework (which supports the Digital Inclusion Strategy). We’ve shared our findings on the Assisted Digital blog in our supplier event feedback post
Action 5:
Tailor the user experience to meet user needs and empower users to ‘do it themselves’ through a dedicated education programme. Provide straightforward guidance for buyers and suppliers so they can discover and buy what they need.
Update
We have:
- designed the Digital Outcomes and Specialists user journey within the Digital Marketplace:
- to give buyers an end to end digital commissioning experience
- for suppliers to see contract opportunities as they develop
- updated our blog with posts to help users during various stages of the procurement and commissioning process:
For buyers:
For suppliers:
Action 6:
Identify the total potential value by department of spend that could go through G-Cloud and the Digital Marketplace.
Update
We have:
- started developing a Digital Marketplace growth plan based on potential return on investment, to help prioritise new products and services and the frameworks through which they’ll be made available
Action 7:
Work with our communities of buyers and suppliers to increase take-up of the Digital Marketplace across the different government sectors.
Update
We have:
- worked with CCS to engage government and wider public sector buyers and suppliers on a regional event basis (see updates provided for Action 2)
- spoken to both buyers and suppliers at each stage of the Digital Services redesign. We expect that the user-centred design will mean that the framework will be used much more