We expect G-Cloud 8 (G8) to be open for applications on 17 May and G8 services to be available in the Digital Marketplace on 1 August. Here’s the provisional G8 timetable.
A couple of changes from G-Cloud 7
The G8 user journey will be almost identical to the one for G-Cloud 7 (G7) but there are 2 areas of difference:
- The G8 legal documents are shorter and clearer than the G7 ones (although we haven’t had the resource to simplify the language).
- The Specialist Cloud Services (SCS) category is now more clearly defined. We’ll be blogging about this change soon.
G-Cloud 9 discovery
We’ve been focused on developing the end-to-end buyer journey for Digital Outcomes and Specialists and haven’t made significant changes to G8. Instead, we’ve prioritised a G-Cloud 9 (G9) discovery to find out how future iterations of G-Cloud should evolve.
Later this month, buyers will be able to find specialists to work on digital projects through the Digital Outcomes and Specialists framework. This is partly why now is a good time to review the user needs of G-Cloud's SCS category as we know that buyers have used G-Cloud to find specialists in the past. We hope to remove the overlap between the two frameworks.
Speaking to buyers and suppliers will also help us work out if, and how, the user need has changed. Among other things, we’d like to find out:
- whether the services that government needs now still fit into the 4 categories we have on G-Cloud
- how understanding security can help the public sector make the right buying decisions
- how we can support Common Technology Services’ vision, including Crown Hosting
- how we can help simplify the transition from lengthy and expensive legacy IT contracts to cloud services
- whether we can remove terms and conditions that don’t meet user needs
- if there are user benefits to removing overlapping framework iterations
- what we need to develop to enable an end-to-end purchase to payment transaction in the Digital Marketplace
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6 comments
Comment by David Hunt posted on
Re G-Cloud 8 - I haven't seen any further blogging on this, have I missed it? - The Specialist Cloud Services (SCS) category is now more clearly defined. We’ll be blogging about this change soon.
Comment by Amy McNichol posted on
Hi David,
You can read about the small changes we're making for G8 as well as see the draft supplier declaration in our post from yesterday: https://digitalmarketplace.blog.gov.uk/2016/05/05/how-to-prepare-for-g-cloud-8/
You can also sign up to the blog too so you don't miss any updates:
https://public.govdelivery.com/accounts/UKGOVUK/subscriber/new?topic_id=UKGOVUK_11327
Thanks,
Amy
Comment by Kaustubh posted on
Hello,
When can we register as Supplier? Seems G8 is closed! When is the next date please? Thanks
Kaustubh
Comment by Amy McNichol posted on
Hi Kaustubh,
There is no date for G-Cloud 9 applications yet. Sign up to the blog for updates: https://public.govdelivery.com/accounts/UKGOVUK/subscriber/new?topic_id=UKGOVUK_11327
This guidance will be useful too: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/g-cloud-suppliers-guide
Thanks,
Amy
Comment by John Stenton posted on
Hello,
Will Lot 4 be included in G-Cloud 9?
Comment by claireashworth posted on
Dear John,
Thank you for your comment.
The lot structure is currently under review and we hope to provide more information in the new year.
Regards,
Claire