Recently we’ve found as this is high profile work, our successful news has been published on the main Government Digital Service (GDS) blog. This has meant this blog has been updated less frequently and does not truly reflect all the work we are doing.
Therefore, from today we will be closing this blog and putting all future Digital Marketplace news on the GDS blog.
All the content on this blog will remain here for reference, but we will no longer be updating it. News and information will continue to be posted on the Digital Marketplace Twitter account.
Be sure to subscribe to the GDS blog for future Digital Marketplace updates. If you are subscribed to this blog your email address will be removed from the system.
Keep a look out for a post next week in our new home as we celebrate our fourth birthday.
]]>Earlier this year we hosted an industry engagement event for the Global Digital Marketplace. The event showcased our plan to work with UK suppliers to transform government procurement in emerging economies and create new opportunities in overseas markets.
Since then, we have visited 6 countries to assess the feasibility of working with them, and we discussed our ambitions with digital, data and technology professionals across the UK government at Sprint 18.
We’re now ready to open our first opportunity for suppliers, so we want to share what we’ve done so far and tell you how you can take part.
]]>Government Digital Service (GDS) and Crown Commercial Service (CCS) are on a mission to create model framework agreements and call-off contracts that successfully meet users’ needs and are fit for a 21st century government. Giving businesses a better, more coherent experience when interacting with government services, is part of the vision for the Government Transformation Strategy.
In our last post, we shared our findings from the discovery phase. We learned that certain issues came up time and again during the procurement and contracting lifecycle for both public sector buyers and suppliers.
As we move into the next phase of development, we’ll define the scope of the alpha: which areas we should prioritise and how we’ll approach them. We want to test some new ideas for ‘model contracts’ for the most commonly used goods and services, reimagined for the digital age.
We like how Chris Thomas, a designer on the Cross-Government Service Data team, described the things to consider when designing in alpha, and of course we’ll be following the guidance in the Service Manual.
We want to focus on a number of parallel work streams during the alpha. These include:
We’ll be working on the alpha over the summer and we’ll be returning to the growing community of ‘good contract champions’ as we prototype and test different approaches to meeting contract users’ needs.
If you’ve not already done so, please sign up to become a champion yourself.
]]>The tenth GDS design principle is ‘Make things open, it makes things better’. As our director, Warren Smith, mentioned in a recent blog post, we’re always looking for ways to open up more data and encourage an open relationship with suppliers. G-Cloud 9 is the fifth time that we’ve hosted suppliers applications on the Digital Marketplace and we’ve continued to iterate and improve the application process. We’re now publishing the high-level application statistics we monitor while applications are open.
We think there is a lot to learn from how suppliers apply to a framework. That’s why we want to:
Ultimately, we want to use what we learn from the application trends to think about how to improve the service.
We’ve created an internal dashboard on the Digital Marketplace showing high-level statistics. This allows the team to see how many suppliers have started applications, how many have completed them, and the number of services being submitted into each category.
If the conversion rate seems low in the final days, we can adjust the emails we send to interested suppliers to remind them when applications are closing.
While applications are open, all suppliers must remain anonymous from the data we view. We focus on overall statistics and look for trends. For example, many G-Cloud suppliers move their services from draft to complete in the final few days of the application window. It’s always exciting to watch the number of complete applications shoot up towards the end.
Making better use of data is one of the objectives in the new Government Transformation Strategy:
We will release open government data to spur innovation and economic growth, including additional, higher quality contracting data through our commitment to the Open Contracting Data Standard
On the Digital Marketplace team, we want to follow this approach by improving the quality of procurement data collected by government and opening it up to the market.
We’ll talk more about this on our blog over the coming months. In the meantime, you can read more about how often G-Cloud opens for applications in the G-Cloud suppliers’ guide.
]]>If your application is successful, we expect your G9 services to be available on the Digital Marketplace on 22 May 2017. The deadline for applications is 5pm BST on 11 April 2017.
Suppliers on G-Cloud 7 (G7) and G-Cloud 8 (G8) must apply to G9 to continue selling their services on the Digital Marketplace. We’ll be removing G7 and G8 services from the Digital Marketplace when G9 services go live.
Your services may be eligible for G9 if they fit into one of these categories:
Our G-Cloud suppliers’ guide explains how to apply to G9.
