In the past week there seems to have been a range of comments on what the sales figures we’re publishing actually say about how well the G-Cloud Programme is doing and what we’re actually delivering. Most of these are supportive and recognise the fact that 75% of the spend through the framework has been with SME’s as the positive step that it is but others have been less supportive (and I would go as far as saying less accurate in their use of the data).
Since we launched it in February, over a million pounds of purchases have been made through the first G-Cloud framework. Some people who don’t really understand the landscape we’re working in may well look at that figure and assume that has had very little impact on the estimated sixteen billion pounds a year that government spends on IT. This simply highlights that what they don’t understand is the relationship between £1 spent with a G-Cloud supplier, and £1 spent with one of the 20 corporations responsible for delivering 90% of government IT at present. That is why the fact that after only 4 months of completed data we can clearly see the shift away from the traditional suppliers to the SME’s is such a good thing.
In addition the suggestions that there’s been a drop in interest in supplying to G-Cloud are just plain wrong. As it stands today there have been 407 Expressions from Interest from new suppliers into G-Cloud ii to add to those already on G-Cloud i and are reapplying. The challenge for the programme is to ensure that the buyers understand how to purchase and consume the many services they are offering. This is why we have set up an online community to support buyers . The purpose of the community is to enable all who are interested in gcloud to work out loud; its by this open sharing and community learning that confidence will grow. Giving people the chance to connect with people is ultimately the only way sustainable change and learning will occur. The community is continually being seeded by people from across the customer and supply bases and rest assured the gcloud team and many others will be nurturing and providing advice.
As I have always said this is only the beginning of the journey, our approach to propagation will help and guide us all on our way but we’d appreciate it if people weren’t trying to trip us up just as we’re getting into our stride.
Hear Hear! We had been starting to see a drop in new business with the third quarter of recession biting, but thank’s to G-Cloud wins we’re still growing strongly, with government work taking up the slack!
Also, to those poo-pooing the £1m through G-Cloud, a) contracts are short so, taking one of our recent wins as an example, its only a few £k/month (on a monthly contract), but will be tens of £k per annum and b) £1m to the new suppliers is probably equivalent £10m to the old guard (as Denise suggested)! They are comparing apples with oranges – short, good value contracts with multi-year massively over-priced contracts.
Anyone who thought G-Cloud would be a significant force before G-C4, was optimistic in the extreme.
The important things to note are that there is a new way of procurement. For this, the G-C team get a gold star. Next, Standards – look to PSN for Standards and Accreditation. Gold Star for that Team.
Let’s not look at what hasn’t happened, let’s look at what has and support the team that makes it happen.
Saddeveloper
I have never been slow coming forward critisising major suppliers but it’s not their way to be openly negative. Nope I’m afraid ever since G-Cloud started there has been a whole heap of stupid people who don’t bother to understand even the basic of what the Programme is doing before gobbing off negatively – I troubled to meet a few face to face initially to “help them with understanding” but concluded in the end it was a waste of time. I’m afraid it’s a feature of our “everything can be understood in 5mins” society that is the culprit. Ok back to my compost heap which I still don’t understand.
INOVEM would like to support this rebuttal. This week we have closed 2 G-Cloud deals for cloud collaboration software. One a NHS alliance network and the other a Local Authority. Both of these organisations were not known to INOVEM before they found us on the CloudStore. Both had a need to review suppliers, procure and implement a collaboration site quickly for a small number of users initially.
With a pay-as-you-go service they only need to order what they require now. Given the Cloud is ideal for such micro-business deals, can we really afford to go back to the costly delays of protracted procurement exercises and System Integrator mark-ups of the past? Would these small projects have got off the ground without the G-Cloud? No! Will these projects turn into bigger deals in the future? Hopefully yes!
The G-Cloud is an excellent way to drive competition, price transparency and procurement efficiencies. This forced level of openness has been a cultural change for our business, but now that we have embraced this new ethos we and our new clients are already seeing the rewards.
It would be interesting to find the background of the gainsayers. Could it be that they come from predominantly large corporations with a vested interest in this initiative failing?