The G-Cloud Programme has worked with GDS to deliver this overview and we have collaborated with government and industry to make integration services and software a significant part of Giii, but we have a wealth of other information, background and support we want to make available to service designers and managers who are in the process of providing Service Integration functions within their organisations and we have started to publish some of these resources in a new Service Integration area within the G-Cloud website – http://gcloud.civilservice.gov.uk/service-integration/

As part of the Service Integration launch, we are looking to start a cross-government conversation around how some of this operates in practise, what best of class examples might be available to us and how we share experiences and information across departments and industry. We are already working with Home Office, DWP, DfE and others in this space and it would be great to hear from others who want to be involved moving forward – my twitter address is @eml12345 if you want to get in touch.

Over the past few months, I’ve talked a lot about my hopes for a Public Cloud First policy. I believe this is an essential tool to encourage government towards more commodity IT buying and to help change mind-sets, which for too long have been stuck in “big is beautiful” mode. We’ve worked hard to promote G-Cloud and raise awareness with buyers from across the public sector. We’ve also engaged with industry to encourage as many suppliers, of all sizes, to join G-Cloud so we can provide a truly open, competitive, and innovative marketplace, with a much wider choice and a more level playing field for SMEs. We’ve asked for and received lots of feedback, which enabled us to prioritise and address the overwhelming message from both buyers and suppliers that we needed a radical rethink of the CloudStore to make it much more intuitive and easier to use.

Today is an important milestone. All the hard work comes together in three announcements: that the Public Expenditure Cabinet Committee recently agreed to put in place, with immediate effect, a Public Cloud First mandate for central government; that G-Cloud iii - our third framework iteration, with more than 700 suppliers and more than 5,000 services, goes live today; and alongside that we are launching our brand new CloudStore.

These announcements reflect real confidence in G-Cloud and all we’ve achieved to date.  I’m immensely grateful to my team and colleagues in Government Procurement Service and Government Digital Service who have worked with us.

Together, these advances will help to ensure that G-Cloud and the services on the CloudStore become the first place to go for buyers looking for IT services. In my view, they represent a huge vote of confidence from industry that they believe in what we’re doing and in the approach we’ve taken. It’s also gratifying to see how we are making a huge impact on some of the smaller providers, and how G-Cloud is helping them to grow and create new jobs. I can only hope that this trend continues, and makes a lasting contribution to the industry sector.

Now is not the time for complacency though. We must continue to raise awareness, and make the buying process easier and clearer still. This is about helping the marketplace through to a position of relative stability and maturity – where we no longer talk about G-Cloud as a novelty; but when it’s just there, an accepted and routine way for the public sector to buy IT; when you can find the services that meet your needs; when we’re offering the services that users want; and when there is real competition that means we can do all this for substantially less than today.

Yes, we’ve come a long way, and yes, I believe G-Cloud is a real game-changer, but we’re not there yet, and there is still more to be done if we’re to see a lasting transition in our way of thinking about how we choose and use IT.

But by working on this together, we can not only make G-Cloud a lasting success, we can radically change the market for public sector IT, making it simpler, more agile and cheaper, and helping us deliver a better deal for the taxpayer.

Denise McDonagh

Your signed framework agreements should be returned to GPS via the eSourcing tool.  You will need to log into the eSourcing Suite and along the top you will see a tool bar. One of the Options is “Messages” – this will bring up a full list of received messages. Select the message that included the framework agreement attachment to you and click reply. At the bottom of the reply window is an attachment option. Once GPS have received the signed framework agreement from you it will then be signed by the Managing Director, David Shields, scanned and stored electronically.  GPS will return a copy of the signature page to you for your own records along with a copy of the Framework Agreement with the commencement date added.

We are aware that many suppliers will want to make public the fact that they are on the framework. This is great and we would encourage it, but if you are going to do it, then please ensure that you do not make any press announcements during the standstill period (standstill finishes at midnight on 29 April).  After this period, please ensure that you gain approval for press announcements by contacting the ICT Service Team, email: CloudPR@gps.gsi.gov.uk. GPS does issue formal guidelines on the use of its branding and this can be found here Identity Guidance for Suppliers. Use of the G-Cloud logo is not permitted.

GPS will make contact with all suppliers on the CloudStore, for both Gii and Giii frameworks, regarding access to the CloudStore, in order that you may access your service offerings. Please note, it is the supplier’s responsibility to ensure their CloudStore entries are accurate and all information is kept up to date. If you have any queries, please do not hesitate to contact the G-Cloud team through ICT_Services@gps.gsi.gov.uk.

As part of the Framework Agreement, each month you are required to complete a monthly MISO (Management Information) return showing orders and sales through G-Cloud; even when no sales have occurred you will still need to complete a nil return. This is important so that we can track and monitor the amount of activity through the framework and to help us see where government is spending its money. You will have been asked to name a person in your organisation who will act as the contact point for MISO. They will receive an email in the middle of May to provide them with log on details to the system so that you can start to submit returns.

And one final but very important reminder – remember to submit your signed Framework Agreement within 30 days of the conclusion of the standstill period. You should not begin trading under this framework until this has been done and if you do not return it by this deadline you will be suspended from the CloudStore.

11^th and 12^th April – issuance of an award letter and framework to suppliers. You only need to sign the signature page and return that to us within 30 days of receipt. You should send this back as a pdf  document via GPS portal.

13^th April – Standstill starts. This will give suppliers who have not been successful the opportunity to query this with GPS and details of who to contact will be provided in your letter.

22^nd April – Standstill ends midnight

23^rd April – Framework live and your services will be available in the CloudStore. Don’t forget to go and check your details to make sure everything is correct and as you expect it.

