OGC finally announces VARs in Catalist line-up

Following months of speculation the Office of Government Commerce (OGC) has finally named the 28 approved suppliers to its Catalist IT catalogue. 

The successful suppliers were whittled down from about 170 candidates and include a diverse range of vendors, distributors and VARs, such as Hewlett-Packard, Centerprise and WStore.

Catalist is divided into 11 lots ranging from Network Infrastructure and Client Devices to Operating System software and IT Consumables and Accessories.

However,suppliers selected for the Reseller lot, which is designed as a one-stop-shop for all IT related goods, are prevented from becoming approved suppliers in any of the other 10 available lots (CRN 6 February).

Catalist was formed through the OGC buying solution's amalgamation of its government Catalogue (GCat) and Software Catalogue (SCat), and is designed to act as the first port of call for public sector organisations IT requirements.

However the public sector is under no requirement to purchase solely from the listed suppliers. 

Stewart Hayward, commercial director at online VAR WStore, which was successful in lots five, six, seven, eight and 10, told CRN that that it had been more successful in the Catalist supplier selection process than it had anticipated.

"It's our first attempt at applying and we were hopeful for three lots, so to be awarded five is fantastic. Previously few public sector organisations would deal with us on a large basis as we weren't GCat accredited, but this opens up our potential market and a nice chunk of potential revenue as well," he said.

Daryl Platt, corporate sales director at Dabs.com, which was selected for lots three, four and five, told CRN: "It's a great opportunity for us and we're looking forward to providing best value. For us it will also open new oppertunites in local government.

"The list is good for the channel and will balance out public sector spending slightly more in favour of small and less corporate VARs."

Gordon Davies, commercial director at VAR Compusys, which did not make it onto the supplier list, said: "It's possible sales may go down for our public sector division, however, margins are wafer thin as it is. The public sector still puts out contracts outside of this list anyway."

One VAR that wished to remain nameless added that the OGC was also developing an online portal to enable approved suppliers to bid for IT products, required by the public sector, but at the lowest price.

james_sherwood@vnu.co.uk