Date | Activity |
07.03.17 | G-Cloud 9 is open for applications |
07.03.17 | Clarification period starts |
28.03.17 | Clarification period closes at 5pm (BST) |
04.04.17 | 5pm (BST) deadline for publishing answers to supplier questions |
11.04.17 | 5pm (BST) application deadline |
08.05.17 | Suppliers are told the result of their application ('intention to award') |
09.05.17 | 10-day standstill period begins |
18.05.17 | 10-day standstill period ends 11.59pm (BST) |
22.05.17 | We expect G9 services to be available in the Digital Marketplace |
Now that G9 is open for applications, we’re in the ‘clarification period’. This means that if you need to ask a question about G9, you must send it to the Crown Commercial Service through the dedicated G9 updates page of your account on the Digital Marketplace. We’ll post all questions and answers on this page.
To make sure the process is fair and transparent, all suppliers will be able to see all questions and answers. You can ask questions between now and 5pm BST on 28 March 2017. We’ll answer them by 5pm BST on 4 April 2017.
Email enquiries@digitalmarketplace.service.gov.uk if you have any technical issues with the Digital Marketplace.
If you'd like to participate in research during your application, please sign up here and our researchers will be in touch.
]]>This is the first time we’ve been able to share draft legal documents before opening G‑Cloud for applications.
This is the agreement between the government and suppliers. It sets out the basic terms and conditions for buying and selling G-Cloud 9 services.
This is the individual contract between the buyer and the supplier. It specifies the terms, conditions and prices of the services being bought. There are additional schedules that can be added to a call-off contract, these are the collaboration agreement, alternative clauses and guarantee.
We’ve written summaries of the changes we’ve made to the legal documents to demonstrate how the G‑Cloud 9 contracts are different from G‑Cloud 8.
Read the summaries of the:
Suppliers can ask questions about the draft legal documents when G‑Cloud 9 opens for applications. They'll need to ask all questions through the Digital Marketplace on the G-Cloud updates page
Read the supplier's’ guide to find out how to apply to G-Cloud 9.
We expect that the G‑Cloud 9 framework will open for applications on 7 March 2017 and will close on 11 April 2017. We’ve published a provisional timetable with the expected dates.
Suppliers who don't have an account on the Digital Marketplace can create a supplier account now. Suppliers with an account will be sent an email to let them know when G‑Cloud 9 is open for applications.
]]>Frameworks on the Digital Marketplace are refreshed regularly to allow more suppliers to apply, and to make sure that buyers have access to the latest cloud technology and digital suppliers.
There are 2,018 suppliers on Digital Outcomes and Specialists 2. This is a 60% increase from the previous framework. Of these suppliers 94% are micro, small or medium sized enterprises (SMEs).
Digital Outcomes and Specialists 2 has four categories. Here’s a breakdown of the number of successful suppliers in each category:
The total number of suppliers on the Digital Marketplace is now 3,974, of which 93% are SMEs.
The map shows where suppliers on Digital Outcomes and Specialists 2 are based. The number of suppliers in each region has stayed the same or slightly increased.
We’ll be asking all suppliers on Digital Outcomes and Specialists who didn’t apply to Digital Outcomes and Specialists 2 to complete a survey so we can gather feedback about their experience of the framework and the service. We’ll use all responses to help us iterate and improve.
If you are a supplier in this group, then please contact us if you’d be happy to talk to our user researcher about your experience.
]]>Please note that there may be some changes to the questions and categories when G9 opens for applications. We will tell you if there are any changes.
As we mentioned in our blog post about what's planned for G-Cloud 9, the 3 lots for G-Cloud 9 will be:
Each lot will have its own service questions.
Download the draft questions on cloud hosting, draft questions on cloud software and draft questions on cloud support.
The question files were updated on 17 February at 3pm with some missing questions.
We shared a survey with buyers and suppliers to test the set of categories that we’ve created for G9. Some users told us they’d like to look at the categories in more detail, so we’re sharing them in a flexible format that you can use for reviewing.
Download the G-Cloud 9 draft categories.
We would appreciate your feedback. If you’d like to share your comments on the draft questions and categories, we’ve created a comments column in the files we’re sharing. Please send the document with your comments to enquiries@digitalmarketplace.service.gov.uk.
We cannot comment on individual supplier queries, and we’ll be collecting feedback until 22 February 2017.
]]>2,018 suppliers made successful applications for Digital Outcomes and Specialists 2 and we’ll post another blog providing statistics about these suppliers later this month.
List of successful DOS2 suppliers (CSV, 57kb)
If a buyer publishes an opportunity before 24 February 2017, Digital Outcomes and Specialists suppliers will be able to apply. The contract needs to be signed with the successful supplier before the framework closes.
We’ll let buyers and suppliers know at least 30 days before the Digital Outcomes and Specialists framework closes. We’ll make sure buyers have plenty of time to finish their evaluation and sign the contract with the successful supplier. If you’ve already been awarded a contract under the framework you won’t be affected when the framework closes.