We remain committed to running G-Cloud procurements every 3-6 months, so if you did not tender for Giii, then we anticipate Giv to be kicking off around early summer. We will blog and tweet any announcements so keep an eye on these channels. (@G_Cloud_UK)

Well, the deadline for the submission of tenders was 6 March 2013 and we would like to thank all of those suppliers who worked tirelessly to complete their documentation and submit it to us. GPS have now started checking them to ensure they comply with the requirements in the tender. This generally takes about two weeks and it may require them to get back in touch with you to verify information.

There are a number of reasons why you may not be successful in this tender process. Some key ones for your tender  NOT being successful are

• You are not a company
• You do not supply any of the types of services covered by the OJEU
• You missed the deadline
• Your submission is not complete
• You do not meet our mandatory conditions for each of the types of service/lots we are looking for
• You do not agree to the terms of the framework agreement

The next key milestone is when we will award frameworks and we will send you an email via the eSourcing portal to confirm whether you have been accepted onto the framework or not.

If you didn’t have sufficient time to submit a bid for Giii, then we anticipate Giv to be kicking off around early summer, so keep an eye on our blog and twitter for announcements.

The full timetable is now as follows:

• 11.01.13 – Despatch of OJEU
• 15.01.13 – Clarification Period Starts
• 14.02.13 15.00 – Clarification period ends (was previously 11.02.13 – extra three days for the downtime of Emptoris)
• 20.02.13 – Deadline for the publication of responses to Clarification questions
• 06.03.13 15:00 – Deadline for submission of Tenders to the Authority (“Tender Submission Deadline”)
• 04.04.13 – Intention to award notification issued to successful and unsuccessful Potential Providers (5 weeks allowed as per the original timetable)
• 05.04.13 – Standstill period commences (this was incorrect on the original timetable)
• 15.04.13 midnight – Standstill period ends
• Early April 2013 : Expected “Commencement Date” for Framework Agreement(s)

The half-day seminar will discuss the findings of the research undertaken into the CloudStore and SME procurement.  Following the outcomes of the research, there will be discussions from the G Cloud team, views on how to approach the procurement process, and a case study from the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs. The floor will then be opened up to the audience and questions will be taken for all speakers.

You can register to attend and download the agenda for the day from Civil Service World’s website: http://network.civilservicelive.com/cmspages/read/events.

The event is free for Public Sector attendees, so hope to see you there!

G-Cloud team

• The deadline for clarification questions has now closed and any further questions submitted to GPS will not be answered.
• Once you have completed all of the questions about your services on the online ITT tool, don’t forget to submit them to tender. To do this you must go into each service and click the “submit to tender” button.
• Make sure the files names included in the online ITT tool (gcloudcatalogue.cabinetoffice.gov.uk – Service Definition, Terms and Condition and other supporting documents) are identical to the names of the files you attach to your tender submission in the GPS portal.  
• When attaching documents in the GPS portal (under AQB2), please ensure that you zip them in one file to keep the size of the file to a minimum. Only include documentation to support information that directly relates to the services you will be providing through CloudStore – not forgetting the two most important, the terms & conditions and service definition(s) documents.
• Your offerings are fixed at the point of tender, so make sure you have described your service functionality clearly and comprehensively, and ensure that your pricing models are appropriate for all types of your likely buyers (short & long term, high & low volume) rather than 1 size fits all – be clear, competitive and transparent, to make it as easy as possible for buyers to understand.
• Are your terms and conditions appropriate for the different sectors you may be selling to – e.g. NHS or Local authorities? Are they helping or hindering buyers? – Don’t miss business because they can’t buy from you; only because an offering was a better fit.
• The service definition document is your “front window” for buyers, so make sure it helps them by aligning with the buying process and to make it as easy as possible to find information – do they have everything all the information they need to short-list your service? Do they need to wade through to find important information?
• Within each service, make sure that you have completed meaningful service names and descriptions as these are the fields a buyer will see first Remember to ensure the contact details you provide us for the CloudStore are for people within the sales team and not the Chief Executive!

 Good luck!

Happy birthday to the G-Cloud framework and the CloudStore – both are a year old today.

It’s been an exciting and eventful year and the whole team feel very privileged to have been involved with such a groundbreaking programme. Our biggest challenge was to create a quicker, simpler, more effective, SME-friendly public IT procurement – and although we would be the first to recognise that there are still some areas we could improve, I think we have successfully achieved this. Most importantly the G-Cloud framework approach is now looked on as a model for other procurements by GPS.

We really feel that G-Cloud – as a model of simplified, agile IT procurement, and a diverse marketplace that encourages competition and innovation – is the “New World” of government IT. 

Minister for the Cabinet Office, Francis Maude has said today:

“In just 12 months, G-Cloud has shown itself to be a model for efficient public sector IT procurement, establishing a dynamic marketplace for cloud-based IT services. We have simplified the procurement process through G-Cloud to make it more accessible to a wider range of companies, leading to more choice, better value for the taxpayer and growth for the economy. Suppliers are asked what they can offer government, rather than being issued with complicated specifications that stifle innovation. 

“This is the way we want government IT to be – simpler, quicker, cheaper and focused on matching solutions to business requirements, reducing waste and cutting costs.”

Our Programme Director Denise McDonagh said: 

“I am convinced that G-Cloud is a game changer for the way government buys, manages, delivers and operates IT, and interacts with suppliers, driving improved productivity,  greater efficiencies and better value services for the taxpayer.”

A big thank you also goes out to our G-Cloud suppliers without your vision and drive this change would not have been possible. And to those pioneering public sector buyers who have been so keen to purchase and consume cloud commodity services. Building on this experience, we are now starting work on a new CloudStore and refreshing our website content to make it an even easier process for suppliers and buyers. We could not have done this without you and we look forward to meeting the challenges ahead together.