If a buyer publishes requirements on or after 24 February 2017, Digital Outcomes and Specialists 2 suppliers will be able to apply.
Some Digital Outcomes and Specialists suppliers are not providing services on Digital Outcomes and Specialists 2.
Buyers and suppliers can see all opportunities on the Digital Marketplace.
If an opportunity is published before 24 February 2017, you must use the Digital Outcomes and Specialists call-off contract.
If an opportunity is published on or after 24 February 2017, you must use the Digital Outcomes and Specialists 2 call-off contract.
We’ll continue to iterate the buying journey for buyers and suppliers. We talked about our plans on our blog.
You can stay up to date with future enhancements to the framework by signing up to the Digital Marketplace blog.
Please email enquiries@digitalmarketplace.service.gov.uk if you have any questions.
]]>Suppliers will be able to start their applications for G9 in March and we expect G9 services to be available to buy on the Digital Marketplace towards the end of May.
Here is an overview of the changes we will be making:
Since G-Cloud 2, two iterations of the G-Cloud framework have run in parallel. We have decided that G9 will replace G-Cloud 7 (G7) and G-Cloud 8 (G8). This means we will have consistent information about all services to bring more of the G-Cloud buying journey online. Buyers and suppliers will be able to use one set of contracts for all their G-Cloud services.
For suppliers, this means that they must apply for G9 to continue selling their G-Cloud services on the Digital Marketplace. We’ll be removing G7 and G8 services from the Digital Marketplace when G9 services go live.
For buyers, this means that no new procurements for G8 services can start after the date that G-Cloud 9 services are live on the Digital Marketplace. Any G8 procurements already underway must be completed by the framework’s expiry date on 28 July 2017.
The G7 framework will expire when G9 goes live in May.
We learnt that the existing lot structure was confusing for some users as it wasn’t an accurate representation of the cloud technology market. There will now be three lots called ‘Cloud hosting’, ‘Cloud software’ and ‘Cloud support’. We’re changing the names and descriptions of the services that belong in each lot so that they’re more clearly defined. This will make it easier for users to understand which technology and support should be provided through G-Cloud.
We learnt that suppliers want to be able to provide more detail about their offering to better differentiate their services from their competitors. In particular, they want to provide more detail about security. We’ve worked with experts in technology and security from across Government Digital Service (GDS) and the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) to re-write the questions. We’ve iterated the questions based on feedback we received through user research. They’re now more specific to the technology being bought and aligned with the NCSC cloud security principles.
We’ve designed the questions so suppliers can provide more detail in their answers. This will help create service listings that will make searching and decision-making easier for buyers.
We’re still asking suppliers to provide a short service summary and features and benefits. We’re making the service definition PDF optional to reduce the burden on suppliers when they are preparing their applications for G9. If they want to, suppliers will be able to provide a service definition document after G9 services are made live on the Digital Marketplace.
We know that some suppliers need to adapt their internal processes to collate the information they need to complete their application. We’ll be sharing the draft questions in a blog post later this week so suppliers can start preparing their answers.
Suppliers told us that they find it difficult to describe their services without knowing which terminology buyers are using to search for their requirements. Buyers told us that it’s difficult to find what they’re looking for on G-Cloud. We’re expanding our list of categories to establish a common language between buyers and suppliers.
This will help buyers find and shortlist suppliers with relevant services. We hope this will give suppliers confidence that their services will appear within buyers’ search results. Suppliers will no longer need to rely on guessing which keywords match buyers’ search terms.
We want to hear from buyers and suppliers so we shared a survey to test our proposed categories for G9 last week. We’ll share the final draft of the categories later this week in a format that you can download and use to review in your own time.
We want to make it easier for suppliers to maintain up-to-date descriptions of their services. This will improve the quality of services listed on the Digital Marketplace. Giving suppliers the ability to make their own edits online will result in a faster, more efficient update process. This new functionality will be released on the Digital Marketplace before G-Cloud 9 is live.
If a supplier has completed a G8 or Digital Outcomes and Specialists’ supplier declaration on the Digital Marketplace in an earlier application, they’ll be able to reuse and review those answers for their G9 application.
As announced in their 2016/17 annual business plan, CCS is rolling out a change to its funding model. The management charge for G-Cloud 9 will be increased from 0.5% to 0.75% of all charges billed by the supplier to the buyer. This is in response to the 2015/16 Government Spending Review.
As we prepare to open G9 for supplier applications in March, we’ll be sharing more information over the coming week about: